What Makes a Good Photo for Model Engineers' Workshop

Can I start by saying this thread is NOT about photographing models; that is a different issue and a bigger challenge which demands very high standards. My hope here is to start a discussion that might see more really good photos accompanying MEW articles.

My main problem, and I can't get away from it, is that most photos I get are going to show a grey or yellow lump of metal in a grey, green or yellow machine. We can't do a lot about this.

Here are some of the issues:

What to show

The finished article - you won't believe how many articles fail to include one good, clutter-free image that shows the item the article is about. Such a picture is ideal for heading up an article and something similar at the end of a longer article helps as well.

Most of our pictures show the steps in making something. I think that too often people show a machining operation that doesn't really tell much more than 'I drilled hole'. The best practical photos demonstrate a setup, a choice of tool or even any special features of the workpiece.

How to put things together - a good photo can really help with interpreting drawings, usually better than a description in words. A general arrangement or assembly drawing is useful, even for simple items and I wish more folks would supply these.

Photos that show the author at work; I know CNC machines work on their own but reading MEW you get the impression that even spanners work themselves. Even a pair of hands reminds us that this is work done by real people. It's not necessary to coat yourself head to toe in safety gear for a working photo, but do try and remember to use any essential gear such as guards or goggles, even in a posed shot.

What not to show

Clutter, especially fussy backgrounds. One no-no is photographing things on a magazine or sheet of newspaper - this may well be a practical way to work but the subject matter can get lost in the detail. A big sheet of card or plywood is safer to prop up behind moving machinery than a dust-sheet and usually looks better.

Trailing wires, keys in chucks (yes I have missed these, especially when in the background), dodgy chemicals - basically try not to have any obvious hazards in your images, be a good example to beginners.

Too much - if you find you have to keep referring to the same photo to make a number of points, would it be better and clearer to use a few closeups instead?

Repetitive images - sometimes you do need to have two or more pictures that look essentially the same, but often they are redundant. Perhaps you can vary the perspective or framing in different shots to make the photos more interesting.

Taking the photo

Focus - trust autofocus, it will do a better job than 99% of humans! Check each photo as you take it for framing and focus, it can be near impossible to go back and recreate a shot that goes wrong.

Try and use diffused light, hard shadows may make striking pictures but are usually unwanted in practical pictures. In simple terms the more light sources you have, the less harsh the shadows will be.

Don't use flash - or if you do, try bouncing it off the ceiling or having a reflector (a sheet of white card is good) to help fill in the shadow.

Use a tripod - 99 times out of a hundred your photo will be better if you can support the camera, even by placing it on a cushion or beanbag.

Make sure the white balance is set correctly. These days most cameras have an auto white balance setting that will get close enough to allow our retoucher to get good colour in the image. If you use any other setting, make sure its the right one - I sometimes get very yellow or green photos clearly taken indoors with the camera left set on 'sunlight'.

Retouching and cropping - I won't give an absolute ban on this, but PLEASE never crop tight to a subject and try not to change the colour balance or contrast. We have a professional retoucher who needs as much of the original picture data as possible to get the best results. (Interesting point - pictures retouched for printing can look awful on my monitor but come out fine when printed).

Cover Shots

I am always on the lookout for excellent cover shots, as these make the magazine stand out on the shelves. These are the things that I think make the better cover images:

• Clear and sharp
• An interesting subject that can be identified at a distance
• Interesting light or motion
• A human being, usually with their attention focused on something in the image.
• Good strong colours

I could add lots of technical points, but I won't unless they come up. Please let me know what you like and don't like to see.

Neil

Nice article Neil.

Hi Neil,

I currently don't subscribe as it's beyond my means, but if I may suggest, I think this thread would make a good article in itself, showing a few different setups in the workshop, lighting, camera angle, lens's used etc.

Ed.

Hi Neil, You forgot to sat what file size you are after for these pictures and what type of file, do you want jpeg, tiff, raw. Modern digital cameras are very forgiving in the lighting dept. but quite a few pictures in model magazines are spoilt by poor or no lighting. In the days of film photo you would need to think about the lighting to produce a good shot for reproduction and use studio flash. Thinks are easy now but adding a few lights does help with the dark corners and the more light helps to keep the shutter speed up, less camera shake and more depth of field.

"I could add lots of technical points, but I won't unless they come up."

But as you ask:

The BEST way to send images is as jpegs taken with the camera on 'high' quality setting and maximum resolution or 10 megapixels. Greater resolution is not worth it as 7 megapixels will fill an A4 sheet at 300 dpi.

It is very unlikely that any modern camera or phone won't be able to take images of a size and quality we can use.

There is no practical advantage in sending TIFF or RAW as modern cameras have plenty of memory and don't compress the images enough to cause us practical issues (we aren't Vogue). I use RAW for my astrophotography where I am using extreme processing to extract detail, but always use JPEG for MEW.

Because of filesize limitations on transfers, I will convert TIFFs and PNG files to JPEG before sending them to the designer anyway.

We prefer it if images are uncropped, unretouched and unresampled. We have professional retouchers and the contributor can't know how we will wish to frame and arrange the image, what scale we will use it at or how we need to adjust the colour for printing. Leaving the image alone gives us the maximum potential to make adjustments without losing quality.

If essential you can crop images but remove as little as possible.

Experienced image processors may know a few tricks they can get away with before sending the images in; if you don't know what these are, you shouldn't use them

If you need to scan images from slides or transparencies use a high-quality scanner at a minimum of 1000 dpi ideally higher.

If you need to scan prints, it is hard to get usable quality, but aim for the best you can and ideally at least 600 dpi.

If you have to send prints, you can, but be aware we may not get very good results, especially if they are reprints.

Do not send in digital prints made on your own computer. These are almost never usable as by the time they have been scanned in they have lost too much detail/quality.

The easiest way to get images to me is as email attachments (10Mb max per email, aim for 8Mb to be on the safe side) but note that Apple Mail will normally embed the images, possibly compressing them and always stripping the file names. Apple Mail users should therefore put images in a zip folder before attaching them.

If an email is too big, it will bounce and I won't get a notification. This usually means a week later you send me an email saying 'why haven't you acknowledged those photos I sent you?'

The ideal ways to get large quantities of images to me are Dropbox and Google Pictures. If using Dropbox use the share a link function that allows non-dropbox users to access the images. You can use wetransfer as well, but this doesn't allow online preview of the content.

I am also happy to receive images on CD/DVD or USB stick. I don't return CD/DVDs but I will post USB sticks back.

The biggest problems I have with submitted images are:

Images embedded in PDFs or word processed documents. These are almost always unusable or have to be used at a very small size. You will get a request to re-send them as jpegs.

Over-cropped images. We do our best with these.

Images with a time/date stamp in the corner. Again we have to crop these out.

Poor quality scans. Not much we can do with these.

Grainy digital prints, worst of all on plain copier paper. We will ask for the original jpegs, if you still have them.

Images edited to include annotations. We will almost always need a 'clean' copy - if you want an annotated image send two versions, one with and one without the notes on it.

Well, you did ask!

Neil

NO!...Don't just "trust" auto focus!.......place the cursor over an edge that is roughly in halfway thru the subject area then half press the shutter button HALFWAY DOWN and look for the amall symbol that tells you focus is 'locked' then push all the way to take the pic....Always allow 'follow thru' like a shooter to let the shutter do it's stuff before you move camera.......Now check the file on the computer screen if possible to make sure that you have got 'front to back' sharpness.

............It helps to use 'A' settign on the camera (aperture priority) and twiddle the knob until it reads 'f8' as this gives good 'depth of field'...ie zone of focus.....

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 05/10/2016 15:55:04

If I was to go back inside and check each photo on the 'puter after having faffed about with settings on the camera I would never get anything made.

Point and shoot seems to work OK for me and never get any complaints about the couple of hundread photos I usually post in a build thread.

J

Yes, but with respect Jason, that's why Neil started this topic!....snapping progress pix with your phone or pocket cam is one thing but when it's illustrations for articles you need to be better organised and many people here have computers in their workshops ....it takes but a few moments to check something that is actually quite important for an article.

These so called snaps that I take HAVE been used in articles, two in last months MEW for example

Edited By JasonB on 05/10/2016 18:23:15

If using a phone for photos, most of them have a function that you can touch the screen on the exact spot that's most important part of the photo, then it will focus and meter the light on that spot. This is important if you have, say, a very dark or light background, you don't want the camera taking an average meter reading of the whole scene. Then the important bit ends up too bright or too dark.

It's similar to using a camera where you can hold the shutter release button halfway to meter and focus on the spot, and then move the camera if necessary to frame the shot, before fully pressing the shutter.

.

Do you want a cover pic.?

I was thinking of one of me naked (except for safety goggles of course) operating either my lathe or mill. The goggles could even be ones like Steam punks wear to fit in with that other thread on here.

I feel confident if I get my SLR out I can produce a sharp, well 'exposed' and composed snap to grace your front cover.

Nick

I think H&S requirements would mean you had to use one of these:

Yep, those hot chips get everywhere

I'm not sure why you should need to put the images onto a computer to check them, unless you have a very old camera.

Neil

I am with Neil on the focus issue - stick to auto and use it sensibly.

This is my experience of running a website and people sending photos. The more expensive the camera, the less likely the photos will be in focus - the operator is more likely to think they are clever than the auto and get it wrong.

Also take the point about other stuff in the background - sometimes nearly as important as the subject.

Who could recommend a decent budget camera to photograph workshop stuff?

Michael W

Most phones do a reasonable job.

What do you call "budget" ?

.

Got to disagree with you on that one.

Nick

.

I agree, in the workshop I use an iPhone if it's in my pocket or a Canon G16 compact that is kept in the workshop.

But for my intended 'nude in the workshop' project for Neil I will use an SLR. 

Nick

Edited By Nick_G on 08/10/2016 17:09:52

Like £50?