Picture taking idea, and some tips

I was looking at someone else picture of a flashlight and I had a idea. We all want interesting pictures. So what do you use for a background when taking a picture of the flashlight itself?

Well, if you have a laptop, try folding down the screen so it is level/flat. Then pick a picture for the background and lay the flashlight on it. A monitor could be used too since in a picture you can't tell which way is down.

Oh, and some tips. Since you want a close up, see if your camera has a macro setting. Often this will be shown or selected by a "flower" icon. This setting will allow you to focus closer. If it doesn't then see if you have a manual focus setting and set it as close as you can and move the camera back and forth to adjust. Then you may tweak the focus setting to get things just right.

If it doesn't have these settings, then try moving the camera closer and then farther away and take pictures at each place. This way you can find the closest distance it can focus. Also, use bright lights as that will help the camera focus. If you get glare, you can try taking it outside and shoot in sunlight. Or try to difuse the light (not flashlight) with a white sheet.

Also use a tripod for close up shots and for pictrues of the flashlight beam. This will help keep the camera steady and the picture will be sharper.

Adn if teh pictures looks like the colors are wrong, for example teh flashlight beam is too blue or green, then see if yoru camera has a white balance setting. Usually it will have settings of Sun, Shade, flourescent, incandescent, etc. Try each setting or the one that makes the best sense.

To change how much of the beam is shown, change the shutter speed. Play with it and you will see what I mean. For example a fast shutter speed will show the hot spot but nothign else. Slower will make the hot spot super bright, but will show the rest of the beam. Oh, and when you do beam shots, try to post your shutter speed and aperture settings at the very least. Otehr wise photos can be misleading. For example a 30 second exposure can make a flashlight appear as bright as the sun, but it won't be what the eye sees.

Hope that helps.

OK, I guess it wasn't helpful.

Any way, I hope evey one has a Merry Christmas.

good tips.

heh neat idea for the laptop screen, would allow you to esily select backgrounds, and even change them without moving the lights.
I might have to try that.

One i like alot is using a mirror outside, so you see the sky and clouds.

What about white background? What do you guys use?

BTW great tips.

I dont like white backgrounds much, they tend to over power the darker object im taking a pic of.
Yes you can adjust for this, btu it just seems like too much contrast to me.

I like using things like lava rocks, or a green sheet layed out, with some ripples to it.

Thanks jtice.

Yes, I agree, White background is too much. The camera will adjust for a more over all neutral grey contrast so in effect you make the flashlight darker.

The mirror idea is interesting. If you shoot close to the flashlight then the clouds will be out of focus. You could try moving the camera farther back so that the flashlight is closer to infinity focus. Also try making the aperture a bigger number. That will let mores things be in focus, by increasing the range of things in focus. Or another way to think about it is the camera will focus for say five feet away. The apeture is like a plus or minus focus reading. So the bigger the aperture number used, the bigger the plus or minus range will be. So instead of plus or minus two inches you may have plus infinity, or minus two feet.

So aperture is important for gettign all of the flashlight in focus too. If you are close to the flashlight, then you may notice that only part of the flashlight is in focus. If so then try to increase to the largest aperture number you can use. Also as you use larger aperture settings, you will end up taking a longer esposure. What this means is that it is very important to use a tripod to steady the camera.

Hey! I like the mirror idea. I may try that. I will be posting some pretty kewl pics of my QIII soon and a bunch of Tiger11 shots with beams.

I bought a "Snellen Eye Chart" (The kind you find at the doctor) It has a matt finish to help with glare.

I was thinking of doing a shot from 100yards but setting up the camera very close to the eye chart (say 5 feet) That way you will be able to see how much detail a Tiger11 will reveal when compared to a stock Tigerlight beam. Since the eye chart has many font sizes and a bit of color, it should be very revealing. I guess this test would be practical if you happen to use a pair of binoculars for say hunting or something, but it will also show a detailed visual of the difference, which may turn out to be interesting. We'll see /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

What other types of beam shots do you all recommend? (would like to see)

I will be using my Canon Elan IIe with a 24-80mm zoom. What do you all think I should use, wide angle, telephoto or 50mm? Pro'ly 50mm...

very interesting. I have a store and sell a lot of womens clothes and use white as a background.

Can you guys give any hints for me and taking pics of clothes...

Junior, try a background color that compliments the fabric. Also, you don't want something that draws attention away, i.e. distracting. Taking photos of clothes is more complicated. Fro exampel if it is a brown dress, then the person buying it is more reserved, more shy, and more down to earth. So maybe a picture of a woman wearign it carefree in the park.

CromagNet, I think they Eye chart is a great idea. In fact I was thinking a eye chart would make a good throw test standard. I would shoot at the max telephoto you have to get decent beam shots at 100 yards. I would also shoot at 50mm to get the corona and to show the wide area it lights up. You 50mm probally has the best f stop, so the best light gathering. You might be able to get good shots without a tripod with it.

PocketBeam,

Ah thanks alot for that tip on the larger AP # increasing the focal range, I knew that, before, but had forgotten that. I was wondering that the other day. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif

Heres the 2 times I have used a mirror.
http://www.jtice.com/images/galleries/lights/superlight_III/index.htm
http://www.jtice.com/images/galleries/lights/single_cells/index.htm

I used a cd for my avatar shot of my Rebel longlife flashlight.

jtice,

Cool shots. Almost makes the flashlight appear like they are floating. But I am thinking that maybe the background confuses the forgound. In other words maybe try with clouds instead of trees as the trees have too much detail and tend to distract the viewer.

Nitroz, I can't really tell what is going on in your avatar. I can see there is a flashlight, but not much more. I am sure it makes sense to you since you where there, so you can recongize everything. But a CD is a good idea. You can get rainbow difraction effects, mirror like effects, and can do some other things.

PocketBeam,

yea I agree, the trees were alittle too "busy", though they still look nice, the colors seemed to go well with those lights.

I hope to find some time over the next couple weeks to do some experimenting with all sorts of photo tricks.
I want to do some time laspe stuff soon also /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Here are some long exposures, and lighting tricks I tried the second day I had my Canon A95 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
http://www.jtice.com/images/galleries/photo_tricks/index.htm

The shots that just look like simple pics of my yard, were taken at night, it was VERY dark. its amazing what 15 second exposures can do. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif