A really old camera

gfurm · February 26, 2014

Hello everyone.

I'd like to know what you think about those. Not the subject itself, more about the shots. It was exercise in lighting.

Thanks
Greg

Earache · February 27, 2014

I like the overall temperature (cold) and direction of the light... background works well to feature the subject.
#2 looks a bit under-exposed - the detail on the grip is disappearing, especially on the right side.
HTH

Juano · February 27, 2014

I think #1 is great, nice detail and good contrast with the background.

1magineer · February 28, 2014

In #1, the top controls and the front of the lens are "almost" sharp. I would either throw them out of focus all together, or adjust distance, aperture, and focal length to bring it all crisp. With a shift/tilt capable camera, you could do it, and for something like this (in my school days) I would use scheimpflug adjustments and a view camera to get everything where I wanted it. Edgy focus would be acceptable in a less precision subject, or if you had chosen, for example, just the front of the lens as your "precision plane."

gfurm · February 28, 2014

Thanks for comments.

1maginer: getting it all in focus is impossible for me even if I go for f22 and higher ISO. But then I'll all get soft due to the lens (it gets much softer at higher apertures). And I don't have tilt/shift lens

. Going the other way could be interesting, just getting the name in focus. I'll try that.

Greg

1magineer · February 28, 2014

I think you might be pleased with the results. Not sure of your technical knowledge, so just in case, focal plane is always ⅓ TOWARDS YOU (in front of plane of focus), and 2/3rds away from you (behind the plane of focus) at any given aperture. this means to get that scene all in focus, you either have to manually set your autofocus to a point ⅓ into the scene, or manually focus yourself at about that range (and at an adequate aperture to carry the depth. Macro is always a bitch if you ALSO want depth of field.

.

Also, you might try DxO Optics Pro 9 (if you haven't already), as it will eek out the max sharpness of your lens/camera combo (but you must shoot RAW to take advantage of it). :-)

gfurm · February 28, 2014

Thanks but i know all that. Moving focus towards me still not going to work. With 105mm macro lens at 30 cm distance the depth of field is roughly 1.4 cm. From front of the lens to dials on top plate is about 5cm. I'd be better off with focus stacking. But I may try lower aperture to throw everything out of focus.

1magineer · February 28, 2014

gfurm wrote: »

Thanks but i know all that. Moving focus towards me still not going to work. With 105mm macro lens at 30 cm distance the depth of field is roughly 1.4 cm. From front of the lens to dials on top plate is about 5cm. I'd be better off with focus stacking. But I may try lower aperture to throw everything out of focus.

Oops, looking back I got a bit carried away with the stuff you knew already. It's the teacher in me. :-/

At any rate, sounds like you have a plan!

thumb

1magineer · February 28, 2014

Oh, and btw, I like the lighting but for the wee bit that Eric called out... and I might disagree that it is OVERALL underexposure... I think a white card reflector off set would fill that grip shadow in just fine.

A really old camera

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