# Playing around with the new toy



## BigShed (Apr 6, 2009)

Having just bought a new digital SLR (Canon 450D-Rebel XSi) I have been playing around with the new toy, as you do.

First impressions are very favourable, certainly enjoy the extra control I have as compared to my little Konica Minolta P&S.

I am awaiting arrival of a new light tent with various bits and bobs, but I thought I would take some shots using my existing (heath robinson) lighting setup. This basically consist of a sheet of A3 white paper, curved up, with various bits of styrofoam to give control over shadows and reflections.

I have taken some photos of the Jr Gent FP that Chriselle sent me in the pen swap, it is a black Ti with black bakelite, so not the easiest to photograph.

Not a great fan of flash for this sort of photography, too harsh even with diffusers, so I use available light coming in from the left hand side of the pictures from a window with a white venetian blind on it.

Here are various shots, all taken at ISO100, f22 and +1 2/3 stops (EV). They have been taken at full resoltion (JPEG) and the original file is 4272x2848 pixels.

The photos displayed here have been uploaded to the Picasa website and reduced to 640x480.

Photo 1










Less post processing than in the other photos, basically lept the levels as they came from the camera.
Window light (filtered with venetian blind) coming from left had side of pen, white styrofoam reflector on opposite side, both at 90 deg.


Photo 2





Bumped the levels up a bit, taking some colour out of the background (closer to actual) and it also bumped up the contrast a bit.


Photo 3






Playing around with composition and placement of cap.

Photo 4






Different colour stone to add more colour to the overall effect

Photo 5






This photo (#5) omits the use of a white styrofoam reflector to fill in the shadows cast by the window light, notice also that there are fewer reflections on the pen, making it look less round.

Photo 6






This photo (#6) add a white styrofoam reflector to fill in the shadows cast by the window light, notice also that there are more white reflections on the pen, making it look rounder.
Styrofoam reflector is parallel to pen here, note effect on nib as compared to first 4 photos.


Photo 7


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## Dalecamino (Apr 6, 2009)

Very nice Fred ! Looks like you had quite a bit of fun with different reflections . I like the daylight affect . I sure like the photos from your new camera . Love that Bakelite . Nice job by Chris ! Thanks for posting .


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## Texatdurango (Apr 6, 2009)

I personally like photo #4 best but to be honest I looked at the photos before reading the post and thought that photo #2 did the best job showing the RHODIUM finish... until I read the post and realized it was black titanium!


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## stolicky (Apr 6, 2009)

Looks like you are well on your way to understanding lighting.  I got the XS (1000D) a few months ago and have been learning how to use it.  The most recent pics in my profile were taken with it.  

Its all about the lighting and white balance and focal length and aperture and shutter speed and well, you understand.....  : )

Good luck and enjoy the new financial black hole, I mean toy!


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## Jim15 (Apr 6, 2009)

Good photos, I also like #4 the best.


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## BruceA (Apr 7, 2009)

Fred, 
Your clarity and color are stunning on these photos.  I am curious about the Canon camera - what focal length lens are you using?  What is the distance from lens to pen?

If your f-stop is f22, what speed is your shutter?  That's cranked all the way shut!

I've noticed the pen photos taken with the Canon higher end cameras are excellent (Gerry Rhoades, Lee in Japan...)  Besides being higher resolution, in 12mp, is the major difference that contributes to the clarity in the LENSES being used??

I appreciate you sharing your experimentation...all the way from Australia.

Drooling...

Bruce in TN.


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## BigShed (Apr 7, 2009)

BruceA said:


> Fred,
> Your clarity and color are stunning on these photos.  I am curious about the Canon camera - what focal length lens are you using?  What is the distance from lens to pen?
> 
> If your f-stop is f22, what speed is your shutter?  That's cranked all the way shut!
> ...



G'day Bruce,

Yes the wonders of the World Wide Web!

The lens used here is just one of the 2 kit lenses that came with the camera, a 18-55 IS (Image Stabilised) lens. I am using manual focus and somewhere between +1 and +2 exposure compensation (remember the cameras light meter sees all that white and tries to render it as medium grey (gray?))

Average exposure here is 1/2 to 1 second at F22 
The zoom is at 35mm, the focusing distance is about 400mm.
One day I would like to get a dedicated, fixed focal length, macro lens somewhere around the 100mm mark. I'll have to let the bank balance recover first though!

These shots were taken before I got my light tent and uses daylight coming from window with a venetian blind to the left of the camera with bits of polystyrene foam both above and to the right of the camera.

Another bit of white foam is hand held and manipulated to place a reflection where needed on the subject.

I have taken a shot of the set up with my "happy snapper", I'll try to find it and upload it here.


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## stolicky (Apr 8, 2009)

I like the 'tent' setup.  It just goes to show that you really don't need to spend big bucks on equipment to produce a good photo.  However, we can always justify the cost for ease and convenience!  : )

Hey, one thing I have read about these cameras is that if you don't cover the eyepiece with that little rubber thing on the strap, the light coming through (without your eye up to it to block it) can interfere with the exposure.

F22 huh?  I should try stopping down more....

I'd like a nice macro lens one of these days.  It is amazing the detail you can pick up with them.  However, I'm not sure if the 100mm is worth the extra cost though if I don't have plans to go full frame.  On the cropped sensors the EF-S 60 is actually about 100mm.  Ah, it will be a while before I get one.

Thanks for sharing.


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## Dalecamino (Apr 8, 2009)

Great improvisation there Fred . Thank you for the information .


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