Full-Frame vs. Crop-Sensor Cameras for Macro Photography

by Marie Gardiner

It’s a long-discussed topic: full-frame or crop-sensor camera, which is best? Well, there are a number of variables to consider, and some might surprise you! In this article I’ll look at some of the key ones and how they benefit (or don’t!) macro photography.

What is Full-Frame?

Long before digital cameras came along, most popular film SLR cameras captured an image that was 36mm by 24mm. When digital cameras were invented it just wasn’t very affordable to give the camera a sensor of that size, so they made a smaller version. This smaller image-capture area became known as a "crop-sensor" camera, and the old standard 35mm format became "full-frame."

Nikon has two sensor sizes: full-frame (marked with an FX) and crop (DX); and Canon has three: full-frame, 1.3x and 1.6x

For demonstration purposes in this article, I’ll use the Nikon D800 (FX) and Nikon D90 (DX) and specify the lens used for each picture.

Same Lens, Different Image

If you think about putting the same lens on both a full-frame and a crop-sensor camera, the results would obviously differ. The crop-sensor would appear ‘larger’; that is, more magnified. I say appear larger because it’s not actually magnified, the field of view is just restricted. When you display the full and crop images at the same size (as below) you get a cropped-in view with the smaller sensor.

D800 (left) and D90 (right) with a 12-24mm lens attached.

Full-Frame, Crop-Sensor and Macro Photography

So let’s take a look at how the decision to use a full-frame or crop-sensor camera plays out in macro photography.

Image Quality

Sensors consist of light gathering spots called photosites. Understanding the difference between a photosite and a pixel fuses my brain, but the best way I’ve seen it expressed is this: ‘photosite is to sensor as pixel is to picture’. The photosite collects light, which creates an electrical signal. An analogue-to-digital converter takes that electrical signal and turns it into a digital value (or a bit of math, in other words) that represents the amount of light that hit each photosite. We call this value a pixel. So, you can think about a photosite in terms of the amount of light captured on your sensor and a pixel in terms of what you view as the output (the picture).

A camera with a larger sensor can take on more light—more information—which is why full-frame cameras usually take better quality images than crops. If two cameras have the same amount of photosites but two different sensor sizes, the one with the larger sensor usually produces better pictures. 

Low Light Performance

As described above, a larger sensor generally means better low light performance when using high ISOs (if other variables are the same), and if you’re zooming in to capture a small object (and probably using a large aperture) then that’s a definite boon for macro.  

Bigger light sensors capture more light so you’ll generate less noise. The photosites are generally larger on a full-frame sensors, too, and that means each photosite can receive more light. More light means less amplification is needed to produce an acceptable image, which in turn means less noise.

Focal Length ‘Magnification’ or Field of View

If a crop-sensor appears to magnify the image, and we know that macro photography is all about close-ups, then this is obviously going to be a distinct advantage. Landscape photographers tend to prefer full frame cameras because you can get wider field of view in the image. Wildlife photographers often prefer a crop sensor as you get a more narrow view out of your lens’ focal length.

D800 with 90mm f/2.8 lens taken at f/8

D90 with 90mm f/2.8 lens at f/8

Here I shot at the same distance, hand-held with roughly the same settings. You can see that the crop appears to get much ‘closer’ to the plant but I think the sharpness to blur ratio of the D800 is much more pleasing. You need to consider that the plant was blowing in the wind for both shots though so it was probably more luck than judgment to get anything in focus!

Depth of Field

This obviously depends what you’re going for. Wider apertures on a full-frame camera provide a much more blurred background than a crop-sensor. This is to do with the focal length, the aperture and the distance you are from the subject: all things that are influenced by which sensor you have. If you’re looking for an artier, shallow depth of field then a full-frame works better for this. If you want everything crisp and in focus then you don’t have to stop down a crop camera as much as you would if you were using full-frame. With macro photography you could be after either look depending on your subject and your personal style.

Weight

Probably one of the least considered options but, in my opinion, one of the most important. Full-frame cameras are naturally bigger than crops and so, heavier. If you shoot macro hand-held as I do then you’ll know how difficult it can be to keep the camera steady at a long focal length, especially if you’re crouching down on the ground at the same time! The weight of the camera can really affect your ability to hold it properly and I find it much easier to compose and shoot quickly with the D90 than the D800.

Lens Compatibility

Using a ‘full frame’ lens on a crop camera is fine, you’ll just see a restricted field of view; again, that apparent ‘magnification’. However, put lens designed for a crop sensor onto a full frame and you’ll get a considerable vignette around the outside, as it just won’t fill the available space. It’s still usable, you’d just need to crop your photo in post-production. It does mean you should consider which lenses you have already and whether they’re compatible with a full frame camera, should you decide to make the switch.

In Summary

It’s easy to think you’re missing out on something if you have a crop-sensor camera rather than a full-frame, but it really depends what you’re using the camera for and how you use it. For macro, consider the following:

• Crop-sensor images appear more magnified due to the restricted field of view
• Full-frame cameras generally handle a higher ISO, and therefore low-light situations, better
• A shallow depth of field is easier to achieve with a full-frame camera
• Crop sensors are much lighter and therefore easier to manoeuvre and keep still
• Lenses made for crop won’t work as intended on full frame

You can take great macro photos with a crop-sensor or a full-frame. One size sensor does not far outperform another for macro photography. But, before making the move to one or the other and buying lenses, consider the benefits and downfalls of each and make informed decisions. If you can, it’s worth borrowing the camera first so that you can try it out, test its weight and see the quality of images you can get with it.

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Working With Light At Night

Being able to control the interplay between light and shadow is a skill that separates great photographers from mere mortals. When it comes to night photography there are so many different light sources to deal with it can be overwhelming for even the seasoned pro.

In my previous tutorial I explored the different subjects you can shoot at night. In this tutorial we'll look at the different sources of light that illuminate these subjects or are light sources themselves.

Challenge and Reward

The first night photography picture that I was truly happy with was a photograph of the Henley Beach jetty taken around sunset. It was primarily the mixture of light sources and the colour in the scene that held my interest. The low-light conditions at twilight, no tripod, and a slow film also made capturing this image quite challenging. I felt as though my efforts had been rewarded, though, when I finally saw the shot after it was processed.

The warm intense colours of the evening sky along with the artificial light sources present elevated this image from its rather average composition.

The mixture of artificial and natural light sources is something that you will have to deal with in many night photography scenarios. Understanding some basic principles about the light in each scene is one of the challenges of this discipline.
There are many different types of light sources and each will have a different colour temperature value. Colour temperature is a method of describing the color properties of light, as either a warm yellow hue or a cool blue hue with a value assigned in Kelvin.

Artificial Lights

Tungsten or incandescent lights have a color temperature value of approximately 3200 Kelvin and are considered to be a "warm" light source. They are a very common form of lighting and are used in many types of applications such as car headlights.
Sodium vapour lights have an even warmer colour temperature of approximately 2500 Kelvin and appear as an orange-coloured light source. They are commonly used in street lighting and industrial applications like factories and shipping yards. Subjects illuminated by sodium vapour lamps are very difficult to colour balance accurately. These are the lights that give cities their characteristic orange glow when seen from a distance.

Sodium vapour lamps illuminate this factory scene. The mix of cool blue light from the sky at twilight compliment the warmer tones of the sodium vapor lights.

Neon or fluorescent lights are another very common form of lighting. They have a colour temperature of around 4000 Kelvin and exhibit a green colour cast. They work by ionizing a gas which then fluoresces, emitting light. They are used in many different lighting applications such as streetlamps and indoor lighting.
Some forms of lighting, such as sodium vapour and fluorescent, flicker at a frequency equivalent to the power supply being used. AC is an acronym for "alternating current" and these types of power supplies alternate phase of this current causing these light sources to rapidly switch on and off.

If a 110 volt power supply is present the frequency of this flickering happens at 60 hertz or 60 cycles a second. Power supplies that output 220 / 240 volt have a frequency of 50 hertz and flicker at 50 cycles a second.
For photography this isn't really an issue but if you are shooting video with these light sources present you will need to synchronise your shutter speed with the frequency of the power supply or artifacts from this flickering can ruin your footage. For 240 volt AC power you need to use 1/50th of a second and for 110 volt systems instead chose 1/60th of a second.

Natural Light

The colour temperature of sunlight varies over time, with cooler values of around 5500 Kelvin at midday when the sun is directly overhead. At sunrise and sunset, when the sun's rays have to pass through a thicker layer of the earths atmosphere, light is refracted towards the red end of the spectrum producing warmer hues.
This effect also happens with moonlight. Warmer colour temperatures occur when the moon is near the horizon. Moonlight is essentially sunlight reflected off the surface of the moon and this light can provide plenty of illumination for landscape images, especially around the time of the full moon.

Starlight can also provide light for landscape or seascape images but light sources this dim require very long exposure times.

The variation in colour temperature between artificial and natural light sources can make getting accurate colour very tricky - especially when you have a mixture of these different light sources in the same photo.

Starlight and the toxic orange glow of a town in the distance co-exist in this single image. The two light sources balance out with the cool tones of the sky complimenting the orange glow of the city.

The above example illustrates why I recommend you shoot using a RAW image format. Recording the raw image data from your camera's sensor allows you to adjust colour balance after the photograph has been taken. If you choose to shoot another image format such as JPEG, your colour is essentially set and it is far more difficult to adjust colour values later.

Twilight

Twilight is one of the best times to take night photographs. It is often referred to as "blue hour" as the sky turns a rich deep blue colour. During this transition period from day to night colour balance shifts dramatically. It can be tricky to choose a colour balance when you try to mix twilight with artificial light sources from a cityscape and deal with a rapidly changing lighting scenario. In this situation shooting RAW will allow greater colour processing flexibility.

This image contains a mixture of artificial and natural light sources and was taken at twilight. By shooting RAW I was able to process colour in Photoshop precisely how I wanted. RAW conversion software allows white balance selection after the image has been captured. If I had elected to shoot this image as a JPEG or TIFF file I would not have had the same flexibility in colour processing.

Film and Digital Media at Night

If you choose to photograph on film you are also limited in your options for colour processing. Film stocks have colour balance incorporated into their chemistry and you choose between different film varieties according to the prevailing lighting conditions. If you choose to use a film stock designed for tungsten lighting in daylight conditions your colour balance will shift towards a cooler tone, making the whole picture appear too blue.
With film you can compensate for colour balance discrepancies to a degree by using colour conversion filters but this is far from a perfect solution. Digital imaging technology offers far more flexibility in colour processing. With digital you also have the benefit of instant feedback and can see your results immediately on the cameras LCD screen. I'll cover the advantages and disadvantages of both technologies in more depth in my next tutorial.
One thing to keep in mind with different colour temperature light sources is that the focus point changes due to the different wavelengths of light. This effect is quite obvious in certain photographic situations like an indoor event such as a concert. If there is a rapid change from a red light source to a blue light source your focus point will shift. If you like to do candid street photography at night this focus shift can make your job more difficult especially if you find yourself in a situation where the light sources are constantly changing such as flashing neon lights.

Conclusion

One of the main difficulties of photographing at night is the infinite variations in colour different light sources create. I try to think of there light sources as a creative challenge, and I encourage you to think that way too: embrace experimentation with night photography subjects, take some risks and see what you end up with. Spend some time exploring these different light sources, especially during the transition period from daylight to night time.
Challenging mixed lighting can usually be overcome by shooting RAW format digital files. Adjusting the colour balance later using your RAW processing software of choice works well in most situations. Don't limit your options - experimentation is the key! When you expose your pictures well you can almost always post-process your photos exactly how you like - adding a unique flavour and individual element to your image making.
See you in the next tutorial! I will be investigating the use of film and digital cameras and the pros and cons of these two different picture-making media.

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Creating The Orton Effect in Photoshop

What You'll Be Creating

The Orton Effect is named after photographer Michael Orton, who attempted to imitate watercolours with his photographs using darkroom techniques. The result is an out-of-focus, highly saturated look with detail around the edges retained. Orton achieved his results using two slides; one in focus and one out. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to achieve the same effect in Photoshop using one image.

Choosing your image

This is the image I’ve chosen to demonstrate the effect:

The original image we'll be working with in this tutorial [photo: Marie Gardiner]

Images with quite muted tones but some colour work well, as do pictures with trees, autumnal scenes and black and white images. Portraits don’t work well with this effect in my experience.

1. Create 'Screen' Layer

Open your image in Photoshop and duplicate your background layer. In the layers tab, change the blending mode from normal to screen.

Change your duplicated layer's blending mode to 'screen'.

I've named my duplicated layer ‘screen’ as that’s what the blending mode for that layer now is. You may wish to name your layer the same thing to make the process easier to follow. You’ll notice this layer has become brighter than our original image.

2. Create 'Multiply' Layer

Duplicate your 'Screen' layer, rename the new layer to 'Multiply' and change the blending mode to Multiply:

Change your new layer's blending mode to 'multiply'.

3. Adjustments

Your image will now be quite dark, so to fix this, create an adjustment layer forlevels: 

Create an adjustment layer for levels.

Then slide your mid-tones, marker left until the brightness looks correct:

Use the middle slider (circled) to adjust the brightness of your mid-tones

Create another adjustment layer, this time saturation, and use the saturation slider to boost your colours slightly. You’re going for an over the top look so don’t be afraid to increase them to the point that they look unnatural.

Increase saturation until colours stand out boldly

4. Blur

Once you’ve made your adjustment layer tweaks, select your 'Multiply' layer again (make sure it’s highlighted) and click Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur

Select Gaussian Blur from your Filters

The settings for your blur will really depend on your image. Drag the slider until you have enough blur but still retain the details you want to keep. For this image, I found about 20px was enough.

Use Gaussian Blur to blur your image whilst retaining edge detail

5. Finishing Touches

Add any finishing touches you think the picture needs (in my case I straightened up the horizon line and made a small crop) and you’ll have your finished image.

Finished image demonstrating the Orton Effect [photo: Marie Gardiner]

Conclusion

Image before and after the Orton Effect was applied in Photoshop [photos: Marie Gardiner]

The Orton Effect is a great way to jazz up mundane shots that you may not have used for anything. It’s also very handy for rescuing an image you like but that isn't in sharp focus. Doing this the non-digital way would be time consuming with no real way to guarantee your results. As a quick Photoshop technique though, it works very well and you can try this on any photo you have without changing the original; getting varied, interesting results every time. 

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5 Ways Night Photographers See the World Differently

What exactly is a night photograph? I define a night photograph as any image taken between dusk and dawn, when the sun is completely below the horizon line. That definition encompasses a huge variety of subjects! In this tutorial we'll explore some of the most popular night photography themes, including: cityscapes, astrophotography, fireworks and lightning. We'll start, however, with how night photographers look the world from a slightly different point of view.

1. Time and Colour are a Canvas

One of the most interesting aspects of night photography is the unpredictable nature of the images you can produce. Unlike many other forms of photography, night photos often don't reveal their secrets until after the exposure is complete.
This unpredictability is, in part, the result of slow shutter speeds: low light conditions at night require exposures of several seconds or longer. Slow shutter speeds allow you to compress a long duration of time into a single frame.
By choosing a long duration exposure you can exaggerate the effects of speed and time. With a long exposure, any moving subject creates motion blur as it moves through the frame. This can lead to some spectacular and surprising results!

A fisheye lens and a long duration shutter exagerate the feeling of speed and motion.

I love the mixture of artificial and natural light in low-light scenes, especially at twilight, and the intensity of colour you can get in night photos. Colours at night are so rich and vibrant they seem to leap out at you from the black of the sky.

2. The City Comes Alive at Night

The most accessible subject for most budding night photographers is the cityscape. While other photographers are sleeping, the city provides a multitude of photo opportunities for you to explore. When I look for potential cityscapes to photograph, I look for a few key aspects: time of day, water, and elevation.

Hong Kong has plenty to offer the night photographer: it is built on a harbour, has some incredible architecture and a variety of interesting subject matter. It also helps that every night at 8 o'clock the world's largest permanent lighting display showcases it's impressive skyline.

The Magic Hour

The best time of day to photograph cityscapes is twilight. At this time of day you often get a rich blue colour present in the sky. You may also get some beautiful warm tones as the sun sets and illuminates the clouds. I also prefer to shoot at dusk as opposed to dawn as there is more activity happening at this time of day.

Water Works

Water reflects and refracts light in interesting ways. The combination of cityscape, water and mixed lighting afford you some great photographic opportunities. If there is water about it is definitely worth considering including it in your compositions.
Cityscapes also look good after rain has fallen. Wet streets, roads and footpaths are highly reflective surfaces that can pick up light and transform an otherwise drab scene.

Climb Up High

Cityscapes can benefit from being photographed from an elevated position, and I often try to find a location where I can photograph the city from up high. If you photograph a city from ground level you will often have unwanted objects obscuring the view. By elevating your position you can separate these individual elements and give them their own space in which to move, such as boats travelling around a harbour, or traffic leaving motion blurred light trails.

I was able to position myself ahead of this electrical storm as it approached but after fifteen minutes I had to seek shelter as it became too dangerous to remain outside.Those lights on the horizon are deep water channel markers.

3. Lightning is Electric

My personal favourite photographic subject is lightning. Capturing nature's spectacular displays can be a frustrating experience, though: there is an element of luck involved in getting good lightning photos. When shooting lightning you have no idea where or when it will appear, so to increase the likelihood of capturing a strike you should use a long duration shutter speed and minimise the gap between shots so the shutter remains open for the majority of time you are taking photos.
Chasing this elusive light show can be addictive but it is also potentially deadly. You must take precautions to minimise the risks to your own well being whilst maximizing your chances of success. Set the camera to run automatically while you take shelter inside a building or car. Better yet, stay as far away from the storm as is practical and use a normal or telephoto lens to zoom into the region of interest where lightning is present. If you have to use a fisheye lens to fit in all of the storm you are probably way too close.
 Lightning can happen anywhere, but it is far more prevalent in areas of high humidity and during the change in seasons. Research the best times for shooting thunderstorms in your local area. Some meteorological websites have web pages dedicated to tracking lightning strikes. By staying vigilant and checking weather reports on a regular basis you can identify when the storms are headed your way so you can set up well in advance.

4. Fireworks Fanatics

Another of my favourite night photography subjects is fireworks. Opportunities to photograph pyrotechnic events usually occur at least a few times a year, especially around holiday celebrations such as new years eve and national days. Large firework displays are high profile events which attract a lot of publicity so it should be easy enough to plan for an upcoming event.
Fireworks displays are usually very crowded so it pays to set up ahead of time to secure a good location. If you arrive before dark you can survey the scene and work out where the fireworks will be concentrated. If the fireworks display is located in a harbour you will need to look out for the launch barges and position yourself accordingly so you can setup your camera to take full advantage of the opportunities that will arise.

5. Surreal Star Gazing

Astrophotography is one area of night photography that requires specialised camera equipment to make more complex shots. You can, however, start off by doing basic star trail photos or wide-field astrophotography with an entry level camera, tripod and a fast lens.
To increase your chances of success photographing the night sky you must leave the confines of the city behind. Light pollution from the city makes it impossible to get a good image from the night sky in a large radius. You should get as far away from major population centers as possible; at least 150 kilometres from the closest town is recommended. Remote deserts and areas of high altitude are the best places to take advantage of a lack of atmospheric and light pollution.
Star trail images generally require long exposure times and this is one instance where film cameras can offer an advantage. A mechanical film camera doesn't require battery power to activate the shutter and you can leave it open for hours at a time. Digital cameras, on the other hand, need power to operate the shutter for extended duration. If you are in remote areas and don't have access to AC power or solar panels to recharge your batteries film cameras are the way to go.
You can use artificial light sources, starlight, moonlight and the residual light left by the sun during twilight to take landscape photos at night. Some of these light sources, however, are very faint and may require very long shutter speeds and a fast lens to get good results. By combining different sources of light with natural landscapes you can produce beautiful images with a surreal quality.
You can also take your own light source with you and paint the scene you are photographing with light. Using a torch or even the light from your phone as a source of illumination can create striking images that are completely unique.

See the World Differently

Night photography is a fascinating area of photography, and a pursuit that encourages experimentation and thinking outside the square. Don't be afraid to try new ideas, you just never know what you might come up with!

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Finding Macro Inspiration in the Garden

When the weather is nice (and sometimes even when it’s not!) it’s great to get out with your macro lens and do some outdoor close-ups. Us macro photographers can often fall into the trap of photographing only bugs and flowers, and there's nothing wrong with this, but there are so many more hidden treasures to be found. In this tutorial I hope to give you a few examples that will help you to look beyond the ordinary.

Decadent Decay

In most outdoor spaces you’ll find decay. Look for peeling paint and rust for a really interesting closeup of amazing texture and colour:

Rust and peeling paint give fabulous texture and colour [photo: Marie Gardiner]

There are repeating patterns to be found too, and a bit of decay on those can make a great focal point. This is the grill of an old barbecue:

Use the rule of thirds and leading lines to add interest to your shots [photo: Marie Gardiner]

I tried to have the decay in focus along the top line of the ‘rule of thirds’ grid. Having the rest out of focus and those leading lines going up to the focal point works really well. The muted colours and ‘pop’ of orange also add a nice touch.

The Ordinary Can Be Interesting

Twigs are lying around in most outdoor spaces and the bark makes a wonderful close-up.

Bark makes a great textured macro photo [photo: Marie Gardiner]

If you have a woodpile for a fire, the uniformity of the logs can really add interest to a picture as well as providing great texture.

Keys in locks look interesting; try focus stacking to overcome depth of field issues [photo: Marie Gardiner]

I think keys and locks always look great in closeups, especially with a great texture behind them like the shed here. Try focus stacking to get both the lock and key in focus whilst retaining some shallow depth of field for the background.

‘Different’ Plant Life

We know the standard shots of pretty flowers and cute mushrooms but look for less attractive plants for a really unique look.

Holly leaves. Plants behind your focal point make excellent bokeh [photo: Marie Gardiner]

The jagged leaves of the holly add interest here and the rest of the plant in the background makes excellent bokeh. Try and get the sun behind the rest of the plant for a lovely backlit, warm look.

Tiny plants can often be found under rocks or on window ledges [photo: Marie Gardiner]

I found this moss growing on the window ledge of a shed. Looking around garden structures and rockeries can reveal some really fascinating plants that may usually be overlooked. This almost looks like an exotic sea plant!

Conclusion

Whatever the weather you can find amazing shots out of doors. If you’re less of a wimp than me you can explore spider infested greenhouses and sheds to get some great pictures of webs or tools. Lift up rocks to find moss and small creatures but be sure to put everything back where you find it to keep the little guys happy. Don't be put off if it's not warm or sunny, there are amazing colours to be found in plants in autumn and frost and snow make great macro photos in winter. If you don't fancy going out in the rain or it's bit too chilly for you, be sure to check out my macro inspirations in the home tutorial for something to do in any weather.

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How to Photograph Artifacts and Antique Objects

Recently, I was hired by an underwater treasure hunter to photograph a series of artifacts recovered from shipwrecks. In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how I photographed a 500 year old bowl in two ways, one clean and simple, the other dramatic and artful.

Antique Handling and Care

When dealing with objects that are very old, here are a few precautions to make sure you do not damage the artifact.

• Work in temperature controlled environment (and no smoking!)
• Always presume it is unique, irreplaceable, and fragile
• Do not touch it until you know precisely what you are going to do and how, everything get's set up beforehand
• Have extra hands on set to care for the item, but no more people than necessary
• Wash your hands with soap and water (oils and natural secretions on skin can soil objects)
• Avoid use of handwipes or lotion
• Wear Cotton Gloves (Latex is also an option)
• Do not wear anything that can catch on the object, including: bracelets, necklaces, rings, tags, cufflinks, etc.
• No food or drinks near work area
• Properly sandbag and tighten all stands in work area
• When in doubt, have the artifact handled and cleaned by a professional
• Depending on the value of the object, consider taking out insurance for the shoot

Being hired to photograph a priceless artifact and then breaking on the shoot won't only cost you the job (and a hit to your insurance), it'll ruin your reputation. Depending on the material you are working, with take all precautions and follow all special cleaning guidelines to the letter.

High Key Product Lighting Setup

I started by setting up a small coffee table next to the wall. Then I taped up a piece of white butcher paper to the top of the wall and front edge of the table to create a seamless backdrop. Next step was to set up our key light. For a situation like this, where you need to do many photos of many different objects in a short amount of time, start with a lighting setup that works for most objects. You can alter alter as needed for each object as you go. I put a light with a large softbox horizontally directly over the shooting area.

Lights and Reflectors

Base exposure with 1 light overhead, White Balance set to Flash. Set camera settings to expose a black frame without the flash, so no ambient light affects the exposure. Use a very small aperture to make sure the whole bowl is sharp from front to back. Shot @ ISO 100, f/18, 1/200sec, 100mm macro lens

Next I added miniature versions of V-flats, or white reflectors that stand on their own and wrap each object with light. I cut two pieces of cardboard and covered each with strips of white gaffer tape. This creates a reflector with a matte finish that will evenly illuminate the objects and not create hard reflections.

Cardboard reflectors with white gaff tape on sides. The problem with this image is there is a gap between the reflector and white seamless. Were this object reflective, there would be a dark shape reflected in the object.

To make the front of the object as bright as possible, keep moving the reflectors in until you can see them in the shot, then inch them out so they have as much reflective capability as possible.

Perfectly Accurate Color

Product photography demands accurate color rendition taht faithfully reproduces the original object. Any color cast in your photo could affect the sale or customer expectations, so you should always use a color checker. I use the Color Checker Passport by X-Rite.

Using the color checker does two very important things. First, it allows you to get perfect white balance. If you compare the tint of the paper from the very first shot to this one there is a very slight shift from "flash" white balance to "proper" white balance. Second, the checker lets you create a calibrated profile for your camera that will accurately represent all of the colors in a scene. I normally use the Adobe Standard camera profile in my raw processing workflow, but the standard profile lacks significant saturation: it's meant to be adjusted by eye to recreate your subjectively pleasing impression of color in a scene. With the color checker you get objectively correct color without changing colour and saturation.

This is the final composition: the white balance is set using the color checker, the camera profile is changed from Adobe Standard to the profile set up by the color checker, and the front is illuminated by the reflectors. All other lighting and camera settings are the same.

At this point, our basic setup is done. Everything is properly exposed and entire object is in focus. We'll touch up the background to make it perfectly white in the retouching section below.

Dramatic Lighting Setup

Here's the new setup. Instead of using an overhead light that "just works" for all manner of things we want to highlight and accentuate the shape of this particular piece. I moved my softbox to the left side, not aimed at the bowl, but aimed across the bowl, pointed back towards the right side of my camera so that the bowl is illuminated with the edge of the light. This technique gives the light more of a wrapping effect, avoids any specular highlights, and lessens the contrast from highlight to shadows, while still giving a dynamic, graduated effect.
For the set, I thought about what would make this feel rich and luxurious. I imagined dark mahogany wood and old leather bound books. Since the bowl is blue, I wanted to contrast it with a warm set. Warmth compliments the blue of the bowl and makes the it pop off the page. I crumpled up a brown table cloth (carefully moving all the waves and wrinkles so it looked pleasing in camera) and set the bowl on the knife block from my kitchen. Since we're no longer on the seamless, I just put a piece of textured cardboard on the wall behind. To create a more interesting background and spotlight the bowl a little, I put a light on the ground aiming up at the cardboard.

Here is the reflector brought in close. Edge it back until we have the desired highlight on the object. We can remove the reflector from the final image by masking it out using a reference shot.

Now it's time to have a little fun. We need to make a final image that looks stunning. This bowl is worth more than my car: we need to get that feeling across in the photo.

Post-Production

Let's look at the ebay-style, object-on-white shot first. Using your favorite selection tool in Adobe Photoshop, make a selection of the bowl. I recommend drawing the outline with the pen tool, since the object has perfectly crisp edges. Invert (Crtl+Shift+I, Cmd+Shift+I on a mac) your selection so now you are looking at everything except the bowl and add a Curves adjustment layer (Image > Adjustments > Curves). Click on the eye dropper with the white tip inside your curves panel. This will allows you to set the white point by clicking in your image. Move your mouse to the darkest edge of the backdrop paper, and click.

It's a small adjustment, but important. Now you have a perfectly white background, and the image won't look weird with a gray edge when displayed on a white page.

Now on to the artistic shot! Open both photos, our original reference image (no reflector) and the image with the nice highlight. Copy paste one into the other document (Ctrl+A to select the image, Ctrl+C to copy, switch to the other document, Ctrl+V to paste. Cmd+A, Cmd+C, Cmd+V on a mac), so that each image is on their own layer, stacked on top of each other. Since I shot on the tripod, there was absolutely no movement of the camera or bowl between these shots, so all I had to do was create an inverted layer mask (Alt-click on the layer mask icon, Option-click on a mac) and use a soft white brush to paint in the rim light and lighten the shadows.

Our bowl is perfect, but the rest needs some work. Create a new group, and we'll make all the adjustments inside this group, then add a layer mask around the bowl when we're done. I wanted everything to look like dark wood, so I added a curves adjustment layer that just made the whole scene darker, giving it a fake dark wood look.

This looks pretty good, but this bowl is 500 years old. I want the scene to look old, weathered, sophisticated even. I took a picture of muslin fabric and put it on top in soft light blending mode. This added a more organic texture than cardboard has and evened out some of the contrast.

This looks fantastic, but it's messing with the bowl. We don't want the bowl to have any color or lighting adjustments that aren't perfectly calibrated, nor do we want a texture. Since you added those two adjustments into a group, you can add a mask to the group, cut out the bowl with the pen tool, and we're finished.

Choosing High-Key or Artistic Product Photography

The client has a warehouse with millions of dollars worth of artifacts. Some are insignificant pieces that go for as little as $100, others are worth many thousands of dollars. All of the cheaper items should be assembly lined through the white seamless, saving you time, and the client money. If it takes 2 hours of your time to get this artistic shot, then the artifact should be high enough in value that paying you for those two hours is a tiny fraction of the greater sales price. These product shots are much more involved for commercial products that can be reproduced, so one photo sells millions of units. In the case of ancient artifacts, one photo sells one unit.
I hope this was helpful in showing you two different approaches for photographing antique artifacts for sale. If you've had the chance to photograph antiques, I'd love to hear your experience in the comments.

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Meet Lightroom Mobile

by Andrew Childress

I spend a lot of time in Adobe Lightroom. This also means that I spend a lot of time at my desk, working in a Lightroom catalog. Luckily, that's about to change. With the launch of Adobe Lightroom mobile, it's time to take our editing work on the road. I've spent the week trying out this app on my iPad, and today I'm sharing my experience.
When Lightroom 5 launched, there was a sneaky feature included in the release notes: Smart Previews. This feature is what Adobe called "representative RAW files" that are small file size duplicates of your RAW images. Even when you're not on the same drive as your RAW images, you can maintain your previews and edits with Smart Previews. Lightroom mobile uses the cloud-based Smart Previews to reduce the file storage needs.
To get started with Lightroom mobile, you'll need an iPad running iOS 7 or newer (Adobe says that an iPhone app is coming soon). From the app's info, it appears that all iPad iterations except the very first one are supported by the app. Props to Adobe for supporting my aging iPad 2, by the way.
Launching alongside Lightroom mobile is the brand new Lightroom 5.4, which is required for use with the app. To get started with Lightroom Mobile, make sure you update your installation of Lightroom to the latest version.
You'll also need an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription to use the app. If you don't already have one, Adobe will provide a 30-day free trial of Lightroom mobile when you sign in with your Adobe ID.

Getting Started

When you setup Lightroom mobile, your entire catalog won't sync to the cloud. Instead, Lightroom will send selected collections to the cloud. Make sure you are using Lightroom 5.4 and sign in with your Adobe ID before attempting to start syncing.
To get started with a synced collection, start by making sure you have a collection of images built. Then, right-click a collection name in the Collections panel and choose Sync with Lightroom mobile.

Make sure to choose "sync with Lightroom mobile" when creating a new collection. If you forget, you can always right-click an existing collection in the Collections panel to turn it on.

One quirk that I noticed right away is that only one catalog can be synced with Lightroom mobile at a time. Switching catalogs will cause you to lose the synced collections.

Once you've added images to a synced collection, give Lightroom some time to complete the sync. The progress of the sync is shown in the upper left corner.

The iPad App

Let's get this out of the way: the interface is incredible. Although it's different than the desktop version, the tiled layout is stunning. This app could definitely be used to show image collections to clients.

The tiled view of the iPad app is absolutely good enough to bring to meetings with your clients.

After entering a synced collection on the iPad, you're presented with this masonry style layout of your images. Tapping an image brings it into full view, and after a few seconds, it it sharpened and displayed a histogram alongside the image.

For Culling

One of the key parts of a workflow is the culling stage, and I'm finding Lightroom mobile to be fantastic for cutting my image collection down to the keepers. In the lower left corner of the image is a flag icon that can be tapped to toggle an image as a pick.
Even more intuitive is the ability to swipe up or down on the image to flag it or unflag it. Immediately, this app is going to find its way into my workflow to cull image collections down away from the computer.

One of my primary uses for the app will be to cull image sets to the keeper images. I do this using the flagging system, which I can apply by swiping up and down on the iPad.

Of course, the value of Lightroom mobile is that once changes are made on the iPad, they get pushed back to the same images on your computer's catalog. With no more than a minute's lag from my testing, I'm confident that my collections will stay usably synchronized.

For Editing

Much of the editing power of the desktop version of Lightroom is present on the iPad. Adobe should be applauded for not copying and pasting the interface of Lightroom onto the mobile app. Instead, they designed an interface that fits a touch screen device perfectly.
When you tap to open a single image, there are four icons at the bottom of the screen that access the editing power of Lightroom mobile. The far left icon toggles the traditional Lightroom filmstrip of image thumbnails. The second icon opens the full editing options that you're accustomed to.

Tapping the first icon on the far left of what I call the "tools panel" will toggle the filmstrip off and on.

Tapping this icon opens the "editing attributes," like exposure and contrast. Tapping any of those icons opens new set of tick marks that appear over the image. Dragging that slider from left to right works the same as the desktop version of Lightroom. As always, the back and forward arrows are in the lower right hand corner to undo and redo your changes.

Adobe should be applauded for not copying and pasting the interface of Lightroom onto the mobile app. Instead, they designed an interface that fits a touch screen device perfectly.

Tapping the second icon on that tools panel opens the image editing options that we're accustomed to with the full edition of Lightroom.

Once you've picked an attribute to modify like the "whites" level, a new set of tick marks appears over the image. Grabbing the circle and moving it left to right is similar to the sliders of the desktop version of Lightroom.

Editing on Lightroom mobile is that simple. Pick an attribute, slide the point, and your editing changes will take effect. The mobile app temporarily pauses syncing to keep your iPad working quickly, but you can always tap the cloud icon and choose "Sync Now" to accelerate the process.

You can force a faster sync by pressing the cloud icon and choosing "Sync Now."

Once a sync completes, the changes you made on your iPad will be visible in your catalog on your Mac or PC.
Presets
Finally, you can also add presets to your images by tapping the third icon on the bottom of the app. The presets are categorized and you can tap any preset to apply it. From my testing, I did not find a way to add or use "user presets", but let's hope that it makes its way into a future edition of the app.

Presets are available for one click edits in Lightroom mobile. Choosing the third icon on the tools panel will open the option.

Cropping

Beyond the standard editing features, cropping is also available in the mobile app. You can click the fourth icon from that same "tools" panel at the bottom of the app to choose cropping options. Choose an aspect ratio (like square or 4x3) to crop the images to, then tap and drag over the image to change your crop. You can even twist your fingers to correct tilt.

Cropping is another essential feature that is in the iPad app! Complete with aspect ratio selections, custom cropping and tilt correction, this is a full featured tool.

Edit Photos Taken With Your iPad

In addition to syncing via the cloud, you can also import images from the iPad's camera roll. Go out of a collection by pressing the back arrow several times and you'll be at the home screen of the app. Press the arrow in the upper right hand corner to create a new collection. When it's created, you can tap the newly created collection to add images from the iPad's camera roll.
The best part is that these images are reverse synced to your cloud collection, and I transferred the screenshots you see in this tutorial using this option. You can add iPad images to any collection by pressing the "+" button present in the corner.

Sharing

Adobe built in a sharing option to make Lightroom mobile a true portable solution. When viewing an image, choose the icon in the upper right hand corner to choose the iPad's typical sharing pane.

Social share options are available by pressing the icon in the upper right hand corner when viewing a single image.

The normal iOS sharing options will appear allowing you email or message your images. You can also configure the app with your Facebook, Flickr or other social media accounts. Once you've done that, those icons will appear as well.

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My Thoughts

It's no secret that I'm a Lightroom fanatic. I've tried creating my own patchwork mobile solutions, but none were good enough to use. I was bound to like any version of an official app, but I have to be honest, this app impressed me.
This is going to change the way that I work, and untether me from the desk more often. I can definitely see myself spending long car rides culling large collections. The editing functionality is good enough to use and is more than a gimmick. When I get back to my desk, I can pick up on my edits without missing a beat.
One thing that Adobe hasn't made clear is the amount of storage space that will be avilable to your Lightroom smart previews. The typical Creative Cloud account includes 20 gigabytes of storage, but it's not clear if the images go in this same bucket of storage or not. Keep in mind that because they are using Smart Preview technology, the images take far less storage space than the RAW files.
The only thing that might turn some users away is the required tie to Creative Cloud. Personally, I have preferred buying the boxed version of Lightroom and skipping Creative Cloud, but this may change my plans.
I think that this may be a tipping point for many other photographers as well, and the cloud seems to be the way that Adobe is headed. The fact that this has essentially been added for free to the collection enhances the value of Creative Cloud as well.

Wrapping Up

Adobe hit a home run with the release of Lightroom mobile. It's going to find its way into a lot of photographers workflow, mine included. I came in with high expectations and this app met them. I think the power of the app will only grow with future updates.
Have you tried Lightroom mobile yet? How does it fit in your workflow? Let us know what you think about this new app.

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