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Taking Pictures of Port
Posted: 11:21 Mon 25 Jun 2007
by DRT
jdaw1 has encouraged us
here to insert pictures of bottles, corks and port in our TN's. I am all for this but have 2 questions:
1. Is our current hosting arrangement up to the task in terms of bandwidth etc?
2. Can someone please give me some advice on how to take good clear pictures of glasses of port using my
Canon Powershot digital camera.
Thanks
Derek
Posted: 11:32 Mon 25 Jun 2007
by KillerB
Bandwidth is set to maximum and so is the database, currently 3.1Mb used. It will take us a while to get to the pruning stage so I'm not worried at the moment.
Posted: 15:56 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by DRT
Look guys, we are all geeks, that's a given. So at least one of you has to be a photography expert who has experience of taking close-up pictures in artificial light. I don't need to know what it is that you normally photograph, I just need some tips on which settings to use to enable me to show you the real colour of my port.
Thanks
Derek
Posted: 17:35 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by Conky
I'm reluctant to say this, because I most definately NOT an expert on photography....but,
I was helping a photographer once, in his Studio and I was asking about all the different and apparently expensive types of lighting there was in the studio. He went onto explain that forgetting the artistic merits in tampering with light, having consistantly bright enough light was essential for a well constructed and consistant photograph. He then showed me a 'light box' which he used to place small items in (presumably like a Port Bottle,etc). The box had a consistant light source all around it, and created a situation where there wouldn't be that 'flashback' you often get that causes the Label on a bottle to white out,etc.
It also produced a consistant enviroment, by which to compare one picture against another. Now although this stuck in my head, I never went on to heed this advice or experiment with it.
So to summarise, I suspect you need a constant light source that surrounds the object from all directions, but to be fair...you may as well put this whole Post of mine in the Meaningless Drivel Section!
Alan
Posted: 18:00 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by KillerB
Nope - this is a plan.
We need to develop a light-box suitable for taking around to Off-lines. It must be large enough to put a whole bottle of Port in and also suitably light it up. It must also be easily transported.
It should be able to run off AA batteries as no electrical source can be guaranteed and throw out a conisitent light all around the bottle or glass.
Right, that's the user requirements, who wants to do the detailed design?
Posted: 20:26 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by jdaw1
- I repeat my encouragement.
- Photography geekiness I can’t do. And indeed there was considerable trouble with the flash reflecting off the glass (e.g.) and hiding the colour of the juice. The problem was lessened, but not eliminated, by adjusting the angle of the glass.
- All-round natural light sounds like a good idea. Could be simulated with non-proximate electric lights, perhaps shone through or reflected off a light diffuser.
- Anything that has to be specially constructed will, in practice, not be available to most people. What’s needed are tricks that anyone can do at home.
Posted: 20:30 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by KillerB
I was going to market it
Everyone could have it then, once somebody takes my fabulous requirements and does the easy bit of designing and building it.
Posted: 21:03 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by DRT
KillerB,
I'm confused. You work in IT - aren't you supposed to ignore requirements and go ahead an build what you think everyone wanted but weren't clever enough to ask for?
Derek
Posted: 21:08 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by KillerB
I have become a user for this purpose and thus have asked for nothing unreasonable. All you have to do it give me what I ask for. I will expect it to do what I want... not necessarily what I asked for.
Posted: 21:17 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by DRT
Can we assume that "large enough to put a whole bottle of Port in " actually means "large enough to take an entire flight of bottles from all Fonseca declared vintages over any rolling 100 year period"
I only ask because this is the usual accepted level of scope creep in this kind of situation. Oh, and how many batteries are we allowed to use?
Derek
all Nacional vintages ever declared
Posted: 21:19 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by jdaw1
No. Must hold all Nacional vintages ever declared, with magnums of the regular Noval from those years in which it also declared.
Posted: 21:20 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by KillerB
Two, but this may change to two per bottle in aforementioned flight by the time it is delivered, or some other currently undefined reason.
Posted: 21:30 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by DRT
There are two words springing to mind here but I can't quite remember what they are - I think they begin with M & D
Flash suggestions
Posted: 21:33 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by jdaw1
Back to the subject. The problem is whiteout from the flash versus darkness without flash.
- Does taping a piece of paper over the flash provide enough diffusion?
- Mount in a picture frame without glass a piece of white paper. Does shining a light onto that work?
- Other suggestions?
Posted: 21:51 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by DRT
Jdaw1,
I have been very impressed with the clarity of your pictures of port bottles and wine. Perhaps a good place to start is for you to describe the environmental conditions, equipment and settings that you use for your own photographs?
Derek
Photography technique
Posted: 22:03 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by jdaw1
Until the pictures that triggered this thread, I have photographed bottles by holding them in the air about 2½' from my Mac’s built-in camera. Just before taking the picture Apple’s PhotoBooth does a screen white-out as a diffuse flash. This picture is then trimmed, with no colour adjustments.
The
RP85 was photographed with my wife’s Canon camera (the
SD500—note correction), near a window in my living room (alas it is insufficiently grand to call it a drawing room). The cork and glass pictures were done against a piece of white A4, and trimmed. Again, no on-computer colour adjustments. In each case several shots were taken, and the best used.
Nothing fancy at all. The main thing I did was bother to try to take pictures. Feel encouraged to do likewise.
Posted: 22:03 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by KillerB
Derek T. wrote:There are two words springing to mind here but I can't quite remember what they are - I think they begin with M & D
Magnificent and Delightful
Re: Photography technique
Posted: 22:08 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote: In each case several shots were taken, and the best used.
This is precisely the method I use - I was hoping you had a secret trick that would save me some time
I am encouraged and will try to find the time to do this the next time I open a VP.
Derek
Posted: 22:09 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by DRT
KillerB wrote:Derek T. wrote:There are two words springing to mind here but I can't quite remember what they are - I think they begin with M & D
Magnificent and Delightful
That's it - I knew someone would remember
Re: Photography technique
Posted: 22:11 Tue 26 Jun 2007
by jdaw1
Derek T. wrote:jdaw1 wrote: In each case several shots were taken, and the best used.
This is precisely the method I use - I was hoping you had a secret trick that would save me some time
It’s all of an extra ¼ minute per shot. Reminding you that you should be waiting patiently for the port to develop in the decanter, perhaps it would be better if it were an hour a click.
Post above corrected to say Canon SD500.
Posted: 15:45 Wed 27 Jun 2007
by jdaw1
Post above corrected to say Canon
SD500.
Posted: 16:02 Wed 27 Jun 2007
by Conky
So when you've finished mulling over the design, trying a few prototypes, spent a fortune coming to a final design and then marketing it....
Do you think it will be as good as
This and all the others that are on the market? Its professional photography gear, not rocket science.
Alan
Posted: 22:51 Mon 02 Jul 2007
by Conky
This is my evening tipple on January 21st 2008. Cant wait!
ThanksTom.
Alan
Posted: 22:53 Mon 02 Jul 2007
by DRT
OK - it's in my diary
Posted: 15:43 Wed 04 Jul 2007
by Luc
Conky wrote:This is my evening tipple on January 21st 2008. Cant wait!
ThanksTom.
Alan
Question : Would one rather spend an evening with a tipple or a nipple ?
A bottle or a woman?
Posted: 15:57 Wed 04 Jul 2007
by jdaw1
A bottle or a woman? They aren’t mutually exclusive, and the former can help attract and encourage the latter. A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke. — Rudyard Kipling.
Meanwhile, please be encouraged by this self-appointed moral policeman to be strictly family-friendly in one’s phrasing. If google’s algorithm should label us as lightly smutty, it won’t help our rankings.
Posted: 16:06 Wed 04 Jul 2007
by Luc
I forgot , this isn't the 100 acres woods .