Need Help With Nikon D60

[texasfootball21]

I am using a Nikon D60 camera to take the photos of my pens.

My current setup is a card board box with the right and left side cut out and replaced with white paper towels that allow light through. I have a couple of lamps with CF bulbs pointing at both sides. The top of the box and the background is white poster board.

I have been trying to get my white balance correct and am having trouble adjusting it. I can go into the camera and select an option that lets me take a picture of a white piece of paper to set my white balance. Problem is, whenever I take a picture of the white the camera says that it cannot measure white balance. The one time that IT DID measure the white balance was when the flash came on. How do you manually turn the flash on?

Also, can someone help me out with adjusting depth of field?

Thanks.

 

[stolicky]

Hum? I have a Canon, so I'll will offer advice from what I know. Maybe you should buy a Canon..? : )

No, really, Nikons are good cameras. I know that setting a custom white balance involved setting the grey level, not actually white as it suggests. The ideal thing to do is to shoot something that is exactly 18% Kodak grey, and use it as the reference. Now, I am no where near that precise. I will actually take a shot of the area zoomed in (if you are using a zoom) on manual focus. Blurry is fine. You should not use an 'auto' mode for this - this is why your flash would want to pop up. Simply set the custom WB to that image. It usually works fine for me.

As far as DOF - I think its a preference thing. I wouldn't do anything shallow as you want the whole pen in focus. However, if you have a distracting background, you probably don't want that in focus. Canon has an "Av" mode where you can manual set the DOF. I would suggest use the Nikon equivalent and set it to at least 4.0, even up to 11 or so. Try different values. Just use a tripod and don't worry too much about shutter speed.

Good luck.

 

[texasfootball21]

Thanks, that cleared a lot of it up. I will go give it a shot.

 

[NewLondon88]

My current setup is a card board box with the right and left side cut out and replaced with white paper towels that allow light through. I have a couple of lamps with CF bulbs pointing at both sides. The top of the box and the background is white poster board.

I think that with this setup, it will always be difficult to get a white balance,
but also it will be difficult to get much depth of field. The CF lamps have a
fairly low color temp (3500K would be generous) and you're looking for something
in the 5500K range. Beyond that, you'd need the camera to compensate
in some way (white balance) but you need plenty of light to do that.
At the distance we're talking about, you'd be lucky to get around 900 lux
from the CF lamps. By contrast, the flash on your camera may provide
10,000 to 20,000 lux at that distance.

In order to get any sort of depth of field, you need plenty of light, and it
doesn't sound like these lamps will provide enough. The depth of field is
changed by adjusting the aperture of the lens. With low light, you may not
be able to do that and still get an exposure.

You'd also be surprised how much light those paper towels will suck up!

 

[Rick1708]

I have the D40. Haven't set the white balance for a tent, but have done it for other pictures. I know that you need to have a "properly exposed" picture in order set the white balance. Otherwise you get an error message the it can't be set.

I've heard that you can use the inside of a gray cereal box as a proxy for a gray card. Random comments, hope it helps.

 

[texasfootball21]

I think that with this setup, it will always be difficult to get a white balance,
but also it will be difficult to get much depth of field. The CF lamps have a
fairly low color temp (3500K would be generous) and you're looking for something
in the 5500K range. Beyond that, you'd need the camera to compensate
in some way (white balance) but you need plenty of light to do that.
At the distance we're talking about, you'd be lucky to get around 900 lux
from the CF lamps. By contrast, the flash on your camera may provide
10,000 to 20,000 lux at that distance.

In order to get any sort of depth of field, you need plenty of light, and it
doesn't sound like these lamps will provide enough. The depth of field is
changed by adjusting the aperture of the lens. With low light, you may not
be able to do that and still get an exposure.

You'd also be surprised how much light those paper towels will suck up!

What type of bulb should I be using? I believe you are completely correct about the lighting. What adjustments should be made to the setup?

 

[Rick1708]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think using incandescent might work. Also, you might try something that lets in more light. Thin tissue paper maybe? My rule of thumb is more light the better. Try 150 or 200 watt bulbs. They will put off some heat, but if you don't leave them on too long it should be OK.

 

[texasfootball21]

I have the D40. Haven't set the white balance for a tent, but have done it for other pictures. I know that you need to have a "properly exposed" picture in order set the white balance. Otherwise you get an error message the it can't be set.

I've heard that you can use the inside of a gray cereal box as a proxy for a gray card. Random comments, hope it helps.

I was having a lot of problems with this. Only way to fix it was to put on the flash, guess I need more light. Thanks.

I'll give the thin tissue paper a shot, hopefully that will make a difference. And I'll have to pick up some new bulbs. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[captainbg]

I am far from any expert on photo tents, but my brother is and he had me set up a tent made out a cheap shower curtain attached to a wood frame and using high output CF bulbs. It seemed to work ok until I got a commeercial tent, which I THINK is better. For what its worth...

 

[NewLondon88]

What type of bulb should I be using? I believe you are completely correct about the lighting. What adjustments should be made to the setup?

I think that using some type of diffuser that doesn't absorb as much light as
the paper towels will help. Brighter (or more) lights will also help.

The D60 also has manual controls, so it will let you choose the aperture and
shutter speed on your own. A smaller aperture (higher number) will give
you more depth of field, (but less light coming in) and a longer shutter speed
will let you leave the shutter open longer (meaning more light coming in)
You'll need to play with these .. one setting at a time.. so you can see
what you're getting. The nice part about digital is there's no waste. When
a shot doesn't work, delete it, change a setting and try it again.

So .. more lights ..brighter lights.. less blocking of lights.. all of those
will help get enough light on the subject to do what you want to do.
Beyond that, go manual and play. Once you get the depth of field and
exposure you want, you can do some post processing in an editing program.

 

[stolicky]

I believe the 'ideal' light temperature color is around 5000k-5500k. However, lighting is rarely that perfect. That is why many cameras have the custom WB feature. It allows you to adjust the camera's processor to adjust for the lighting in a given situation. Yes, the further away you are from that 5000k-5500k value, the more difficult it is. Lower is generally more warm (orangeish) and higher is more colder (blueish). With that said, I have rooms in my house that have color temps below 3000k (soft white incandescent bulbs) and I simply take a shot of the ceiling on manual focus, where there is no direct light. I then set the WB to that image and it usually works fine. Yes, the shutter speed do end up being lower in that situation.

For light tents, having something translucent (i.e. white sheet of sorts) between the light source and the object will help to diffuse the light a bit. Another thing you can do is to use a diffuser on a flash to get more light. Just set the WB using it, and continue to use it.