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First Try At Foam Core Board Shots

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needed send pics to someone for their webpage, so figured i'd do this today. did them in the hallway with just light from bedroom windows filling the hall. not as sharp as they could be and will try to get more depth, as well as the backs more black (i don't want to have to manually do it). i'll set up a permanent area with fixed lighting and get it all worked out, but now i'm outa time.

shot info at the bottom.





18.0-55.0mm @ 55.0mm
3.2 sec, f/7.1
Mode: Manual
Metering: Center-weighted average
ISO: 200
AF mode: AI Focus AF
Drive: Single frame shooting
Self-timer: 10 secs
White balance: Auto
Flash: Off
File size: 36.0MB
Image size: 3072 x 2048
Saturation: High
Sharpness: High
Contrast: High
Tone: Normal
 
Jon Foster said:
Here's my first try at a foam core board shot. The shot was done
with natural lighting (an overhead lamp) so the stem(s) detail was
lost. I couldn't get enough detail back to look good so I removed
them. I will try more shots tomorrow with better light on the stems
but I still think the shot is pretty decent.

Anyone in this forum have any foam core board shots?



Jon.
--
Come visit us on the web!!
http://www.largescale-trains.com

And check our photos out @
http://photobucket.com/albums/v601/jfoster48386/
Click to expand...
My daughter who is 10 years of age done this. Would this be a foam core board shot ? She done this with black art paper. (must be more to it)

--



kf
 
ciaran said:
My daughter who is 10 years of age done this. Would this be a foam
core board shot ? She done this with black art paper. (must be more
to it)
Click to expand...
i got the foam core board today, it's like 2 sheets of black art paper over a bit of foam to make it sturdy i spoze, except less texture, more smooth. about as thick as a piece of cardboard.
 
Thanks for post and link. Nice pic Jon. I think I'll try this for the cacti shots I got to do. Not sure where I'll get foam board from round here, maybe art/mounting board will do?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it that counts.'
 
Thanks.

Try Walmart or Meijer's or any craft store like Michael's or Jo-Ann fabric etc... We bought ours at the local Walmart in the section with all the paper and pencils (school supplies). It was kind of expensive but it's light and works really well. I think we paid about $2.00 each for ours. We bought one for the background and one for a base. They are about 2 x 2 1/2 feet and about 1/4 inch thick.

Jon.
--
Come visit us on the web!!
http://www.largescale-trains.com

And check our photos out @
http://photobucket.com/albums/v601/jfoster48386/
 
i did auto-levels because it was raw and there was a lot of contrast,

then backed off the contrast a bit more to remove as much of the grey/black as possible. if i get the lighting better and move the items further from the board, i think i shouldn't have to do auto-levels at all as the black board should be way out of focus and more black. the item was a foot from the back board - i think it's big enough to go 3 feet and angled forward instead of backward so wont pick up any reflection at all.

i shoulda unsharped it but in the raw/tiff it looked fine, but i think my eyes were playing tricks on me because i compare both now and they are the same.. damn eyes.

in the end, the colors are a bit more vibrant which is probably from the slow shutter but it's pretty darn close

thanks.
Jon Foster said:
Wow, that's pretty good. And no photoshopping? I'd say that's
really good!

Jon.
--
Come visit us on the web!!
http://www.largescale-trains.com

And check our photos out @
http://photobucket.com/albums/v601/jfoster48386/
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Minor problem I am in a very rural part of the UK, North Wales.

Nearest shop 1.5 miles away, nearest pub 3 miles away, nearest town 5 miles away, nearest decent camera shop 27 miles, away anyway I think you get the picture.
Jon Foster said:
Thanks.

Try Walmart or Meijer's or any craft store like Michael's or Jo-Ann
fabric etc... We bought ours at the local Walmart in the section
with all the paper and pencils (school supplies). It was kind of
expensive but it's light and works really well. I think we paid
about $2.00 each for ours. We bought one for the background and one
for a base. They are about 2 x 2 1/2 feet and about 1/4 inch thick.

Jon.
--
Come visit us on the web!!
http://www.largescale-trains.com

And check our photos out @
http://photobucket.com/albums/v601/jfoster48386/
Click to expand...
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it that counts.'
 
Like others have said, it is your pic so do what makes you happy.

I have found that doing the frames/borders is almost as much fun as doing the pic itself! Here are some examples:





Links for how to do this are here:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=10908254
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=7894968

Have fun!
Jon Foster said:
You just had to say that! I was hoping nobody would say anything.
Dang it, now I've got to change it... I'll try it with a .1 thick
border. This one is .2 thick. I thought it was kind of "heavy"
myself but the thinner boarder didn't look so good to me. But....
:)

Jon.
Click to expand...
--
Jim
D70, Kit Lens, 50mm 1.8, 70-300mm ED D, SB-800
Proud FCAS Member #121, Dslr Divison
http://red71shark.smugmug.com/
http://www.pbase.com/red71shark

 
Jon Foster said:
Here's my first try at a foam core board shot. The shot was done
with natural lighting (an overhead lamp) so the stem(s) detail was
lost. I couldn't get enough detail back to look good so I removed
them. I will try more shots tomorrow with better light on the stems
but I still think the shot is pretty decent.

Anyone in this forum have any foam core board shots?



Jon.
--
Come visit us on the web!!
http://www.largescale-trains.com

And check our photos out @
http://photobucket.com/albums/v601/jfoster48386/
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/bigpikle
 
Can I ask a couple of questions about your technique from what I read:

1. do I understand right that you ps out the background and then artificially add whatever you want?

2. you said natural light but do you actually use some sort of studio light or domestic light with some kind of diffuser?
3. are these all with macro lenses?

I read the instructions from the Nikon site but was still a little confused. My wide wants a series of something similar for one of our bedrooms but I'd need a different background, much lighter like a soft green, cream etc.

Thanks for your help.
Jon Foster said:
Those are pretty cool shots. The purple one is really cool though.

Jon.
--
Come visit us on the web!!
http://www.largescale-trains.com

And check our photos out @
http://photobucket.com/albums/v601/jfoster48386/
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/bigpikle
 
Bigpikle said:
Can I ask a couple of questions about your technique from what I read:

1. do I understand right that you ps out the background and then
artificially add whatever you want?
Click to expand...
yes. depending what software you use it's pretty simple. i use corel knockout if it's a harder one, magnetic mask tool if it's simple and mostly curves. once masked i remove the background and floodfill.

if really hard like animal hair i would mask the object as good as i can manually with high zoom and then copy and paste it into a new canvas or image. this way i can use layer tricks to smooth it out such as feathering or something else to soften and blend the edges.
Bigpikle said:
2. you said natural light but do you actually use some sort of
studio light or domestic light with some kind of diffuser?
Click to expand...
whatever you want i guess. i saw one posted using a red light. if your room is dark enough, you could get a old string of outdoor christmas lights and use any one colored bulb to light the object. just need to play with your shutter speeds to see when you get the right exposure for the light. i think half the fun is trying different things.
Bigpikle said:
3. are these all with macro lenses?
Click to expand...
i haven't done anything small enough yet to use macro but i would assume many people do.
Bigpikle said:
I read the instructions from the Nikon site but was still a little
confused. My wide wants a series of something similar for one of
our bedrooms but I'd need a different background, much lighter like
a soft green, cream etc.
Click to expand...
im thinking if you had a white background you could use a green xmas tree light mounted behind your object out of view of the lens, maybe some masking tape around half of it to lower the light output, then same with a clear bulb in front to light the object. definitely one thing i will try when i get some white board. even for flowers, i saw some that looked really good with the majority of the lighting coming from behind or underneath.

addicting no doubt.
Bigpikle said:
Thanks for your help.
Jon Foster said:
Those are pretty cool shots. The purple one is really cool though.

Jon.
--
Come visit us on the web!!
http://www.largescale-trains.com

And check our photos out @
http://photobucket.com/albums/v601/jfoster48386/
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/bigpikle
Click to expand...
 
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