I landed a small job, taking data sheet photos. The PC boards were easy, but the assemblies were a killer. Here's the beast I had to work with.
The body needed more light than the face, which had to be dark with white lettering. That called for 2 shots with different exposures, blended together in photoshop. This was my lighting setup.
But the dial was highly reflective, leading to results like this.
The client wanted the dial to be legible, and I found it impossible to light evenly with umbrellas, so I switched to indirect reflective lighting.
But even then, the uneven light on the outer ring was unacceptable.
I fiddled with the positions and intensity of the lights until I found the root problem... which wasn't the lights at all. It was the angle of the ring. It had to be exactly head on with the camera. After adjusting the up/down and side-to-side angles, I finally was able to get the flat lighting the shot required. I took the successful shot of the dial, and combined it with the shot of the assembly and the shot of the face. Some background simplification, and I came up with this.
It took me several hundred shots and the better part of a week to get the final result. I hope this story will keep you from going through such a painful process.
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The body needed more light than the face, which had to be dark with white lettering. That called for 2 shots with different exposures, blended together in photoshop. This was my lighting setup.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
But the dial was highly reflective, leading to results like this.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
The client wanted the dial to be legible, and I found it impossible to light evenly with umbrellas, so I switched to indirect reflective lighting.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
But even then, the uneven light on the outer ring was unacceptable.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I fiddled with the positions and intensity of the lights until I found the root problem... which wasn't the lights at all. It was the angle of the ring. It had to be exactly head on with the camera. After adjusting the up/down and side-to-side angles, I finally was able to get the flat lighting the shot required. I took the successful shot of the dial, and combined it with the shot of the assembly and the shot of the face. Some background simplification, and I came up with this.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
It took me several hundred shots and the better part of a week to get the final result. I hope this story will keep you from going through such a painful process.
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