Picture Perfect?

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Dream Burls

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I recently changed the perspective of my photographs to standing vertical from lying at an angle. I think both ways work, but that this new way is a little better and I want to see what you think. I's a lot easier for me this way because it took time to get the angle the same every the time. It's a lot easier was a straight vertical and I have a much shorter depth of field so I get a better focus too. All comments welcome and appreciated. :scratchhead:
 
I know how difficult it is to get a good picture that really represents the wood - without over-saturating and contrasting. Both set-ups have advantages, so it's hard to decide. Just wondering: Are you using a tripod? That should make a consistent setup fairly easy?

Stefan
 
I know how difficult it is to get a good picture that really represents the wood - without over-saturating and contrasting. Both set-ups have advantages, so it's hard to decide. Just wondering: Are you using a tripod? That should make a consistent setup fairly easy?

Stefan

I use a monopod so the height and orientation of the camera is fixed relative to the block. It can pivot off of the leg location, but that's what I control. A tripod would be better, but that's what I have. I don't edit the saturation or contrast and I don't use any artificial lighting. I try to get my pictures to be as accurate as possible.
 
I prefer the new perspective. The older, diagonal one sometimes had a more limited DOF, so the end closest to the camera was sometimes a little blurry. (I had been thinking of writing to you to suggest this, actually, but now you've already done it.)
 
I prefer the new perspective. The older, diagonal one sometimes had a more limited DOF, so the end closest to the camera was sometimes a little blurry. (I had been thinking of writing to you to suggest this, actually, but now you've already done it.)
Thanks Todd, great minds....
 
I would put some lacquer on your blocks to highlight the grain, a thin clear coat applied by a spray can.
 
Thanks guys. I'll go get some and try it out. Much appreciated feedback.
 
I was looking at the wood on your website and everything I saw was still in diagonal format. I think the advantage of diagonal is capturing 3 sides vs standing vertical you're likely only capturing 1-2 sides.

I'll just comment on diagonal and I'm gonna go a bit nerdy but here it goes... If you want to make diagonal work, it's all in the lighting. The reason why some of the shots are blurry on the front end is your depth of field is too narrow. You have to shoot the photo at a higher f-stop like f10+ depending on lens/distance.. You can achieve this one of two ways:

1) Boost the power of the light source Let in as much light as you can through windows, and you can also use a light reflector for shaded areas like the top of the block. You can find light reflectors at photography websites, but really even a silver car shade or white posterboard would do.

2) Lengthen the exposure time. You'll need a tripod and shoot in manual mode. Set the ISO around 200-400, f10+, and play around with the exposure time til you get what you want.

Not sure what you use to process photos but I highly recommend Lightroom. Shoot in RAW format and learn to edit the photos. Lightroom 5 is really awesome because it allows you to adjust exposure for the entire photo or parts of the photo. People think using too much lightroom or photoshop is cheating somehow.. but in the case you are trying to sell a piece of wood by showing grain structure you need to bring out that contrast. Given the way cameras meter lighting, its often very hard to capture the contrast your eye preceives unless you have an ideal lighting setup. (Just think of the last time you tried to photo patina on a knife)

Last thing as others said use a tripod. Repeatability is the key!
 
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