Guide How to photograph your mod(s)

thanks for the tips guys, it just so happens that my motherboard side is a feature as well, with a glowy logo and two UV CCFls. More a distraction than normal.

I might rig up some independent UV CCFls to place around the case when I photo it, help highlight the edges and create the appropriate "Glowiness."

I have pretty much relied on my cameras many capabilities rather than external lighting out of laziness.

Anybody who is interested can see some "wanted to post so I took a bunch of pictures" over at (whisper) gruntville.com here (if this is inappropriate, just say so):
Gluttony Case Gallery
I didn't want to link the images for display, the admins might not like it.

 

Just experiment with a couple of 100watt lamps with your cam set to tungsten balance, with your flash switched off. Use reflectors to bounce the light back, rather than direct lighting of you can, as this will reduce hard shadows, and lower contrast.

The problem you have have is the brightness of your case itself. It seems very well lit. If your case is too bright compared to your lighting, then it may be a little over the top.

If that is so, then it may be worth trying to shoot your PC in daylight, near a window, with a reflector on the opposite side. If you shoot at different times of the day, you will get varying balances between your case lighting, and the ambient lighting. Just avoid direct sunlight. Near a window on a cloudy day, heading towards evening would be my best guess.

 

anyone care to mod the use the search smiley to use the macro? or use the "flower icon"??


I tried but failed; I have no idea how to use ImageReady

 

quick and dirty tip for balancing over yellow/orange indoor shots (especially if you smoke in the house...) :

use a single layer of that blue crepe painter's tape over your digicam's flash, and adjust the flash to force on, low level ... the blueish hue helps cancel the cigarette tar on the walls ... especially if you are lighting with halogen torchiere or incadescent bulbs ...

if it ever turned out over-blue, we would just tone the blue channel down with photochop's color mixer ...

lighting with those GE reveal bulbs helps too ... just dont use both methods at once

 

If it hasn't been covered already...

One thing I found out just today for the more extreme close up shots (like the printing on BGA memory and slightly larger) is that moving the camera a lot closer to the object seems to keep things crisper than using optical zoom (obviously set macro mode). This could have only been true for the camera I was messing around with (a Canon Powershot A75, and the test subject of a pricetag card at best buy) but it's probably true for other things. Naturally, an external light source would be absolutely critical as the flash would only light up a corner of the object and the lack of light if you were relying on the flash would cause difficulty focusing to begin with.

I like the idea with the white cathodes... I may set myself an area for that. The trick obviously would be finding a nice 12v source without dragging my computer over and/or having a massive molex extension line. As I also review stuff taking pictures is pretty important. I have noticed that the flash often works better than external light.

Basic idea: get to know your camera and what seems to work best. And if one method doesn't work that well, try another. Using the flash before going to external lighting (instead of vice-versa) is a good idea though, as it's a lot more convenient to get the lighting after you find out the flash isn't what's working instead of getting the external lighting and swearing at yourself later (while putting it away) when the flash worked a lot better.

And if there's no good way to get rid of that flare from your light source, try and use some wierd filter to at least make it look interesting


Great guide though, I think just reading it, not even trying anything, has already improved my picture-taking skills.

And a tripod is an absolute MUST for night-shots, you just can't keep a steady enough hand. The little 1.5" LCD makes things look a lot crisper than your 1:1 two-screens-wide viewing of the image on your monitor.

 

Another possibility for the ghetto photographer (as I am) is using whatever yellow lights you have available to you, and setting the white balance on your digital camera for yellow light. This will automatically filter out almost all of the yellowness off of your silver or steel components, and allows you to use whatever light you have available to light up the target "naturally".

Very good stuff all. Having read some of the other recent threads, this one re-affirms my belief in this community.

Now if I could just get off of work, I could finish that custom case, all-solid state computer.

 

Very hard shot to get of divergence. Main issue, lcd vs lighting in case vs open window.

Picture taken with avalable lights, bouncing light from the back and front, tripod, slower shutter speed, pacience.

 

this will help the the new comers to bit-tech. it helped me i know that good job

 

Wow a great read, want examples of bad pictures, look thru my ongoing project log

 

Really interesting article, should help me

 

Double Post

 

Yes, this will be good for every modder, nonexpiremental, or experimetal...

I know something about photoing... And I can get good art pictures...

 

That's a sweet rig man, like the photograph!

 

Couple of down and dirty picture helpers...

I use a couple of programs developed by Mediachance. One is DCEnhancer. A real simple, easy to use picture fixer. For those who can't afford to buy something to use, this is a freebie. The other one is FilterSIM. Now this one is really great as you can use the simulated Kodak filters to correct for lighting errors you can get with a digital cam. Also you can see what your case would look like in different colors.
Here's the link>
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/index.html
I would highly reccomend this place even for the pros.

 

another Manual camera here, Zenit 12XP (M42). Admittedly, i use Can EOS 10's and a Casio QV5700 normally though...

Good points raised, theres nothing that pisses me off more than seeing a great Mod spoiled by Crap piccies...

And yes, I've put my money where my mouth is, my case is on this Forum.

Oh, and to get your white cathodes going away from your PC, simply use a spare PSU, plug in Cathode/Inverter as normal, short the Green Wire to one of the Black wires (Paperclip works just fine), and Hey Presto! Instant 12V!

InSanCen

 

It's pity I don't have any pics on my computer right now :< I once did my own mini-studio from plexi and few lamps. It worked nicely but I never made it ready... Lazy me.

Anyways way to get rid of shadows in macro-pictures if to put object on A4-paper and backlight it by cathode or some else WHITE light. Other light on top so you'll see small textures nicely

 

Thanks for posting this guide, I tried to use a lot of the information and I'm getting better looking pictures than I used to.

 

This time I won't complain about a thread ressurection, because this is a good guide that many can benefit from (including me )

 

Wow.. i thought everyone had either forgotten about, or already made use of this thread.... I forgot I did all that work in here. Glad people are still reading it, and making use of it Where's PsychoI3boy these days? He was the thread starter actually.

As always I'm here if anyone needs photo help... just PM me.

 

just a quick thing, those looking for a cheap tripod might want to have a look at eBuyer:

i got this tripod for onyly £7 and it works very well!
eBuyer Tripod