HOWTO Take beam photos?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Start on full auto, and if you get the results you want, leave it there. The G2 is a great camera, but I found that when there are a lot of bells and whistles (had a Nikon CoolPix 990, highest rated digital at the time, but got rid of it), it's like doing your income taxes -- change one thing and it seems to affect the other settins, which now require additional fiddling around with.

I could see if I was shooting for a national magazine layout or something, but not just for simple beamshots...

 

[hotfoot]

One of the most important things about taking comparative individual beam photos is to use the same static settings (aperture, white balance...etc) from beamshot to beamshot. It would be meaningless to take shots where the cam "optimises" things dynamically. You'd end up with everything looking bright and just about the same.

This, of course, is somewhat less important if you're doing those side-by-side shots (like our buddy MrBULK here is so very good at

) because the beam differences are immediately apparent. But if you want to maintain a good reference, try sticking to the same settings for every shoot, and if you deviate, make a note so that you'll know that your Arc-AAA really isn't actually brighter than your M6

As a rule of thumb, I like taking test shots with each camera and try getting results that best mimic what I see with my own eyes. Once I have a satisfactory result, I note the settings and use them for all subsequent ones in the same test environment. Yes, that's quite a bit of calibration there and will vary from one person's eyeball to the next, but that's how this particular CPFer does it. BTW, I'm using a G1, so maybe we can swap notes.

Good luck with your beamshots!

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hotfoot is so very right. I always take side-byside shots so I can forego the fiddling -- hey, "Forego The Fiddlin', And Stick With Steel (Guitars)", heckuva title for a Country song, ain't it?

 

[Brock]

I also take my shots by setting the camera to manual and then pick a shutter speed and stick with it and take all the shots with the exact same setting. For some lights it looks really dim and some it looks really washed out, but that is more realistic then having the camera change the shutter speed and then they all look the same. The color temp is another thing to make sure is the same. At least then if someone has one of the lights they know what it looks like in person and can judge all the others to that one. You will probably have to make some groupings, like 1/2 second, 1 second and 1/8 second or something similar. I have always wanted to take shots of all the lights I have from one end to the other and then overlap then when necessary, say a UKE 2L is really bright in the 1 sec shot, then take it again for the 1/2 second shot and go up from there, but that overlap would be a good reference point.

 

[BugLightGeek]

:: If this belongs somewhere else, please move it ::

I just started taking a few beam shots of some of my lights and was wanting to get input from those of you who have been doing it longer than I have.

I have a nice digital camera (Canon PowerShot G2) that has aperature priority, shutter priority, manual and a slew of automatic features.

What settings have you found to work the best? Is it recommended to take the photos in a dark-as-possible situation or will it work to take them in a lighted room as long as the target area is dark enough to show off the beam?

How do you get the white-balance to show the beam as accurately as possible?

Do you find it difficult to get an accurate photo in a dark room?

TIA for the suggestions
(to see some of my photos, go here).

 

[BugLightGeek]

Alright...those suggestions sound good. I think I'll do some playing around with it today and post some of the findings.

Which do you think is better:
Posting the actual image in the post
Posting a link to an image

Personally, I like to see the image rather than have to click again and open another browser window.

 

[B@rt]

Since there is no difference in server-use for CPF, I would like to see immedeate(?) results. But, having had a dial-up account for a long time, it might make sense to compress the showed image as much as possible, and give a url for the high-res pic...

 

[Brock]

I would prefer a small image in the page, but be clickable to a larger 640x480 or 800x600 image size. I was asked to take the thumbnails or small ones off my site because my site had so much traffic and was using more bandwidth the rest of the entire campus sites. They said either delete them or take them off the first page. They said it has cut down the bandwidth quite a bit.

 

[Wingerr]

Even if taking side by side comparison shots, it probably would be best to adjust exposure to the maximum possible without any saturation. My 995 has a histogram feature that shows any areas that are saturated, basically clipping the sensor output. I'd try to adjust the exposure so the peak level is just below saturation, and let everything else fall below.

 

[LLLean]

For pix comparing beam brightness,
you need to not only use the same shutter
speed, but the same ISO setting and
same aperture (f-stop). That means you
need a digital camera that offers full
manual control. Never use auto setting
for this.