Photographing Equipment

[BillB]

I'm a complete noob to photography but I've got a decent digital camera now (Nikon CoolPix 5700) and was wondering if anyone here could recommend better ways to photograph equipment in my not-so-well-lit basement home theater?

Thanks,
Bill

[Lord_Magnepan]

Well i usually turn off the flash and use regular small lightning. Here is a pic of my Pathos in the basement.(before using the vacum cleaner )

[JSE]

The key is to get a nice even light source on your subject. Turn off the flash and try and find some lamps, shop lights, etc. Try and set your light source at a 45 degree angle to your piece of equipment. The best scenerio would be to have 3 lights. Two set in front at 45 degree angles right and left and one behind out of view to get some back light. This will help even the light out. If possible, try and use soft white bulbs. This will help with the color cast a little. You might even check out Home Depot or Lowes for some cheap clip on style lighting. Stay away from flourescent lights. Of course with digital you can correct bad color cast in photoshop.

JSE

[Feanor]

... and was wondering if anyone here could recommend better ways to photograph equipment in my not-so-well-lit basement home theater?...

I agree with the other posts here: avoid using the built-in flash on your camera. Instead, experiment with some household lighting: floor lamps, desk lamps. Try to raise the height of the light source above the equipment. For extra light, remove the lamp shades. Try to avoiding an overly uniform effect but at the same time, too much light to dark contrast.

Finally, mount you cameria on a tripod (or other supporting surface) and go for an exposure interval that's long enough to capture the shot at the given light level.

Many cameras today compensate for the excessively "warm" coloration of incandesant lighting, or most photo editting software can compensate for this too.

[BillB]

I'll have to dig deeper into the manual to learn about what settings to use. Simply leaving it set to "Auto" triggers the camera to use the flash.

I'm still trying to get my head around all of these camera settings...thanks for everyone's help!

Bill

[JSE]

Not sure about the specific modes on your Nikon, but if possible, set the camera is Aperture Priority mode. Usually "A" on Nikon's command dials/menus. Once in "A" turn off the flash and set your Aperture (F-Stop) to something like F5.6,F8 or F11. In "A" mode, the camera will set the shutter speed for you. In general, lenses are sharpest at the middle apertures like F8 and F11, in general.

JSE