# Got a grey scale thingy



## EBorraga (Aug 11, 2010)

O.K. guys, took the advice of all the experts. Purchased a gray scale card from the local photo shop. I also used a tripod on a 5 second delay. All comments accepted Bad, Really Bad, or good. This photo stuff is harder than turning a pen.


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## rjwolfe3 (Aug 11, 2010)

Much better then what I am coming up with. I am still struggling and this is after I got a gray card from a member here on the forum.


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## bitshird (Aug 11, 2010)

Nice pic Ernie, they look good, maybe just a hint of red/magenta in the background but pretty close to white.


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## Lenny (Aug 12, 2010)

Looking good, Ernie!


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## toddlajoie (Aug 12, 2010)

Your photos look good, I would suggest you just change the composition. Laying the pen flat and shooting it straight on like that is rather static looking and doesn't really reflect how we "see" a pen when we look at it. With a tripod and a 5 second exposure, you should have enough depth of field to angle the pen a little bit, and maybe shoot from a higher angle if you're going to lay it flat, but maybe propping it up on something (you see prop ideas all over the place here, scraps of burl, stones, partial herringbone blanks, etc), but a more dynamic angle on the pen will do wonders for people's perception of the photos technical merits.

Lighting can be a very subjective issue, but I tend to prefer most if not all of my lighting to come from above and behind when photographing round shiny things like pens with a tent type setup like this (with maybe a bit from the sides and front if the shadows are too deep). Side lighting tends to just look off for no particular reason (in reality, its because the sides are slightly brighter than the center, which makes your photo look both over and underexposed at the same time...) I'm guessing, as I don't know what your lighting setup is, but it sort of looks like a tent with lights on either side and maybe on top also...

So in the end, I'd suggest you play around with position of the pen, angle of the camera, and position of the lights....

(shameless example)





Rob, let me know if I can help you out with your gray card issues (include what kind and model of camera you're using...)


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## Pepsi (Aug 12, 2010)

Ernie,

Looking good buddy. Nice looking pen too.

                                                Al


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## PaulDoug (Aug 12, 2010)

I just read this morning on another forum that a gray T-shirt makes a great back ground. Really looked nice on the picture I was looking at.


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## Chasper (Aug 12, 2010)

You have the camera tuned in, the color balance and the whites look great.  Someone already mentioned composition which needs a little work.  Also I personally like more shadow, try concentrating your lighting on one side so that the shadows are stronger.


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## All Thumbs (Aug 14, 2010)

This will sound dumb. What is a grey scale card and how do you use them?


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## toddlajoie (Aug 14, 2010)

All Thumbs said:


> This will sound dumb. What is a grey scale card and how do you use them?



The basic exposure meter in a camera assumes that if you take all the light that enters the lens and mash it all together, it would average out to what is termed 18% gray*. This is generally very close in real world average photos (backyard birthday parties, etc), but it is nowhere close when things go out of the ordinary (i.e. shooting white cows in a snow covered field or shiny chrome round things on white sheets of paper). The idea of a "gray card" is that you would put it in the photograph, and get your camera to set it's exposure based on the light reflected off of it. In a digital camera, it can also be used to achieve a custom white balance based on your particular lighting setup (however, I have about 8-10 gray cards, and there are 3 distinct colors between them, so be carefull).

* - Todays digital cameras and many recent advanced film cameras have scene recognition that can recognize patterns in images and skew their exposures based on what they assume the scene is, such as large areas of sky or backlit people, but I am not aware of any cameras that have scene recognition for shiny round things on white paper....


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## Mickey (Aug 15, 2010)

One more thing. You might want to take a look at cleaning the sensor. I see several dust bunnies.


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