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A slight change of angle adds great visual
appeal to this deer fretwork project, a
Lora S. Irish design, scrolled by Dave Penman. |
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Here the project was shot from the front
with only the on-board flash. The details are
washed out and the project looks very flat,
and not that interesting. Note the harsh, close
shadow created by the flash. |
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Poor focus will render a photo useless regardless of
high resolution and good lighting. An image that is
out of focus cannot be digitally corrected. |
Position the lights to the left and the
right of the camera (as shown in the illustration).
Aim them so they illuminate all
of the project, but cast no harsh shadows.
If you are not careful, you will get a harsh
shadow on both sides of your project, but
careful positioning will eliminate the
harsh shadows.
DO NOT eliminate the shadows on
both sides of the project. Leave one subtle
shadow on one side of the project. If you
eliminate all the shadows, the project will
appear out of focus.
It sometimes helps to shift the pose of
the project to highlight details, instead of
shooting the photo straight on.
The last lighting concern is glare. The
usual culprit for producing excessive glare
is the camera’s own on-board flash. Many
projects have a glossy finish—and if the
finish is glossy enough to refl ect ordinary
light, then the bright light of a flash will
appear as a glare to the camera.
Override the camera’s flash unit when shooting any glossy subject. If you are not
using a flash and glare is still a problem,
change the angle of your lights or the
subject itself, as it is most likely reflecting
light directly into the camera lens. You
may also need to move the lights further
away from the project.
Focus
Most people have what are called “point
and click” cameras with an auto focus feature.
No one wants to fiddle around with
a lens to try to get something into focus.
But auto focus cameras tend to pick one
spot on the piece and focus on that specific part throwing the rest of the project
out of focus.
For the most part, cameras have difficulty focusing on a subject when you are
very close to it, or using the zoom function
too much. If pulling back a little bit
doesn’t help the camera focus on the entire
subject, hold a $1 bill in the center of the
project—where you want the camera to focus—until the camera’s auto focus locks
in. Remove the bill and snap the photo. |
