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Re: [OM] How to take proper product pics outside (WB?)

Subject: Re: [OM] How to take proper product pics outside (WB?)
From: "Bill Pearce" <bs.pearce@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:14:02 -0500
It occursto me that you might visit the shootsmarter website, as he is big
on workflow for large jobs, and believes in shooting jpegs with good camera
settings.

-----Original Message-----
From: Olaf Greve [mailto:ogreve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 4:29 AM
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] How to take proper product pics outside (WB?)

Hi Chuck,

Thanks again for the two additional explicative e-mails: they are great and
I shall save them for having them as back reference. These e-mails make the
exact problems, and paths for solutions very clear; excellent explanations!

So then, to summarise matters somewhat, I agree that it is more than worth a
go to use the OM gear I already have; that also gives me a very, very good
feeling, as it pains me to see it all unused in the closet.

It does mean, however, that I need to work on the set-up. I have two
semi-broken video camera (rather light) tripods which I can use to improvise
umbrella stands, if I can find the custom made ones again.  
If not, other things could be improvised, such as firing through a bed sheet
(possibly clumsy due to the size) or through the paper that clothes
designers use (I don't know the proper English word for it) in order to
diffuse the flash. I'm leaning towards the idea of giving both a go, see
what works best, and then create some two wooden frames with the material of
choice in between, so as to be able to more easily put them in place,
without having to suspend them from something. As a beside, a thing I forgot
to mention is that when I did some home-studio-experimenting, I used to tape
off the windows with that type of paper too, so as to prevent outside light
coming in harshly, and having it diffused.

Indeed a BIG advantage of the digital era is that the exposure can directly
be previewed for being more or less correct. Actually downloading a picture
to the computer and checking it full size (as the LCD seems to give a
brighter display then what I see in the end
results!) should very quickly give a good indication for good settings,
distances, etc.

I may choose to not go for three flashes, but rather to just use the two
T32s, at a 45 degrees angle from both sides of the object in question. I
think I can then get away with it. I did at one point in time experiment a
little bit with the T28 directly on the E-500 firing t manually. Even when
fully stopped down that gave me an almost completely white picture. Totally
overpowered. This then directly makes clear that one or two layers of
diffusing material will be needed, so the bed sheets or transparant paper
might be a better alternative than having it bounced in my custom made
umbrellas. The semi transparent ones you mention sound good though.
Particularly if they come cheap and complete with stands. A thing I shall be
keeping my eyes open for.

With that as intended set-up in mind, I can put the T32s in the T20
autoconnectors for easily mounting them on the tripods. Hooking both up with
the OM TTL cables (i.e. not the manual cables, which I don't
have) to the three socket distribution block should then take care of the
simultaneous firing of the both. I think, and that is, I'm just about 99.99%
sure that I also have the proper hot-shoe cable to hook the distribution
block up to the camera (IIRC, when using the 4Ti for this, I used to hook it
up to the socket on the front, so as to be able to use a longer cable for
that).
Then, both T32s could be set to half-power (a thing achieved on the back of
the flash with the switch panel, IIRC) and the camera should then probably
be set to force flash usage (which setting is best? you mentioned something
about the highest sync speed possible... is that something like 'lightning
x4' or so?). Once configured correctly, the set-up could be tested, using a
variety of ISO and aperture settings.  
The camera could then possibly be set to aperture preferred mode, hence
getting a more consistent DOF too.

Then, if the above is correct, a thing I'm still not 100% certain about
(exposing my noop knowledge of the fine details of digital photography ;) ),
is the theory behind proper WB setting. My reasons for wanting to switch to
a white background would be that it tends to be more reflective than 18%
gray (i.e. on the often round-shaped lying down items it helps to light
somewhat from below, hopefully preventing side shadows (perhaps this is a
flawed theory, as shadows shouldn't be an issue if the light is diffuse
enough) and also to be able to more easily do the digital post processing,
by having the pictures work towards getting a completely white background,
as easy visual reference. Sounds good or flawed?

Then, as for setting the WB properly... How can I best do that? Does this
get done once in some custom mode, against a 100% subject (such as the
intended backdrop?), and can that be locked into the camera for all
subsequent shots?

Once I have gotten all those techniques mastered, and once I have a suitable
set-up going (a thing which I may not get around to until at the very least
this weekend, and then there's TOPE too to finally get launched soon...), I
will undoubtedly have some follow up questions as to how to best use Paint
Shop Pro for the digital post processing.  
I've been a long time user of it, and I tend to like it better than the
de-facto bloated and over-expensive Photoshop. In fact, PSP supports plenty
more advanced features than I will be likely to ever need for the
post-processing. All the stuff like tweaking curves, brightness, contrast,
colour balances are there; possibly a bit less flexible than in PS, but it
should be possible to get this figured out correctly too. IIRC one can also
record some macros (or otherwise create pre-defined bulk processing options)
which would be really
great: I could then work on defining a standard set of tweaks, which can
then simply be applied in bulk to possibly hundreds of pictures per shoot,
after which the only manual work would be to possibly tweak rotation,
cropping, and actual image selection.


Sounds good -in theory- so far? :P

Cheers,
Olafo
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