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Have you ever wanted good photos of your cameras, but didn't want a lot of hassle making them? Excellent renderings of your photo gear can be made with everyday materials, a little make-do ingenuity, and a minimum of time and effort. Here's how.
Setup
My tabletop studio is small, handy, and easy to set up. It consists of a flat surface next to my computer desk, an adjustable arm lamp, some background paper, a couple of sheets of white letter paper, and sometimes a gooseneck lamp. I use a digital camera for my work, but a film camera would work well also. The proximity of the mini-studio to the computer desk makes it easy to transfer images to the computer for editing and cataloging. The background is a roll of seamless paper about two feet wide draped across a work surface so that the end hangs over the edge. The remainder of the roll sits on top of a cassette storage case and a small boom box stacked on top of each other. The paper forms a gentle curve which precludes a line across the background. There's no problem if the paper becomes a little rumpled as long as there aren't any sharp creases in it. The rumpling adds a slight muddled effect which breaks up the monotony of a solid background, but doesn't detract from the subject. The camera mounts on an economy class tripod that has a rack and pinion driven center post. I prefer this tripod to the beefier models because it takes up less room in my rather small digital studio/darkroom, yet is sturdy enough to mount my digital camera.
Lighting
The adjustable arm lamp is the main light. It mounts an eight-inch circular fluorescent lamp in a white reflector with a 100-watt incandescent lamp in the middle. It acts as a ring light, and the mixture of tungsten and fluorescent light gives a pleasing blue color to the background. The blue tint could be eliminated, but in most cases it doesn't affect the more intense colors of the subject, and I like it, so I leave it in. Most of the time, a sheet or two of white letter paper, strategically placed, will offset the shadows produced by the main light. Sometimes, however, more light is required to illuminate light hogs such as black bellows. In such cases, I aim a gooseneck lamp, with a forty or a 60-watt bulb, at the dark areas. I often feather this lamp by turning it so that only a portion of its light falls onto the subject. I place the main light directly in front of and a little above the subject camera. Light reflected up from the background paper softens the shadows underneath the lens and shutter. It's important to check for glare at this point. Oftentimes, moving the main light slightly will eliminate glare. If you're using a digital camera, check the LCD for hot spots. They are usually easier to spot on the screen than by direct observation.
Composition
I like to place the subject camera at a forty-five degree angle. This does two things. It allows as much of the camera as possible to be shown in the photo, and it forms and angular line which leads the eye into the picture. In some cases, a small object placed underneath the subject camera, far enough back that it can't be seen, lifts the front of the camera enough to give a better view of the lens and shutter. Shots composed so that the subject nearly fills the frame produce the best images, especially if they are to be printed. Of course, if I shot all of my photos the same way I'd die of boredom. It's worthwhile to experiment with camera angles, lighting, and such. Sometimes some of the best discoveries are made by accident.
Shooting Technique
Depth of field can be very short when shooting at close distances. Small apertures work best here. Shooting at the shortest focal length possible lets you take advantage of the increased depth of field yielded by a wide angle lens. Sometimes however, you have to back off to prevent distortion and tighten up the shot with the zoom. I usually set my camera to aperture preferred mode and set if around f-8. This gives me enough depth of field to have the subject completely in focus. Using the self timer to trigger the camera prevents camera shake during exposure. The ISO default on my camera of choice - a Canon G1 Powershot- Is 50. Raising it to ISO 100 still produces crisp images and allows shorter exposures. Here's a sample of the results using this simple setup.
With these tips and a little make-do ingenuity of your own, you can
make excellent photos of your prized cameras with ease. This article by
no means tells all there is to know about tabletop photography, nor do
I pretend to know it all. I'm just sharing with you a few of the things
that work for me.
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