Some amateur computer shots

[Unframed]

I took a few shots with my 350D in some computers I was building thought I'd post them up, get some advice and constructive criticism. Sorry they are Facebook hosted, I'm on my laptop and only have them hosted there.

Mostly I was just toying with shutter speeds and indirect lighting (I realised how much nicer shots look without my flash aiming straight ahead recently).

Cheers,

[Bashar]

Hi,

I thought I'd share some CC. Apologies that its mostly negative. I'm no expert, but I hope you'll find it useful.

I reckon the shots need to be brighter. Most of the hardware shots I've seen have bright and even lighting.

#1 - it would be nicer if the label was turned towards the camera, so it's not cut off. A higher f-stop would help keep the ends of the tube in focus.

#2 - was the fan spinning? I find it a bit distracting. The label is sideways and out of focus, which makes it hard to read.

#3 - the cable running across the bottom right corner of the frame is distracting. The focus seems to be near the back of the m/b was that intentional? I think for detail shots like this you might want everything to be in focus? Perhaps try a higher f-stop.

#4 - nice. Your shallow depth of field draws my eyes towards the Quadro. Tidy up the cables up the top and whatever that bright thing in the bottom corner is, and I reckon it'll help a lot.

#5 - the stationary fan here works better I think. The CPU is upside down, makes it hard to read the label. Also, cables are criss-crossing the shot.

Cheers.

[Unframed]

Originally Posted by Bashar

Hi,

I thought I'd share some CC. Apologies that its mostly negative. I'm no expert, but I hope you'll find it useful.

I reckon the shots need to be brighter. Most of the hardware shots I've seen have bright and even lighting.

#1 - it would be nicer if the label was turned towards the camera, so it's not cut off. A higher f-stop would help keep the ends of the tube in focus.

#2 - was the fan spinning? I find it a bit distracting. The label is sideways and out of focus, which makes it hard to read.

#3 - the cable running across the bottom right corner of the frame is distracting. The focus seems to be near the back of the m/b was that intentional? I think for detail shots like this you might want everything to be in focus? Perhaps try a higher f-stop.

#4 - nice. Your shallow depth of field draws my eyes towards the Quadro. Tidy up the cables up the top and whatever that bright thing in the bottom corner is, and I reckon it'll help a lot.

#5 - the stationary fan here works better I think. The CPU is upside down, makes it hard to read the label. Also, cables are criss-crossing the shot.

Cheers.

All is good, I tend to work with video only so I'm pretty average when it comes to stills and as such I'm looking for ways to improve my images.

Not sure how I can make them brighter, If I tilt the flash head on it's a hideous white mess or a really dark shot with bright spots.

As for the moving fan earlier on I was going more for a shot showing that it's moving but without it being a giant circular blur.

Thanks heaps for the advice.

[Jim G]

Originally Posted by Unframed

All is good, I tend to work with video only so I'm pretty average when it comes to stills and as such I'm looking for ways to improve my images.

Not sure how I can make them brighter, If I tilt the flash head on it's a hideous white mess or a really dark shot with bright spots.

As for the moving fan earlier on I was going more for a shot showing that it's moving but without it being a giant circular blur.

Thanks heaps for the advice.

To make them a little brighter you could try simply increasing the exposure - either adjust your exposure compensation in Av/Tv mode or shoot in M mode and slow your shutter down, open your aperture more or up your ISO. The last one in particular is pretty underexposed.

I quite like #2 - you're pretty well nailed the focus there and the composition is alright.

#3 you missed focus pretty badly - I would have focused on the writing on the top of the HSF like in #2.

#4 might work a bit better with a different composition and a brighter exposure - you could try a tighter crop and bringing the exposure up a bit. I'd put the GFX card in the top third of the image (e.g. crop off a fair bit of the top and right side, same aspect ratio)

#5 I would flip vertically so the writing is the right way up and increase the exposure. Focus is good again.

[Unframed]

Thanks man.

Gotta get used to focusing with the viewfinder, I'm too adjusted to EVFs.

[power]

you'll definitely need some practice as you could take shots like that with a P&S and they would be better.

I know that's harsh but it's true - I don't profess to be a photographer or know how to fix what's caused it but it's feedback nonetheless.

I agree with the above as well - very dark shots, you need some light on the subject.

[hlokk]

Originally Posted by Jim G

To make them a little brighter you could try simply increasing the exposure - either adjust your exposure compensation in Av/Tv mode or shoot in M mode and slow your shutter down, open your aperture more or up your ISO. The last one in particular is pretty underexposed.

In addition to above, keep in mind if using a flash, particularly indirect flash (through a 'diffuser', bounced or off camera), you may need to adjust the flash compensation instead.
Under flash, shutter length does not affect the brightness of the flash illuminated parts of the image (which may be nearly everything in a dark setting). When using E-TTL flash (auto mode), increasing the ISO will also not brighten up the flash part (it will only pull out more background light) as the flash will compensate. Again, with auto mode, the flash will compensate for the the aperture (manual flash will not). Sometimes the general EV settings will not bias the image as you want so play around with both the EV and flash brightness if doing flash shots, as it can work a bit differently than during "natural light" photography.
Btw, if you need slower shots for blurred fans, you can use a desklamp or similar. Aim it at a white card to work as a nice bounce diffuser. Could also consider second shutter synch and a slow shutter for that blurred motion then frozen type shots (May not work well with rotating objects like fans though...).



For those type of shots in particular, my main gripe is the jpeg compression
The first shot around the "thermal compound" text really shows it up. For product shots, detailed text and large gently gradated black backgrounds, harsh jpeg compression really works against the images. I thought this was something you could choose yourself, until I checked the EXIF and realised its the horrible facebook compression. For those kinds of pics in general, perhaps try uploading with another site (OCAU, imageshack, photobucket, flickr, etc) and make sure from your computer the image you upload looks good around the text. On some image sites, make sure you turn off any resizing or optimising (you should do it on your computer).


On the first pic, improving the compression should help a fair bit. May need a brightness bump too. Not sure how you were lighting it?
ISO may be fairly high too? Did it need to be for that shot?