Old machine photos

From: Feldman, Robert <Robert_Feldman_at_jdedwards.com>
Date: Mon Jan 13 08:47:47 2003

Foil, or any metallic reflector, can produce hot spots. A large piece of
white poster board works better.

A trick for photographing reflective surfaces is to use a black sheet _in
front of_ the subject, and shoot with the lens sticking through a hole in
the sheet. In this way, you don't get your own reflection in the picture.
Hair spray also works, but might be hard to clean off. Spray laundry starch
might also work, but I haven't tried it.

Watch for glare off chip surfaces, which can make part numbers unreadable.
The trick is to have the light coming in at an angle that does not reflect
into the lens. A common setup is two (or 4) lights, one on either side, at a
45 degree angle (with the camera perpendicular to the subject). In this way,
the fall-off from the light on one side is balanced by the opposite fall-off
of the light on the other side, so the illumination is even across the
subject.

For 3D objects, it is customary to have the (brightest) light coming from
the upper left, so the shadows are on the lower right.

Sean's last comment is a good one -- keep taking pictures until you get good
ones. The only added cost is in your time, but then why take the time to
produce a poor picture?

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner [mailto:spc_at_conman.org]
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 10:03 PM
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Old machine photos

> <snip> The goal is to light the computer well and
> eliminate glare - especially on screens.

  A large piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil makes a good
reflector, and to reduce glare on monitors you may want to try hairspray.
Professional photographers use it to reduce glare on glasses so it might be
worth trying on a monitor if you don't think it'll hurt it.

<snip>
  If it's a digital camera, go wild with the pictures. Take lots of
pictures; more than you think you need. Then select the best from the lot.
Why not? It's not like you have to pay for developing the pictures.

  -spc (Go for quantity, then select for quality ... )
Received on Mon Jan 13 2003 - 08:47:47 GMT