Seeking photography advise

[dcurrie911]

The compound curves of the buttplate I am working on is creating photography issues for me. I used Procreate to overlay two pictures focusing mostly on getting eyes and then nostrils aligned. Then I traced main features with green and red ink . As you can see from the two photo’s The eyes and nostrils are relatively close but the ears are drastically different which means that the horn tips will be even worse. I study my photo’s To check my work and mirror them and study some more but these photographic anomalies Are killing that ability. Do I have any options? Would a light box and good camera resolve the issue ?

 

[sam]

Sorry Dan, I've read your post a few times and I see the discrepancies in the colored outlines vs. the engraving, but I'm still not understanding what you're doing. I'm sure it's me.

But I will tell you this, and that is if you're using a mobile phone camera, they are approximately a 28mm equivalent to a normal camera lens, and 28mm is quite wide angle with plenty of distortion. A lens above 90 or 100mm will produce a much flatter image with minimal distortion, but that requires camera.

 

[SamW]

I am also not quite sure what you mean but assume you mean your photos don't match the engraving as to perspective or element locations. Photoshop elements has a correction for camera distortion.

I have posted this before but here is my setup for quick working photos, made from a couple of clothes hangers cut in the middle, bent out and held apart by wood dowels at the ends. The white diffusion material is just freezer paper taped to the wire. The curvature of the paper difuser lights curved items well as shown in the engraving photo of an item that has the curvature of a 7/8 inch diameter pipe sliced in two lengthwise. The light fixture is a 4 foot three bulb LED fixture about 2 1/2 feet above my vise.

I do use a fairly nice point and shoot camera, an older Canon G9.

I make my transfers on clear acetate and transfer the design to the metal...then redraw the object using my original drawing to help finalize. The transfer is for getting correct positioning and redrawing gets the design looking proper.

 

[dcurrie911]

Thanks, Sam’s. I think you both get at what i poorly described. to be sure I added an exaggerated depiction of what I am describing Below. The floorplate is curved so the image also curves. But each photo angle gives a different two dimensional image of the same three dimensional piece. So a photo from angle 2 gives a true image of the closer ear but the further ear appears shorter and visa versa. In my earlier photo’s the one where the green line matches the outline of the animal, but the red line does not, which is because the red line is from the other photo (other photo angle). Overlaying the actual two photo’s made it near impossible to delineate between the two Thus the green and red outlines.....

it seems like the iPad camera is the main issue and of course better lighting Would be helpful.

Dan

 

[FANCYGUN]

Dan sams light tent is really the way to go or outside on a bright overcast day also an iphone camera is a better camera for taking photos of any kind than the ipad. I am actually finding my iphone takes better photos than my point and shoot camera with the same pixels
if the distortion of the figure is really bugging you, it is possible to redistort the image to your liking in photoshop but you are looking at your photo in an increased size that sometimes might make it seem worse than it actually is

 

[FANCYGUN]

And by the way SamW thats an awesome floorplate

 

[dcurrie911]

Thanks Marty. I have a Samsung J3 instead of an iPhone so not sure about the camera quality. I wouldn’t say the distortion is bugging me so much as it is not helping me. I was trying to use the photo to mirror and study and it simply didn’t look right When I flipped it and I couldn’t figure out why. I’m glad I posted questions here before making any drastic changes in an attempt to fix something that may have been a camera distortion instead of a graving error. Now I need to figure out my go forward plan.

 

[Chujybear]

If you are trying to flatten it to study it, you could do a graphite rubbing and then flatten that out.. if you are reversing it to give yourself a different perspective, you could still scan, or photograph, and reverse your rubbing

 

[dcurrie911]

I thought of pulls off rubs but besides a concern with the lack of really fine detail The butt plate is convex side to side and concave top to bottom

 

[FANCYGUN]

Hey Dan Maybe it's that I am still half asleep and still working on my morning coffee but... I really think you are nit picking your work and losing the overall picture here. Number one.. there is no such thing as perfection. You are making a big deal over minuscule proportions that usually do not show up in real scale. By trying to past together and flipping halves of your work reminds me of when my art student would split a photo of their faces and flip an paste one half of their face onto the other half It looks goofy an not like them as their face is not symmetrical. My point is that we all strive for some form of perfection in our work, but we are human and there is really no such thing Relax a bit and just look at the beautiful work you are doing an view the whole piece not just detail against detail Your work will become more lifelike and more fun for you.
Now I have to reheat my coffee.

 

[dcurrie911]

I’m sure you are right Marty. I strive for perfection. Hopefully not to the degree that it removes the fun. I always recall an old saying about an archer. Aim your arrow for the stars and you might hit an eagle, aim for the eagle and may may just hit the dirt. But I will try to tone it down a couple of notches.

 

[FANCYGUN]

Dan An old timer once told me eagles taste pretty good.. a lot like chicken
Your work is very good just dont lose sight of the overall picture None of us or our work is perfect Just stop looking back too much and keep facing forward

 

[Brant]

Dan, I have to agree with Marty. I take 1 or 2 thousand pictures of flowers around my place every year for reference ( I am a little crazy for flowers). None of them are perfect. Look at an oak leaf, absolutely none of them are perfect from side to side. Mother Nature is not a carbon copy, but she sure is beautiful, just like your work.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Brant

 

[dcurrie911]

Thanks Brant and Marty. i Appreciate the kind words and encouragement to temper perfection with reality and Mother Nature. additionally I learned new information about photography which I hope will assist others as well. Thanks.