Photography (advice, tips&tricks or simply to show off your photoskills with/without audio gear)

This is more of a picture if you want a “product” shot, its more forward and shows the item, but it has less interesting factors in it

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My dad gave me his old Nikon D70S… just trying to figure out how things work now.
(No idea yet to be honest)
Figuring out macro pictures & lighting, which is really interesting & fun :slight_smile:

Will make some headphone shots in future… this is an old tin bowl I tried to capture
while having a smoke in my kitchen hihi.

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You got a bit of a rare beast actually - if you are into unique landscape photography, the D70s a special trick up its sleeve, you can convert it fairly easily to infrared photography (also called “full spectrum”) , its one of very few cameras that can be converted easily.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=nikon+d70s+infrared+conversion

As far as product photography it a decent camera but it is fairly old and has some severe limitations in term of dynamic range and colors, but its still a good camera, and if you put a decent lens on it, it will show you what it can do

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Calling our photography sensei @Naturallymorbid, mind giving me your feedback on these 2 pictures?

Audiosense:


From left to right: DT100, T800, DT200

Sony:


Top left to right: MH750, XBA-A2, MDR-EX800ST
Bottom left to right: XBA-Z5, XBA-N3, MDR-EX1000

With the Audiosense picture, I ordered them like that because I thought I would place the flagship in between the other 2. But with the Sony picture, I just ordered them by my own preference in terms of sound. Both of them are taking without my macro camera lens (stock LG G7 camera) and with a few sheets of A4 paper under them.

Ok first off let’s make a distinction, these look like “stock” pictures, meaning its a product showcase less “flavor”, so we will regard them as such.

Overall composition

  1. Personally it think going for 3 at a time much better, less clutter, easier to frame the shot and you can see the IEMs better.

  2. personally, I’m less of a fan of the “straight down” shot i think an angle even a bit helps out, unless its a very 2d object or you light it accordingly, it tends to lose some of the volume of the object, so keep that in mind

  3. try avoiding cutting off the cable unless its part of the background

  4. place the iem more in the center or to a point where you can draw someone’s eyes to.

Clutter and overall order in the photo
See if you can straighten out some of the cables to make them seem a bit more like the XBA-Z5 round with the IEMs placed on top of them. if you can’t consider shooting the cable separated from the IEM (the only one with an attached cable is the MH750 from what I can tell)
here is an example of a single and a group shot, i just took (also i just bought them so I want to show off :slight_smile: )
Also to make things “even” I shot this on my shitty Pocophone F1 camera.


You can see that even though my wire is kind of a mess its not that much a bother since the IEM is clearly visible.

one thing to note is that I did do some post-work, around 2-3 min so nothing to complex (I did the exact thing to your shot and uploaded the photoshop file so you could see for yourself) to make things pop.

Lighting
Overall good, everything is fairly defused, nothing to harsh and after a bit of post-work, it looks great, these are “stock” so no need for super complex lighting.

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Yup, I noticed lol.

I did that so the rest of the table (black) wouldnt be in the picture, but otherwise I agree, I prefer angled shots more.

Ideally, disconnecting the cable is definitely better. But I very much like to avoid disconnecting/reconnecting cables since I could damage them (and Sony iems are precious!).

image
Shouldnt the Fiio switch place with the L3? Since its a black iem it might need more light to be directly on it and it seems the area to the right looks brighter.

Any ways to reduce the shadows that the iems casts?
image
That annoys me when it happens for me…
Since it looks like the Fiio and the L3 are “blocking” the 2 behind lol.

Ideally, disconnecting the cable is definitely better. But I very much like to avoid disconnecting/reconnecting cables since I could damage them (and Sony iems are precious!).

Didnt know switching cables was such a big deal, but i get it , so try to “keep them in line” :slight_smile:

Shouldnt the Fiio switch place with the L3? Since its a black iem it might need more light to be directly on it and it seems the area to the right looks brighter.

to be honest I didn’t pay too much attention to the color scheme,in the composition. In general i would have used a different IEM if i wasn’t doing a “quick and dirty” shot, but in this case, you are probably right.

Which is kind of the reason I’m a fan of single shots in most cases unless you have a reason for a multishot or you have the time to work more carefully with multiple items.

As far as the shadows, there are 3 ways.

  1. shoot at an earlier time, right now where i live its pretty late (the shot was taken in 18:20), so the angle of the sun is low which creates shadows.
  2. a white piece of cardboard on the left to bounce in more light since the more problematic shadows are on the left, but you could also hold it above in an angle to bounce light from the top thus hitting both sides.
  3. fix it in post - least recommended unless you cannot recreate a shot fixing something is post is ill-advised.

alternatively I could have defused the light source to reduce shadow and overall contrast

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Yup, definitely easier to just shot a single iem.

I would only take multiple iem pictures if I needed to show the size difference. A picture is a lot better than trying to explain everything in words lol.

I found the same thing with sound… explaining it folks who arent really into audio is kind of a mess.
The best way i found is to compare it too food since that is way easier to understand, if i say something like something “lacks flavor” or has a “sharp taste” its a lot more understandble

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Indeed, that’s why my target audience for my reviews are people that already know the “basics” and why I don’t mind changing tips and cables. :blush:

So basiclly you are a candy salesman to a bunch of overgrown kids :smiley:

Im actually doing it the other way around but with a “twist”.
Im going after “normies”, but since i lve in a fairly small country im also offering the chance for people to come and try stuff for themselves instead of me talking about fairly nuance audio stuff i talk about what songs/genres i found a headphone/iem fun with

doubt it will be a “hit” but maybe just maybe i can get more folks around here to love audio with proper gear :slight_smile:

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If you haven’t heard of him, I highly recommend checking out a YouTuber named Peter McKinnon. He’s pretty big now and has a lot of tutorials for B-Roll, montages, and product placement. I think he has a great eye and is artsy. He shares some nice tricks and his videos are pretty story-driven. You may enjoy them!

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For video he’s fine though i find his tips too “generic” lacking when it comes to complex problems
stills is a whole different ball game

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He’s definitely shifted way more into videography, but he used to do a lot of photography tricks, videos, and editing.

So I took a chance and I wound up with a very nice lens. The crappy picture on the eBay ad is what I was going on. The seller’s description was a one liner, that he was upgrading to a Nikon Z6 and was getting rid of all his legacy equipment. He had a solid history as a seller so I took a chance. Maybe others were scared off given the lack of detail and poor description? This is a currently still in production Nikon lens, that retails for $1400 and I picked it up for $365 including tax and shipping.

Good equipment makes for technically better photography, so happy to have scored this!

Overall its a really good lens, a bit of the hefty side but fairly sharp and fairly fast AF
Just keep in mind that this is a DX lens, meaning its a crop (also called APS-C), while it does fit on any Nikon camera its a lens meant for cameras like Nikon D7000, D90, D70, etc, pretty much any camera that isn’t in single digits (D1,D2,D2X,D3, etc) or 3 digits (D600, D700,750,800,800E).

For product photography it wouldn’t be my first pick, but its flexible and great for overall use

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Yeah, I just got a D7100 so It’s a good fit, but you’re right. HEFTY is being kind. I think though that this is a kind of lens you can take on vacation when you only take one lens. Really excited about getting out and using it. It was pretty dirty and I gave it a good cleaning but the elements were pristine. My old camera was a D90 and it was just too long in the tooth plus it had a pixel that would show red under low light conditions which I always had to go edit out. lol

I also picked up a 2.8 40mm DX Macro and that’s a GOOD product lest!

Ya, that is a better product lens also fairly compact if i remember correctly.
Just keep in mind that 40mm tends to stretch things about a bit, it’s not a “bad thing” but it’s something to keep in mind.

Just FYI the good thing about product photography is that you don’t really need AF, so you can bargain hunt for old lenses, most Nikon lenses are overall really good. My personal favorite was the 60mm, it was very versatile, extremely sharp, and fairly cheap, even brand new (all version, both the D and the G are great)

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Just an iPhone, I live in mini Holland, tulip festival in about 3 weeks…

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For those contemplating getting a macro lens, just be aware that the ones in ~40-60mm focal lengths can have a drawback. That being to use the macro capabilities of those lenses can sometimes require annoyingly small distances from the front of your lens to your subject (working distance). Again, that’s just using the lens at or near its actual macro capabilities.

For obvious reasons this is less of a concern for someone doing product or other still life work than it would be for someone trying to take pictures of bugs or frogs. Even with inanimate objects though, needing to get an SLR-sized camera close to your subject can cause issues with practical things like having to always set up on the edge of a table or simply your camera/lens casting a shadow on your subject. There’s a reason those 100mm and longer macro lenses exist.