In my field (failure analysis), photography is all-important. I spend a lot of time trying to get the perfect photo of a broken part. One tip I'd like to add to Jon's list is simply this:
8. Take lots and lots of photos.
As Jon mentions, with digital photography, there's no good excuse for not doing this; you can always delete the ones you don't use. I probably take at least 20-30 shots for each photo I use in a report.
Another tip, which seems obvious, but which I have sometimes forgotten, is this:
9. Take pictures before disassembly or destructive testing.
If you're going to take apart an assembly or cut up a part, make sure you take all of the pictures you need prior to doing this. Otherwise, good luck getting it back into the condition you received it!
Good points, Dave. Thanks for sharing. Years ago I visited one of the failure-analysis labs at NASA. The lab team had a rack full of power-supplies and needed to analyze why they failed. I recall they took lots and lots of photos before they did anything else
Jon, I see that your tip #3 basically suggests the old lightbox. Once upon a time in the ancient dark ages before desktop publishing, this was how anything printed got produced during what was called "paste-up," using Exacto knives. I wonder if those boxes are still sold? If not, they're pretty easy to make.
Hi, Ann. I remember the days of Xacto knives and production editors who ended up with bits of paper stuck on their sleeves. A piece of frosted glass supported by four stacks of books and incandescent bulbs underneath makes a jury-rigged lightbox. I recommend against using milky glass or white plastic, both of which absorb too much light.
The suggestions made are quite timely especially with a lot of folks submitting articles to the Gadget Freak column. I could have definitely used these photography suggestions for my book Learn Electronics with Arduino just recenty published by Apress. I'm working on a second Apress book and wiil definitely use them for improving my photographs. Thanks for the article and keep up the good work!
Hi, Nadine and Mr. Don. Thanks for your comments. Years ago when I shot mainly b/w photos and 35mm color slides, photographers took pains to compose a photo and try to get it as good as possible in a few shots. Digital photography lets us "shoot" images with wild abandon. So it's good to make notes about the settings, lights, and backgrounds used. Last year I took photos for a book, too, and bracketed my shots between many different aperture and exposure-time settings. Digital cameras have many, many of these settings, so you want to know what worked and what didn't when you go back and take more pictures.
Some camera manuals are sketchy at best. It took me a while to figure out if I corrected for incandescent light I could not use the built-in flash, for example.
Jon, Very good points. I'm going through the process of documenting settings for the photos I'm taking for the second book I'm writing. Glare is the biggest offense while taking pics of glossy surface devices like LCDs.
Yes, I understand that problem! I photographed components for my book, "The Hands-On XBee Lab Manual" and it took some doing to eliminate glare. A polarizing filter helped reduce glare on non-metallic surfaces, but metallic components and pins proved the most difficult. Diffuse light can help, too.
In the end, I didn't use all of the various photos I took. You don't always know what you will and won't use, so as another comment said, take plenty of photos!
Jon, With Learn Electronics with Arduino book, I probably shot over 200 photos to provide good images. So, I agree with you totally of taking plenty of photos to find good images for the target publication.
Jon, great article and tips, my daughter is a chef and we are always taking pictures of her food. Some of the pictures she puts on her web site so the quality of the pictures is real important. I will have to share this article with her.
Thank you for these great bullet points. I studied photography years ago and always had a hard time explaining basic ways to make DIY photography look good. AS a result, I become the unofficial photographer for quick projects.
The note about using a frame of reference for pictures is a great word of advice. My job involves dealing with production quality complaints. Some quality departments will take pictures so close to a part that you have no idea where the defect is on the part.
The note about using a frame of reference for pictures is a great word of advice. My job involves dealing with production quality complaints. Some quality departments will take pictures so close to a part that you have no idea where the defect is on the part.
(Sorry, my flickr image links are getting mangled; higher resolution images are available via the http address above each image if you're interested)
Jon, these are great tips!
#2 - the polarizer is a must have and is the only filter that cannot be replicated in photoshop.
#6 - Tripod usage is what sets the professionals apart from the amateurs!
Any discussion of photo lighting should include a link to the Strobist blog. This link takes you to a <$10 KISS DIY lighting studio. Keep in mind that you can simply use the sun and some poster board "photon bounce" cards for your lighting. It's inexpensive and easy to white balance. Here is a link to an example setup I created:
flickr.com/photos/speednutdave/3605989489
and a photo result:
flickr.com/photos/speednutdave/3605989673
If you have large products to photograph, David Hobby Mr. Strobist shows you how to scale this table top DIY light studio to a 12' cube.
Check your local floor tile shop for chipped tiles they give away or sell for pennies. I procured a heavy stack of 1ft/sq granite and glass tiles for <$1. Acrylic plastic sheets also make for a nice base that contains muted product reflections.
LCD display brightness just can't compete with the brightness of the sun or flashes. The quick answer is two exposures are required, one for the product and another for the screen. Use a layer mask to blend in the screen display over the product photo. Here is one of my examples.
flickr.com/photos/speednutdave/4169880384
A micro lens or lens extension tubes are handy for detailed electronic parts. Just be careful to control the lighting angles (and a polarizer) to ensure the chip package labeling is easy to read. Example:
flickr.com/photos/speednutdave/4531970558
.
Inexpensive light tents are also available if you're not interested in going DIY. Here is an example of the results from a $35 light tent using only hot mid-day summer sunlight. It simply was a quick setup and shoot with a (fancy) point and shoot camera.
flickr.com/photos/speednutdave/7422870570
So long post short, for a minimum financial investment and some practice, very high quality images can be made of your projects. Thanks Jon for starting this informative discussion!
Hi, DaveJ. Thanks for adding your comments and insight to our discussion. I hadn't thought about tile as a background but will give it a try after my next visit to Home Depot or Lowe's. --Jon
Great post! That studio looks familiar. I've built many of those over the years.
Tripods are useful but sometimes you just don't have one. I had a professor who taught us how to use found objects and timers in lieu of tripods.
I was the best at taking long exposures (traffic mostly) without a tripod. Framing the shot and hugging a street lamp (hold breath-squeeze tight) did the trick. It was fun.
Using almost 200 light-emitting diodes in the front and back of the new 2014 CTS, Cadillac designers are showing how LEDs can change the character of a vehicle.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
1 
