Scissors_IMG5382-90_Photoshop-stack-ENG-web
Teaching myself packshots. With a little help from Alex Koloskov and others at Photigy. A great bunch of photogs.
Lesson 1: Don't photograph poorly made/finished steelware, jewelry etc. :-)
Lesson 2: Use tethered shooting with Live View (Imagetransmitter 2 for Pentax K-1 and 645Z) in order to have your hands free to arrange strips and stuff, while looking at the view finder/computer screen (or get an assistant).
Lesson 3: Use pilot light to facilitate pre judging the lighting.
Lesson 4: Use a small opening in the cone - cover the camera hole with white cloth where possible.
Lesson 5: Use relatively large aperture (8-11) in order to avoid diffraction (better sharpness), and more shots for stacking.
This stacking was made in Photoshop, which actually did a better jobe than Helicon Focus. Photographing shiny objects on white background (or close to white) is very difficult. No removing the background in pp. For this test I used a shooting cone, two soft boxes and two "speedlight" flashes. Snoots will provide gradients and highlights. Black strips provides black reflections. I wonder if I should try grey strips... The shooting cone softens the light in order to avoid blown out highlights. I belive I might be getting there some day soon. Running the scissors through Define 2 and removing the background would improve the the image a bit... :-) Please note, that these scissors are low cost ones, probably made in China - and not with the best finish, I'm afraid :-)
Scissors_IMG5382-90_Photoshop-stack-ENG-web
Teaching myself packshots. With a little help from Alex Koloskov and others at Photigy. A great bunch of photogs.
Lesson 1: Don't photograph poorly made/finished steelware, jewelry etc. :-)
Lesson 2: Use tethered shooting with Live View (Imagetransmitter 2 for Pentax K-1 and 645Z) in order to have your hands free to arrange strips and stuff, while looking at the view finder/computer screen (or get an assistant).
Lesson 3: Use pilot light to facilitate pre judging the lighting.
Lesson 4: Use a small opening in the cone - cover the camera hole with white cloth where possible.
Lesson 5: Use relatively large aperture (8-11) in order to avoid diffraction (better sharpness), and more shots for stacking.
This stacking was made in Photoshop, which actually did a better jobe than Helicon Focus. Photographing shiny objects on white background (or close to white) is very difficult. No removing the background in pp. For this test I used a shooting cone, two soft boxes and two "speedlight" flashes. Snoots will provide gradients and highlights. Black strips provides black reflections. I wonder if I should try grey strips... The shooting cone softens the light in order to avoid blown out highlights. I belive I might be getting there some day soon. Running the scissors through Define 2 and removing the background would improve the the image a bit... :-) Please note, that these scissors are low cost ones, probably made in China - and not with the best finish, I'm afraid :-)