[meteorite-list] Meteorite Photography (Must read!)

From: Erik Fisler <erikfwebb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:51:56 -0700
Message-ID: <COL119-W37684B9572EEC15D17697DA45E0_at_phx.gbl>

I'd like to share some photography tips with list members that might help with photographing your meteorites.

? The first thing I would like to share is a silver reflector.
here are some pictures:
- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Photographing_a_model_1.jpg/260px-Photographing_a_model_1.jpg

- http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2673/3843207418_17bd3e73bf_m.jpg
?? Mainly used in portrait photography but works great for meteorites.? It is used to reflect soft light onto the subject(meteorite).? I use it to fill in the shadows because sunlight can make highlights and shadows harsh.?
I have a 5-in-1 reflector made by promaster.? They usually run about $35 because you are paying for 4 different reflectors and a diffusion screen.

The second thing is custom white balancing.? Have you ever taking pictures in the shade or inside and the picture came out way too yellow or too blue?? This is because the auto-white balance on your camera didn't do so well.? Many digital camera's(Most SLR's) have a custom white balance setting.? Just simply hold up a white sheet of paper in the light you will be shooting in and take a picture of it.? Then find custom white balance and select the picture you took of the paper.? Now when you shoot in that light the picture will be properly white balanced.? This is a life saver for Nikon shooters because Nikon has terrible auto white balance.

The third thing is auto-blending.? For those of you who have SLR's you will notice that shooting at a higher F-stop like F1.8 or F2.8 is a lot sharper than shooting at a lower F-stop like F22.? The problem is, you might have to drop your F-stop to make sure the whole meteorite is in focus.? Fortunately, photoshop can take a batch of photos, align them, and then blend the sharpest plains of focus into one picture. To do this set your camera on a tripod and set it to Av(aperature mode) spin the wheel to drop your F-stop to as low as you can get it. Some lenses only drop to F3.5 which is still fine.? Then switch your lens to manual focus.? Focus until just the front part of your meteorite is in focus and take a picture, then keep taking pictures as you change the focus in small increments.? You should end up with 5 to 10 pictures with different parts of the meteorite in focus.? Open photoshop and the go File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack... Select all of the photos and be sure to check the box that says "Attemp
t To Automatically Align Source Images. Select ok and let photoshop align the images.? Then go under the tab "Window" and make sure "Layers" has a check next to it.? The layers box should be on the right side of your screen. All the pictures will be listed under layers. Select them all.? You can do this by holding ctrl key and clicking each one or click the first, then holding shift as you click the last.? Once they are all selected go to the "Edit" tab and select "Autoblend layers" and choose to autblend them as a stack.
Once it is done blending you need to click "Save as" and save it as a Jpeg because it will try to save it as something else.? Then close out of the image in photo shop, if it asks you if you want to save click NO.? Then you can open up the jpeg version you saved and edit it how you like (brightness/contrast etc..) or leave it as is.
Here is an example i made with only 5 pictures blended:
http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e145/phxerik/?action=view&current=blended.jpg

The fourth thing is highlight tone priority.? You can enable this in your custom functions for canon shooters.? I know Nikon has the setting but I don't know what it's called.
This setting will make sure that your picture's highlights will not be blown out.? It also allows your processor to use all its bits.? My camera's have 14bit processors but if Highlight tone priority is off the image only processes at 10 bits.? When i use HTP and get the full 14bits, this allows my picture to smooth out the changes in light to dark in my photos.? This makes everything shaded better, especially clouds!

The fourth and last thing is HDR photography(High Dynamic Range). You do not need a SLR to do this. Most point and shoot cameras can do this too! Sometimes a picture can be too dark in one part and too light in another.
If you take one picture over exposed, one under exposed, and one properly exposed and blend them together it will allow all parts of your picture to be properly exposed.?
Here is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmueller/2158395487/
an here is the link on how to do it: http://abduzeedo.com/how-create-hdr-photos-hdrphotomatix-tutorial

Enjoy!



                                               
Received on Tue 26 Jan 2010 03:51:56 PM PST