bigcoz Loc: Philly

Thank you all for your sage appraisal and advice. I understand your references to the use of a tripod, lighting, studio setups, filters, stack focus, flashes with hankies, etc, However, this picture was taken while walking around inside a store in Chinatown offering little latitude for setup or experimentation. The figure was about 12" high sitting on a shelf under a small incandescent spotlight. The camera was hand held at approximately 15" from subject to the film plane. I thank you once again for your insights and the learning it provided. I will certainly experiment with your suggestions on future occasions. I think in this case the answer is DOF. Thanks, Coz
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rts2568

to bigcoz
From rts2568

We hope you gained as much out of it as we put in, Bigcoz.

Next time give us some more info and the real purpose of your inquiry.

For those others who might be interested in Bigcoz’s question -

As always, practice and as you should do with experiences like this, observe what you are doing, where the lighting is coming from, look at the image in your LCD/viewfinder, examine why the result came out the way it did and modify your approach to a similar subject in the future, etc. Ask yourself what a pro would do - you have billions of examples to learn from - be observant. In this instance which Bibcoz asked about, you have three choices:-

1/ Ask the proprietor’s if they wouldn’t mind you handling/repositioning etc and offer them a photo in return

2/ Buy the product anyway, if you like it; and you must like it if you want to take a photo of it, then take it home and play with the lighting, any lighting you have available. Identify how I used that lighting by taking a close look at the images I’ve uploaded and identify, from what I’ve mentioned about the equipment used, how you could have done the same or better and I will guarantee that if you practice enough, be observant enough, you will be able to do shots like those of mine, given whatever gear you have at hand and twenty or thirty years’ experience, you too will find it just comes naturally, even if you only have an old Kodak box camera and a roll of film. Don’t make excuses about needing superior gear, just be prepared by knowing what gear you have and get on with it and make each shot count – but expect failures! Learn from those mistakes.

2a/ Take a close look at the second upload of mine, study the lighting I mention and get your brains and imagination working to figure out how to improve on what I did in the ten minutes it took to shoot this one.

3. The only other real choice you have is in part mentioned in 2a/ be prepared and take the shot – the more you’ve prepared yourself, the more rewarding the result/s. Far more of those seemingly magical photos you see popping up everywhere these days, were opportunistic.
3/a Of course you could always take a course in the photographic sciences and art and just maybe you will learn a little faster than you can from the above and learning from the likes of the UHH members but, ask yourself if the money for the course, mightn’t have been better spent on that macro lens and a wireless remote flash gun, or a more stable or portable tripod? Keep in mind that these courses are there to make money from you so ask yourself, will you truly benefit from the course? Where, in the long term, do you want to go with your photography, is a course worth spending on. And of course, there are millions of books published on this subject because there are millions of you out there aspiring to learn, so go learn from them, the authors love you for your interests.

Be prepared by always having a camera at hand.

Practice, don’t procrastinate or make excuses or lust after gear you’ll never need or ever be able to afford – take another look at my uploads and understand what I have pointed out to you in the text and in the results.

Make mistakes – learn from them.

Keep your eyes peeled and go take photos – happy hunting, for that elusive image. Remain confident that it hides out there somewhere!


rts2568

outline Loc: charlotte,nc

please remember -the depth of field at any one aperture can be maximized by the HYPERFOCAL distance. This term is 1/3 in front of the point of focus and 2/3 behind the point of focus