-Set your display as dim as possible and still remain 'attractive' (which will be different to the camera than to the eye) -Get some lights on dimmers. At least two to eliminate shadows. I use 75W halogen par 30s on individual dimmers. -Set your your shutter speed to < your display's refresh speed to eliminate flicker (if you are muxing). -Set your ISO and fstop for max depth of field vs. acceptable grain vs the required shutter speed. -You will probably find yourself shooting way less than 1/30th sec, so a tripod is a must. -Use a remote trigger to eliminate vibration. -You'll need to experiment around with ambient light vs. your display's light. -Yes, use bracketing and HDR software if you have them available to you.
On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 2:06 PM, Adam Jacobs <[email protected]> wrote: > Have you considered taking the shot in HDR? Might make the whole thing a > lot simpler. > take a 3 shot bracket (-2,0,+2) and see what you come up with in > photomatix. I know it's cheating, but I think you're just looking for > results. I always do my HDR work with a $30 A560 powershot. > > Otherwise, David is absolutely correct. First figure out the exposure for > the glowing component, then "make" the lighting for the rest of the room > correct. You can try pointing desklamps via homemade reflectors or whatever > you can rig up yourself. It doesn't have to be studio quality strobes. > Alternately, you can try taking the problem outside. If I don't have a > studio full of lighting equipment, I'll wait until the lighting is good > outdoors and take the subject (or model) outside. This reduces your > equipment needs down to just key lighting. In the case of a VFD/nixie you > won't want any key lighting. > > Have you tried making a homemade lightbox? That might be an option too, > depending on exactly what you are photographing and the final image you are > trying to create. > > -Adam AJ9D > > On 10/25/2011 10:59 AM, David Forbes wrote: > >> On 10/25/11 10:24 AM, Nick wrote: >> >>> I'm trying to get good, consistent, photographs of a VFD display >>> (single tube) and have having trouble with getting the colours right& >>> decent detail - this is when the tube is lit (all segments). >>> >>> Anyone done this with good success and care to share settings/ >>> technique etc.? >>> >>> Nick >>> >>> >> Nick, >> >> I just spent some large amount of time with professional photographers >> working with both my Nixie watch and my LED video coat. They took hours and >> hundreds of pictures to get a couple good shots. I watched their methods. >> >> The tube display elements tend to be a lot brighter than the camera's >> exposure sensor expects, so you have to use manual exposure setting and dial >> it a couple F-stops darker than the meter thinks is correct. Take test >> photos and adjust as needed until you're happy with the result. >> >> Once you get the glowing parts correct, then you can start to work on the >> background lighting. If you're using manual camera settings, then the >> background light changes shouldn't affect the glowing bits' exposure. >> >> Diffused lighting is very helpful to get the background right. That can be >> hard to achieve indoors, but it's possible with several lights pointed at >> the light-colored room walls and ceiling. Direct lighting is usually >> unhelpful. The guy who took photos for PopSci used a light on each side and >> one above me, but he had expensive lights with very tight beam control. >> >> As far as the color goes, blue-green is the most difficult to get right >> due to the extremely nonlinear color response of the human eyeball and the >> nature of RGB color sensors used in cameras. You'll have to take several >> photos with different white balance settings and see which comes out looking >> the best. And there's always post-production software (Photoshop). >> >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to neonixie-l+unsubscribe@** > googlegroups.com <neonixie-l%[email protected]>. > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/** > group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB<http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB> > . > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
