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How To Take better pics of your vape gear - part 2

pauly meatballs

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Hi guys, just a quick follow up to my last vid:





Today we'll be looking at lighting and I'll share my favourite way to light a vape-pic.
It's a quick and easy way to turn...


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In the last vid we saw what kind of pics can be taken with an old camera phone.
The pics in this thread (from this point on) were taken with my regular camera,
the panasonic DMC-F5 ultra compact (pictured above). This cost me £40 from tescos.


OK, you've set up your shot with an infinity sweep (for details see vid above)
but how to light it?
How about in a room with normal household lights?


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Not great eh? The detail is there we've got some nasty big shadows and the piece just looks a bit lifeless.


How about with natural light dead on? (with the light directly hitting the front of your shot)


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Not great either, the shadows are gone but the piece looks totally flat.
If the sun were brighter the flat washed-out effect would be more pronounced but the weather refuses to co-operate with my tutorial!


OK, so how about on a windowsill with the sunlight coming from one side only?


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Better, the shot looks more interesting but the left hand side of the piece is in shadow.
To remedy this we'll employ my favourite piece of photography hardware, the piece of A4 white paper!
Just hold it up to the left of the shot and reflect the sunlight back onto the piece:


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That'll do nicely. There we have a perfectly acceptable vape-pic taken with an inexpensive compact camera using
a windowsill and a few pieces of A4 paper. Simples.


While we're talking about light let's look at a couple of old pics to see how much light is too much.
The following pic was taken using the technique above on a very sunny day:


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I rather like this pic but technically it's not great, it's too bright and we've lost detail.
A quick and easy way to remedy this is to employ....you guessed it! Another piece of plain white paper!
Just tape a piece to the window where the light is coming from and you'll diffuse that harsh sunlight, spreading
the light nicely over your shot:


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Thanks for reading everyone!
Guys, that's me done, I've emptied my very small bag of tricks. If anyone else has more tips or tricks to share with us
(preferably not too technical) to improve our vape-pics I for one would love to hear them!


Have a great day,
Paul


P.S.


Want an even quicker and easier way to light a pic? Why not just take it outside?


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Just to add to what is an excellent post, you can make very useable cheap and easy reflectors with any white material, the OP has mentioned using white card but you can also wrap the card in tin foil for an even brighter reflector. If you don't want reflections then you're forced to use a polariser which will eliminate them - think shiny cars in magazines without reflections in the windows :)
 
A good little thread for people @pauly meatballs If you do not mind me mentioning, once you have done all your editing it pays a lot of the time to reduce the pic down to 1024 on the longest side,then give this a final sharpen if whatever software you use allows.Then reduce down again to your final size but you can keep it at 1024 if you wish. Hosting an image up on Photobucket for example and then linking it to a forum does tend to degrade it slightly,so this compensates for it. Also worth considering if you take quite a few shots of your kit is a cheap lightbox
 
A good little thread for people @pauly meatballs If you do not mind me mentioning, once you have done all your editing it pays a lot of the time to reduce the pic down to 1024 on the longest side,then give this a final sharpen if whatever software you use allows.Then reduce down again to your final size but you can keep it at 1024 if you wish. Hosting an image up on Photobucket for example and then linking it to a forum does tend to degrade it slightly,so this compensates for it. Also worth considering if you take quite a few shots of your kit is a cheap lightbox

Thanks Rich! Any tips welcome mate. I tried a lightbox but didn't really get on with it - user error no doubt!
I've never used the sharpen tool on the photo software, would you advise it?
 
Thanks Rich! Any tips welcome mate. I tried a lightbox but didn't really get on with it - user error no doubt!
I've never used the sharpen tool on the photo software, would you advise it?

If you have a sharpen facility then try it and see for yourself M8. Having done a bit of photography in the past like many others and those that still do it,it is easy to look at a pic and see it for it`s merits and it`s faults. We even criticise our own work but it is how a lot of people learnt. We all have different eysight, some use monitors that are calibrated by specific hardware and software and some calibarate their monitors through their graphic card software utility,so we all see things differently.The whole point of your thread is to keep it simple yet still produce good shots,which you have done well. Always happy to answer anything though if I know the answer myself, and I am sure there are plenty of others that can offer advice if needed. If I get five tomorrow I will put an example up and see if you can tell which looks best.
 
Hey pauly meatballs it really is great too see what im sure we can all agree on is some decent shots furthering the point is doesn't matter if you have a point and shoot or a Nikon D4 / Canon 5D.

Its not really the equipment its more so the knowledge :), awesome shots and good understanding of lighting.

You said you're open to suggestions so may I suggest a reflector?

24" *36" Portable Photography Studio Multi Photo Collapsible Reflector 5 in 1 UK | eBay

Just over a fiver delivered (UK based), allow you to diffuse the light easier, bounce back daylight, add a cooling effect light, adding warmth and also acting as a light absorber ;-)

A reflector is my favourite bit of kit, until I wrecked mine the other day -,-

*Edit* when I first watched your Slideshows on Youtube sometime ago, I honestly thought you used a studio and DSLR

Sent From Within A Plume Of Mofucking Vapor, Boo Yaa
 
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