WIP Pictures

[Blazeguard]

I read the Taking pictures of your models post in the Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials section which has lots of good advice regarding taking pictures of finished models but I'm interested in tips for taking pictures of your model while working on it.  I see lots of pictures taken right on the bench so I know people aren't moving things to the photo booth or whatever to take their pictures.

How do people get such clear, close-up pictures even on the bench?  Are you still using a DSLR?  Can you get decent pictures just using your phone?  How do you deal with stopping to take pictures without losing your focus/groove?  Any tips/tricks/info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[StevenGuthmiller]

I just use a digital camera and shoot a picture or two when I've finished a task and am taking a break.

I rarely sit at the bench for more than an hour at a time.

I'd end up with such a headache that I wouldn't be able to see straight!

 

 

 

Steve

[Erik Smith]

I have a cardboard box with the sides cut out and tissue paper over the holes set up right next to my work bench. I can put it in my paint booth for more light, but for WIP, I just use ambient light and my iPhone camera. 
Top photo is in the paint booth, so more light. Bottom photo is with ambient light. Both with iPhone. 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Erik Smith

[W-409]

When taking the WIP pictures I often just put a sheet of white A4 paper under the parts that I want to photograph. That helps a lot when there is basically nothing on the background, as the camera has to focus to the part itself. And light is also important. I have a bench next to two large windows so in the daytime I get good pictures in that natural light. But when it's dark outside, it's important to make sure there is enough light to take good pictures.

I have a cheap digital camera and I shoot with automatic settings (despite I've taken the flash off). I usually take a bunch of pictures of the same part, and select the best one when I open the pics on my computer.

 

[Jantrix]

This is just taken with my phone, Galaxy 9. I think it does pretty well.

 

 

[Tom Geiger]

I take bench shots just with my iPhone 7.  Quick shots that I've taken for several reasons.  First to document my progress and post on the boards.  Second to see flaws that I haven't seen yet. Photos tend to bring those out.  

My advise to people always is to take a bunch of photos and then select the ones that came out well. That's the beauty of digital photography, it doesn't cost anything to do this.  So click away, and delete the bad photos!

And last, I crop my photos using a free program called Irfanview.  You can find it on the Internet.  This way you don't have to get as close to your subject as to fill in the whole frame.  The camera does focus better from a reasonable distance.  Then just crop the photo down to the content you want.

[89AKurt]

I'm always amazed about the quality of pictures taken with the iPhone 5.  I used the Nikon SLR with a telephoto awhile back, was a pain to get a decent shot.  I take pictures of important steps, does not effect my flow.  Sometimes I put the project on paper, makes a difference what color, black with white parts washes out the parts, needs to be about the same value, so grey works really well.  I was also having a venetian blind effect with an LED bulb in the light, weird phenomena.  Now I'm using a circular CFL light.  The iPhone allows you to point to focus on the part, annoys me seeing out-of-focus pictures posted.  I have the cluttered bench with tools used for the process, and just to annoy neat freaks. ?  The iPhone has a zoom feature, too much and the picture is pixelated, acts like a magnifying glass and I catch things after posting here, yikes! ?

[peteski]

10 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

I'm always amazed about the quality of pictures taken with the iPhone 5.

. . .

I was also having a venetian blind effect with an LED bulb in the light, weird phenomena.  Now I'm using a circular CFL light.  The iPhone allows you to point to focus on the part, annoys me seeing out-of-focus pictures posted. ??

Yes, today's smart phones take really good quality photos and the dept of field is also quite good.

As far as the Venetian blind effect goes, many household-current powered LED bulbs actually strobe 60 or 120 times a second. It is either  the frequency of the AC power of 60Hz or double that, at 120Hz.  Too fast for human eye to see the flicker. If the optical sensor in the camera scans the image it is photographing in a certain way, some parts of the image could be scanned when the LED bulb is in the off state, producing the effect you are describing

Edited February 15, 2020 by peteski

[89AKurt]

3 hours ago, peteski said:

YEs, today's smart phones take really good quality photos and the dept ho field is also quite good.

As far as the Venetian blind effect goes, many household-current powered LED bulbs actually strobe 60 or 120 times a second. It is either  the frequency of the AC power of 60Hz or double that, at 120Hz.  Too fast for human eye to see the flicker. If the optical sensor in the camera scans the image it is photographing in a certain way, some parts of the image could be scanned when the LED bulb is in the off state, producing the effect you are describing

Much like how turning airplane propellers get frozen in wild arcs?   Thanks for that info.  I was able to reduce it, by changing the angle of the light, but not much.