Chip Photography Thread (3 Viewers)

[MilouPilou1]

You are on the right track, but your images are not sharp. Are you using a tripod or something else to keep your camera from moving while the shutter is open? I am guessing no. Once you come up with a way to keep your camera from moving, use the same set up and you should get some excellent results.

Thanks for your input and you're guessing right about tripod, but will definitely dig that idea! Thanks!

I also made a "focus" on the central chip (by tapping once on the screen before shooting), that could make the rest blurred. Any toughts? Bad idea?

 

[gopherblue]

A tripod would definitely help (use the 2-second self timer to eliminate any shake from when you press the shutter). Also, regarding blurriness, make sure your depth of field isn’t too shallow. Wider apertures bring in more light, but have shallower depth of field (I.e., range of distances that will be in focus).

 

[Nanook]

A tripod would definitely help (use the 2-second self timer to eliminate any shake from when you press the shutter). Also, regarding blurriness, make sure your depth of field isn’t too shallow. Wider apertures bring in more light, but have shallower depth of field (I.e., range of distances that will be in focus).

Your advice is spot on, but he says that he has "zero experience" and a "basic model phone" so a few thoughts about that. He may not know anything about how depth of field works and is related to aperture etc and also using a phone camera may not have the capability or knowledge to control that. The 2 second timer can be really helpful too.

@MilouPilou1
I like your idea of using indirect light via the sky light and your set up location is good so you can take the photo directly overhead without getting in the way of your light source. Your set up is basically a free light box, which works great, but there isn't a lot of light so the camera lens needs to stay open long enough to compensate for that and this results in the camera needing to be extremely steady in order to avoid the blurriness you are getting. The tripod and timer will fix this. As a substitute for a tripod you could also set the camera on something. I'm not sure how, but if you are clever you might be able to set some sort of table or shelf in a way that makes positioning a camera on the edge possible, idk.. You will want the camera lens to be directly over the chips so the distance from the lens to all the chips is the same. This is the part that might be difficult without the tripod.

As far as tapping the screen on where you want it to focus: That may or may not be helpful. There is a lot of electronic wizardry going on inside your phone camera that does not take place with a traditional camera and judging by your level of experience, which you admitted was basically zero, you don't really know what your phone is doing and probably don't know how to make it do what is ideal for the situation. In any case, you can experiment with this, but if I were you and I had the equipment you currently have I would 1st try skipping that. Try to position your camera/phone directly over the chips so they are all the same distance from your lens. If you can do that and keep your camera steady, you should be good to go.

 

[MilouPilou1]

Thank you very much for all these precious advices, I will keep on experimenting and will share the progress!

 

[Poker Zombie]

Your advice is spot on, but he says that he has "zero experience" and a "basic model phone" so a few thoughts about that. He may not know anything about how depth of field works and is related to aperture etc and also using a phone camera may not have the capability or knowledge to control that. The 2 second timer can be really helpful too.

I guess it depends on how "basic" a phone camera he has. My old Samsung (bought in 2017) had a "pro mode" on the camera, which allowed a number of functions, including F-stop, shutter speeds, and ISO. Gopher's info might be enough for even a rank amateur to be able to experiment.

Nice thing about digital - it costs nothing to experiment. To think of the wads of film I burned through experimenting in my youth

 

[Nanook]

I guess it depends on how "basic" a phone camera he has. My old Samsung (bought in 2017) had a "pro mode" on the camera, which allowed a number of functions, including F-stop, shutter speeds, and ISO. Gopher's info might be enough for even a rank amateur to be able to experiment.

Nice thing about digital - it costs nothing to experiment. To think of the wads of film I burned through experimenting in my youth

Very true, but considering he knows nothing about photography all that f-stop mumbo jumbo is going to be confusing at best.. I am aware that most phone cameras have some sort of pro-mode where you can control a lot of things. For you and me that would be pretty straight forward to get to the point of getting decent pics, but for lots of people the only thing they know how to do is point and push. lol

by all means, if you want to get into the pro-mode and experiment, then have at it. There is a thread here somewhere where I tried to help someone through the process of learning about how a camera actually works and teaching about the relationship between Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO & a few other things like focus, depth of field etc and it was a disaster. Took the guy like 4 months just to get a pic of a chip that wasn't completely out of focus.

 

[kaida]

In another life, I was an amateur sports photographer. This thread got me wondering if I could use my big glass to take chip photography. Unfortunately, the minimum focus distance on my big primes don't lend well to taking chip pics. My 100-400mm, had a decent MFD to take close-ups:

Since I had already brought out the 400mm, figured I'd take a couple fun pics.

I'm going to dig out my strobe and softbox when I get some time. Time to shop for a macro lens. (and more chips to take pics of )

 

[BarrieJ3]

I went to search if there was a thread before starting one and here it is! It's fantastic, but honestly beyond the lighting most of it goes beyond what I'm trying to do.

@horseshoez any thought to editing the OP or perhaps creating a FAQ? I think something that would be insanely helpful along with the lighting, devices, etc. is the tips, tricks, and tools for all the users utilizing their mobile device for photos.

I've seen a ton of tips on how to nab the photos, properly saving, best apps/tools, editing applications, etc. that are all easily done for amazing photos from a modern phone.

@JeepologyOffroad and @Windwalker come to mind as I've seen countless mentions of how they capture something, but I'm having trouble finding those individual comments.

 

[mns99]

This photo studio made with what we had on hand.
To capture the chip face, the photo was taken from an overhead setting.

The card behind the green background sheet is a gray card (18% reflector).
Used for calibration by RAW manipulation tools.

Left chip is photo taken before (for avatar), Right chip is photo taken by this studio and calibrate by RawTherapee.
Right photo is a little dark because I prioritized color reproduction.

Accurate proofing requires paulson's color samples and color cards, both of which are expensive.

 

[stumc51]

Wow, some amazing pictures here