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[OM] How to take proper product pics outside (WB?)

Subject: [OM] How to take proper product pics outside (WB?)
From: Olaf Greve <ogreve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:06:59 +0200
Hi all,

For some research work in the line of Japanese ordnance, I'm currently  
taking pictures of my collection. I use a combination of the regular  
lens-kit lens (from the top of my head that is the 14-45 F3.5-F5.6)  
whenever the object is big enough, and a manually focussed OM Zuiko  
50/3.5 macro for the small stuff.

Back in the film days, for this I had printed some A3 sized papers  
with an 18% grey tone, so as to be able to take a spot reading on that  
grey background, focus the object in question and then take the picture.

Now, with this digital stuff I have come across some issues with all  
of this, and I would like to know what the best way is to get good  
pictures.

What I have learnt already, is that the WB setting doesn't always work  
as expected. A while ago I had an eye-opener as to just how the 'Auto'  
setting is interpreted. Ever since, tweaks have been made, and results  
have improved dramatically, yet, I think they could be better still.

Here's what I do, and where I have doubts:

As the objects in question (i.e. mainly shell casings and projectiles)  
are often made of (shiny) brass, I do not use a flash. Instead, I take  
pictures outside, on an overcast day, without a flash.
I have my camera (E-500) forced to not use the flash, and the WB is  
set to the 'cloud' icon (6000K, I think), which I guess means  
'overcast day'. The picture quality is set to the highest JPEG quality  
(i.e. not the 'raw' format). As a backdrop (and here I think the main  
difference between film and digital may be rearing it's head!), I use  
the same A3 18% grey papers. With AF lenses, I just directly focus on  
the object in question and take the light reading averaged metered  
(with the pattern that measures all over the place), as I find spot  
readings don't work easily with the AF mode. I post-process the lot  
using Corel Paint Shop Pro X2. The actions I almost always take are  
first the "one step photo fix" (which most often tends to give a  
better colour balance, but sometimes seems to be off), followd by an  
"unsharp mask". For most of the pictures (say 90-05%), this gives very  
pleasing, tack sharp (sometimes overly sharp) results. However, on  
some shots the colour seems to be off. For some reason some of the  
shiniest brass casings tend to turn really darkish (black, almost)  
particularly after the "one step photo fix" edit.

My theory is that either perhaps in digital cameras, the averaged  
reading throws colours off, or that the backdrop used should be (full)  
white, instead of grey (at least, if the WB is set to overcast, it may  
interpret the 18% grey as white, hence throwing the colours off)....  
But then, these are just my theories....

I have uploaded some examples of this phenomenon, and I hope someone  
can look at them and give me some suggestions for improving my  
strategy, such, that I can do so without manually having to tweak  
levels per picture, and such that I don't have to use the 'raw'  
format. The reasons for the desired speedy process are purely time  
based: lots of stuff to photograph, and little spare time, so I need  
to be able to do it almost at bulk speeds and hence a few quick  
digital processing steps are all I'd like to do on the pictures...

The pictures in question (full size, so as to not mingle them any  
further by down-sizing them):
1: http://www.millennics.com/test/1_raw.jpg : casing 1, as it came out  
of the camera (no edits)
2: http://www.millennics.com/test/1_edit.jpg : casing 1, "one step  
photo fix", "unsharp mask", "cropped", exported with "JPEG optimiser",  
compression set to 15%.
3: http://www.millennics.com/test/2_raw.jpg : casing 2, as it came out  
of the camera (no edits)
4: http://www.millennics.com/test/2_edit.jpg : casing 2, "one step  
photo fix", "unsharp mask", "cropped", exported with "JPEG optimiser",  
compression set to 15%.

In both cases you will see that the end results are far more pleasing  
than the unedited version, in terms of sharpness, but also, in both  
cases a considerable darkening can be seen. Particularly the bottom  
part of casing 1 has gone much darker, blackish almost....

Are these about the best results achievable, or can anyone give me  
some pointers for improvement?

Thanks in advance, and cheers!
Olafo
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