How to pull in more crisp light

4 years 5 months ago #660919 by pfarley1
Hi all.

I am trying to improve my general photography skills.

One thing that I struggle on is getting nice vibrant, soft, natural light. I don't understand what I am doing wrong.

I primarily take photos for my work in a well lit manufacturing facility.

I am using a Canon T3i. I take photos in manual mode. Typically, I keep the Av at around F10-F13. Then I adjust the shutter speed so that it is typically one notch over center. Finally the ISO is usually kept at 1600 (it is indoors after all).

I attached two photos to this thread.

The photo of the person is one taken by a former employee here. There is light coming from everywhere and I think it is nice soft light.

The other photo of the enclose (thing that looks like a cabinet) is decently lit on the actual product (well over lit in my opinion), but then the background is so much darker.

Is there something else that I need to be doing? Tips?

Thanks

Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS REBEL T3i
Lens: EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
ISO: 3200
Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter speed: 1/50 sec
Captured: Tue, 12 Jan 2016 12:36pm
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS REBEL T3i
Lens: EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 1/500 sec
Captured: Wed, 2 Oct 2019 11:08am


Attachments:
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4 years 5 months ago #660920 by fmw
You can make some adjustments in post process.  Here is your image with some adjustments to enhance shadow detail and adjust contrast.  I think your image highlights the products better.   The alternative is to add artificial light in shadow areas like we did in the film days.


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4 years 5 months ago #660922 by Nikon Shooter

pfarley1 wrote: Is there something else that I need to be doing? Tips?


I prefer to control all lights prior to SR but  fmw  is right
with the PP possibilities. A suggestion…



Light is free… capturing it is not!
Photo Comments
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4 years 5 months ago #660927 by pfarley1
Thanks everyone.

What is SR?

From what I am gauging is there isn't much I can do except rely on PP for these situations?

Should I just ensure that the focal point (enclosure in this photo) is captured very well, without attempting to overcompensate for the background lighting?

Now what if I didn't have a focal point for this shot and the room itself needed to be shown in its entirety?


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4 years 5 months ago #660928 by Nikon Shooter

pfarley1 wrote: What is SR?



SR = Shutter release. 

Light is free… capturing it is not!
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4 years 5 months ago #660929 by Nikon Shooter

pfarley1 wrote: Should I just ensure that the focal point (enclosure in this photo) is captured very well, without attempting to overcompensate for the background lighting?


You want to illustrate the cabinet so let the BG fall
out of focus so to keep the attention on the subject.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
Photo Comments
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4 years 5 months ago #660933 by pfarley1
This was going to be another question I was going to ask. I cannot figure out how to consistently get the background to blur.

Current steps:
-Turn the aperture down to the lowest setting between F4.5-F5
-Take the shot from far away, while zooming in
-Hope it blurs

I don't get what I do wrong. The photo I attached to this may have even been an attempt I made at doing it.

However, sometimes it works for me. See attached.


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4 years 5 months ago #660940 by Nikon Shooter

pfarley1 wrote: I cannot figure out how to consistently get the background to blur.



DoF is dependant on

— focal length, long lens have shallower DoF than wide ones
— aperture, the larger the shallower DoF
— distance to subject. the closer you are to the subject and the
further away the BG is from the said subject the more OoF

Ex.: a 300 mm ƒ2.8 at minimal focusing distance and a BG some 
meters behind is an optimal recipe.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
Photo Comments
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4 years 5 months ago #660941 by garyrhook
You need to read up on "depth of field" to understand how aperture, focal length, and distance to subject/distance to background affect what you get. This is why we have different lenses.

Being far away isn't enough. The background has to be far away from the subject, too. And you must be using a kit lens, which might not be fast enough to easily create significant blur. Your example with the cables shows you to close to the cables, but the ceiling is away.

Post will help you balance the light in the image, but if what you have isn't adequate, you have to bring in more light. As for "soft," that's a diffusion issue. And dark areas are dark because... they need more light.


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4 years 5 months ago #660942 by Nikon Shooter
Here, it is not correct to say "blur" as it implies movement as
in "movement blur". The proper expression to use is OoF or
focus fallout.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
Photo Comments
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4 years 5 months ago #660948 by pfarley1
Thanks again everyone.

Yes, I believe the lens came in a kit. It is a 18-135mm.

Gotcha on the terminology. Sorry for coming off as a complete noob. So, I should look at a 300mm lens ideally for Oof images?

Regarding the diffusion issue. What and how could this help?


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4 years 5 months ago #660949 by Nikon Shooter

pfarley1 wrote: So, I should look at a 300mm lens ideally for Oof images?


Absolutely not!!!

I used the 300 ƒ2.8 as an example but the lens you should
look for is possibly less expensive… as long as you use the 
three tips given above.

Learning about DoF before investing is darn good wisdom.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
Photo Comments
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4 years 5 months ago #660971 by Ozzie_Traveller
G'day mate

1) you say in the beginning that "I primarily take photos for my work in a well lit manufacturing facility" so presumably you [might] have some control over locations in use for pics like #2 which are moved around via forklift or trolley. Q-- is there a "visually quiet" location that you can set up as a background?

2) is there any possibility of shooting these static pics at night - whereby you can take control of lighting [as NS suggests] and therefore the backgrounds will disappear into black?

3) is there any possibility that the firm can fork out some $$$ for a pair of good flashguns that will use a softbox so as to gently illuminate the subjects?

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

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4 years 5 months ago #660976 by pfarley1

Ozzie_Traveller wrote: G'day mate

1) you say in the beginning that "I primarily take photos for my work in a well lit manufacturing facility" so presumably you [might] have some control over locations in use for pics like #2 which are moved around via forklift or trolley. Q-- is there a "visually quiet" location that you can set up as a background?

2) is there any possibility of shooting these static pics at night - whereby you can take control of lighting [as NS suggests] and therefore the backgrounds will disappear into black?

3) is there any possibility that the firm can fork out some $$$ for a pair of good flashguns that will use a softbox so as to gently illuminate the subjects?

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/


1. I have some control, but there aren't a lot of ideal places. I purposely moved the enclosure to that area because it has less background visual "noise".

2. Not possible to take at night.

3. At this point, I would say no. I was approved to build a photo room for small projects, due to us making a catalog. However, we ended up using a lot of computer generated renderings for this, so that room isn't used much. They will probably see this as a waste. The softbox I bought for this is massive, so I'm not sure if it would be ideal for this. Unless we can fab something up.


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4 years 5 months ago #661560 by Blistered_Feet

pfarley1 wrote: 1. I have some control, but there aren't a lot of ideal places. I purposely moved the enclosure to that area because it has less background visual "noise".

2. Not possible to take at night.

3. At this point, I would say no. I was approved to build a photo room for small projects, due to us making a catalog. However, we ended up using a lot of computer generated renderings for this, so that room isn't used much. They will probably see this as a waste. The softbox I bought for this is massive, so I'm not sure if it would be ideal for this. Unless we can fab something up.


If you cannot shoot at night, would the company allow you to black out the windows for the shoot? Maybe using reusable blackout window covers (the kind used for sleeping infants or nightshift workers) would be more appealing to the company. It would be ideal to use a room with the same window size each time, but if there are not too many windows in another location, maybe consider two sizes.Depending on the size of windows, it might be a little pricy. Cheapest I saw run around $30, but they don't need to be disposed of when finished.


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