Photography Secrets Of The Inept

[Chouffleur]

Often when you need to ask a question here you are asked to supply a photographic image in order to help people diagnose the problem.

 

I've always been a terrible digital photographer of small objects. Most of my pictures look like they were shot from a moving car as it passed by a pen lying on the ground.

 

Recently I managed to take an actual decent photograph for a thread on this forum. I reproduce it here:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1451759100__fat_touchdown_music_profile_cropped.jpg

 

I did this using the same sub-standard 2006-era digital camera I've taken all my (terrible) pen photographs with. The difference in quality is down to two simple changes in my "technique".

 

1) I found the Macro setting. On my camera it's represented by an image of a flower growing out of a flower pot which is apparently the international symbol for "close-up pictures of small, stationary objects".

 

2) I re-purposed an old fondue set. You know, those old-fashioned copper warming pans that rest on a circular frame over a candle or a can of Sterno/denatured alcohol.

 

Most of my problems were down to camera shake. Not having a tripod and having failed in my efforts to construct one out of chopsticks and rubber bands, I hit upon this method of finally taking a picture from a stable platform:

 

• lay down a ruled index card on a flat surface
• post the pen, moving the clip until the pen sits at the angle you want photographed from directly above
• lay the fondue pot frame above the pen, centered on the spot you want in the middle of your image (raise it by resting the frame on same-sized books like Moleskines)
• light the pen (there a plenty of tips on the forum on how to do it)
• set the camera to Macro
• autofocus
• click - take the picture

 

This will save you the whole here's-an-image-I-found-on-the-internet-that-looks-like-my-pen excuse.

 

 

[usk15]

Try to take the photos in the daylight, but in the shade somehow, avoiding direct sun light. Avoid as much as you can flash light of your camera.

Also you need to hold the camera steady, tripod will be the best, but also is working if you sit the camera on something stand still like a brick, small sandbag, piece of flat wood...

Another tip is to set the timer when you take the photo to avoid shaking caused by pushing the button.

To hold the pen in the position you want find a flat surface, use a blue tack to fix the pen in wanted position, or a piece of Lego, use your imagination!

 

some examples:

 

In this picture you will see the blue tack holding the Faber-Castell and Parker IM

 

 

[tmenyc]

Rob,

you're so lucky your fondue set was the one that was labeled "fondue base/camera stabilizer". Mine wasn't labeled for photography so I had to buy a tripod. To keep pens from rolling around, I first give them a good hard stare. Sometimes that doesn't work, so I roll up a little roll of doublestick tape and stick that under the pen so it doesn't roll.

 

Tim

[Cryptos]

EoC is also a terrible photographist. Some of his photos are shot horizontally with the subject nailed blu-tacked to a vertical surface. Close-ups of nibs were taken with the camera placed on the same surface as the nib but with a small paper wedge at the rear of the camera to be able to point slightly downward. Oh, and since finding the timer on the camera, that gets used a lot!

 

Camera is a Nikon Coolpix from 2004. Not this is all that relevant because non-existent skill is still non-existent skill regardless of the tools.

[Chouffleur]

[snip...]

 

Camera is a Nikon Coolpix from 2004. Not this is all that relevant because non-existent skill is still non-existent skill regardless of the tools.

But optimized results from non-existent skill is worth celebrating! ;-)

[ppdiaporama]

These are really great tricks ... I never though of the blue tack before.

 

If you're not using a tripiod, you need a lot of light and you need to know/respect your lens' minimum focus distance.

[redbike]

You can buy a decent tripod for $30 It's a worthwhile expenditure if you want to take decent pictures without using the flash.

[snowbear]

I use a swing-arm desk lamp and set the camera's white balance to fluorescent to match the CFL. I also have a mid-grey mouse pad I can use as a background to fine tune the white balance in post processing.