General Category > Photography

How to build an inexpensive photo stand for cabs and slabs.

(1/3) > >>

irockhound:
I wanted to put together a how to for shooting stones since I have seen several people struggling.  This is a simple method and easy to make.  Any one who has been to my website and enjoyed the pics and the quality of the pictures this is how I shoot them. One thing I wish I had done early was to set a STANDARD for myself.  I hate looking at my site and seeing a page of stones and there are 4 different backgrounds, it makes the page look messy.  I am re-shooting the almost 2000 stones on the same background which is a pain.  Lesson learned set your std. first and then proceed.

I have put instructions in the pictures but will add a few comments here first. The great thing about this method is you can shoot Quartz and other clear stones because only the pin's point is touching the back of the cab you don't get shadows or halos and can't see the "stand" you would be otherwise using.

1)  Although I made the how to using a black material it was only because that was all I had, I normally shoot on a neutral gray so it works with most stones.

2)  This stand is for shooting straight down onto slabs or cabs and I do this for all my website photos.

3) the lights can be moved around to get the best light on the cab when shooting

4) Try to shoot with a narrow depth of field so the background blurs, if your camera has a "macro" mode this will happen and your cab will be clean and background blurred.

5) Make sure the bulbs you use in the lamps are "daylight" and that way your images won't have a blue or yellow tinge to them.

Any other questions I failed to answer in the pics please let me know and I will elaborate

irockhound:
Sorry it didn't get all the pics probably because of page length not image size.

rocks2dust:
I like the idea of using straight pins!

Do you normally leave autofocus on, or do you turn it off and manually focus?

Orrum:
Very good tut!!! Thank you!

Back:
WOW

That is a cool set up. Looking at my try pod the legs cant change but the head will go all the way down so I can see between the legs.I will have to some adjusting on the height but I already have 3 lamps with "100w" led daylight bulbs in them :headbang:

Will be post pic of this effort soon

Bless
Shawn

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page