photography for sculpture? books, general advice on technique?

Hi,
I am a beginner in figurative clay sculpture. Naturally, as it takes
so long to finish a piece, you can't have a live model all the time,
you need to work from photographs most if not all the time. I had a
friend pose for me a couple days ago, and admittedly took the task a
little to cavalierly; from the standpoint that the sculpture was the
real challenge, I simply snapped a few photos around the subject. Some
turned out ok, but not many; 60% were blurred, all were somewhat
grainy, many had areas of strong shadow or strong highlight.

So, where do I begin? I want black and white photos, all the way
around the subject, that will optimize the depth given to the subject,
and also have minimal distortion.

I have no studio; I simply posed a friend in my dorm room, and walked
around them with my camera and a floor lamp shining at a 45 degree
angle from my camera, moving the lamp each time I moved to a new angle.
I closed the shades because from half the perspectives, the subject
would have been heavily backlit by the sunlight through the windows,
which were on one wall only This however made it dark, so the
(digital) camera automatically set to lower shutter speeds, and as I
was holding the camera by hand, this explains the blurred images and
perhaps the graininess too. The small size of the room also forced me
too close to the subject, resulting in my having to zoom to as wide an
angle as possible, which distorts the subject, a very bad thing when
I'm trying to mold an undistorted piece from it.

My thoughts: To get one more lamp for better lighting. Then get a
tripod. Hang white muslin or cheap sheets as a backdrop; random junk
on the desks and bookshelves around the room is distracting. The
tripod will fix the blurring. ALSO, would it work, to zoom in on 1/3
of my subject, snap a photo, lower the tripod to get the second third,
and lower it further to get the last third of the subject, then use
photoshop to "photomerge" them? If I'm only adjusting height on the
tripod, keeping its angle perpendicular, and don't change the side to
side angle, then they should merge seamlessly, and furthermore have 3X
the resolution, so I can zoom in, for example, details of a hand or
face or a particular fabric fold? And more importantly, by doing it in
pieces like that, I avoid the issue of wide-angle distortion. A
further consideration is building a 5' diameter lazy susan, so I can
rotate the model and keep the backdrop and lighting a constant, and
also only need to photograph from the long axis of the room to be less
concerned about distortion (the room is maybe 10X20? A bit larger?)

Alternatively, if I have them pose outside on a bench in a courtyard,
at noon, the lighting should be constant, and strong enough that I
probably could get away without a tripod, and I could stand back
farther and zoom in more for minimal distortion. But , it's cold
outside, so unless I want any pose except one in a heavy coat, I don't
know.


Could you help me? I plan on beginning this
sculpture in a couple weeks, and hadn't realized that there was more to
photography than 5 minutes of point-and-shoot. I want to do it right,
the second time that my friend will pose for me. How do you set up the
lighting, and what adjustments should I make with my digital camera?
It does have manual controls, I have simply never used them. What
about some of the other ideas, like merging a three-part image, taking
the effort to build a backdrop stand, maybe even a rotary table?


thanks for your advice!
-Bernard Arnest

"Bernard Arnest" wrote in
ups.com:

Hi,
I am a beginner in figurative clay sculpture. Naturally, as it takes
so long to finish a piece, you can't have a live model all the time,
you need to work from photographs most if not all the time. I had a
friend pose for me a couple days ago, and admittedly took the task a
little to cavalierly; from the standpoint that the sculpture was the
real challenge, I simply snapped a few photos around the subject. Some
turned out ok, but not many; 60% were blurred, all were somewhat
grainy, many had areas of strong shadow or strong highlight.

So, where do I begin? I want black and white photos, all the way
around the subject, that will optimize the depth given to the subject,
and also have minimal distortion.

I have no studio; I simply posed a friend in my dorm room, and walked
around them with my camera and a floor lamp shining at a 45 degree
angle from my camera, moving the lamp each time I moved to a new angle.
I closed the shades because from half the perspectives, the subject
would have been heavily backlit by the sunlight through the windows,
which were on one wall only This however made it dark, so the
(digital) camera automatically set to lower shutter speeds, and as I
was holding the camera by hand, this explains the blurred images and
perhaps the graininess too. The small size of the room also forced me
too close to the subject, resulting in my having to zoom to as wide an
angle as possible, which distorts the subject, a very bad thing when
I'm trying to mold an undistorted piece from it.

My thoughts: To get one more lamp for better lighting. Then get a
tripod. Hang white muslin or cheap sheets as a backdrop; random junk
on the desks and bookshelves around the room is distracting. The
tripod will fix the blurring. ALSO, would it work, to zoom in on 1/3
of my subject, snap a photo, lower the tripod to get the second third,
and lower it further to get the last third of the subject, then use
photoshop to "photomerge" them? If I'm only adjusting height on the
tripod, keeping its angle perpendicular, and don't change the side to
side angle, then they should merge seamlessly, and furthermore have 3X
the resolution, so I can zoom in, for example, details of a hand or
face or a particular fabric fold? And more importantly, by doing it in
pieces like that, I avoid the issue of wide-angle distortion. A
further consideration is building a 5' diameter lazy susan, so I can
rotate the model and keep the backdrop and lighting a constant, and
also only need to photograph from the long axis of the room to be less
concerned about distortion (the room is maybe 10X20? A bit larger?)

Alternatively, if I have them pose outside on a bench in a courtyard,
at noon, the lighting should be constant, and strong enough that I
probably could get away without a tripod, and I could stand back
farther and zoom in more for minimal distortion. But , it's cold
outside, so unless I want any pose except one in a heavy coat, I don't
know.


Could you help me? I plan on beginning this
sculpture in a couple weeks, and hadn't realized that there was more to
photography than 5 minutes of point-and-shoot. I want to do it right,
the second time that my friend will pose for me. How do you set up the
lighting, and what adjustments should I make with my digital camera?
It does have manual controls, I have simply never used them. What
about some of the other ideas, like merging a three-part image, taking
the effort to build a backdrop stand, maybe even a rotary table?


thanks for your advice!
-Bernard Arnest


You've got several issues you're struggling with, which leads to
multiple answers. Bear with me.

First things first. Since you mentioned a dorm room, I'm assuming
you're on campus, and you may find it a lot easier to hook up with a photo
class, if the college offers one (even a night course). They're likely to
have studio space, proper lighting, good backdrops, and above all, be
looking for models to experiment on. This could become mutually beneficial
- you get your shots, they get some practice with lighting a model, and in
the end, you can compare how everyone treated the subject.

But failing that, we'll start with distortion. Camera lenses do offer
some distortion, some more than others. For the sake of brevity, we'll deal
with "35mm equivalent" focal lengths, so you may have to translate for your
camera. But anything of a shorter focal length than 50mm will usually offer
a significant amount of distortion, and this will be very pronounced if
you're close to your subject. Even a 50mm will distort from a few feet
away. Portrait photographers typically use 85 to 120mm focal length,
because it offers the most accurate proportions as well as keeping the
subject within the focal range but often letting the background go out-of-
focus. Naturally, to do this means you have to be further from your subject
than you can manage within the room.

You have the right idea with lighting and tripod. A room lamp is dim,
and so the camera needs more of it to properly expose the image - this
means a longer shutter speed, and that's probably where your blur came in.
So the tripod helps, as does your subject remaining motionless.

You can also try boosting the ISO within the camera. You get the best
detail at 50-100 ISO, but these require a lot of light. ISO 400 might help
a lot with shutter speeds, but depending on the camera, may introduce a lot
of noise, or grain if you prefer.

The other option is more light. You can take a look around for
"slave" strobes, and there's quite a variety. They are triggered by another
flash, and require no connection between the camera and the strobe, so you
can have a light well offset to the side for nice 3D modeling and contour
detail, but producing enough light for higher shutter speeds as well as
nice low ISO for detail. Quite a few places carry slaves for digitals now,
ranging in price - as long as you don't need too much distance, you can
probably get an adequate one for $20 or so at a decent camera store. Check
out http://tinyurl.com/9m9hc for a version I use, mounts in any standard
light socket, moderate power.

You mentioned stitching together three shots, and this is an option.
You already have part of the necessary details down, which is to make sure
the camera remains dead-level and only moves perfectly vertically, parallel
to the 'film' plane. This might be harder than you think, since most
tripods aren't set up to let the camera traverse vertically more than 14",
usually much less. So it would require readjusting the legs, and forget
about maintaining a perfect camera position then. But for your purposes,
you may be able to cheat by sliding the camera along a wall or doorjamb,
which is where a digital with a flip-out LCD comes in handy ;-)

Also, to do this, you'd again need a focal length that avoids
distortion, and that's at least 50mm, better at 100. It's exceptionally
hard to tell what's adequate until you try stitching, so this might require
some trial-and-error. Make sure you allow for a decent amount of overlap
(at least 10%, 20 is better) to make alignment easier on yourself. Another
thing that might make alignment easier is to include a nice vertical line
in the background, so that you can correct not having the camera perfectly
level (thinking of sliding the camera along the wall now).

Finally, the lazy-susan trick. This can work in a lot of ways,
allowing you to fix the camera in position, use existing light, fix a
separate light, and so on. Depending on your model's position and weight,
you might get by with simply using a bit of carpet face down on a bare
floor (or an aluminum 'bowl' sled on a carpeted floor), with perhaps a
little help from friends for the rotation. There are other tricks, but just
be warned that the easier it is to move your model, the easier it is for
the model to shift their own position accidentally. A smooth plate on a
fine layer of vegetable oil may rotate great, but it will also shoot out
sideways too ;-). You can also look for a heavy-equipment dolly with
castoring wheels.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your project!


- Al.

--
To reply, insert dash in address to match domain below
Online photo gallery at www.wading-in.net

On 25 Nov 2005 15:16:57 -0800, Bernard Arnest wrote:
My thoughts: To get one more lamp for better lighting. Then get a
tripod. Hang white muslin or cheap sheets as a backdrop; random junk
on the desks and bookshelves around the room is distracting. The
tripod will fix the blurring.

You'd be best off to get yourself a worklamp from somewhere - a 200W or
something from your local DIY store. These should only cost around $20,
and will light the subject pretty well. The plain backdrop's a good idea,
but remember that light colours will bounce light onto your subject; as
you're going for a more neutral lighting effect this probably won't be an
issue. A tripod will definitely help, as you say.


ALSO, would it work, to zoom in on 1/3 of my subject, snap a photo,
lower the tripod to get the second third, and lower it further to get
the last third of the subject, then use photoshop to "photomerge" them?

It should do, but it's possibly more effort than it's worth.


so I can zoom in, for example, details of a hand or
face or a particular fabric fold?

For this I'd be more inclined to take pictures closer to that area; that
is, a separate set of photos for areas in which you want greater detail.

also only need to photograph from the long axis of the room to be less
concerned about distortion (the room is maybe 10X20? A bit larger?)

You'll get more neutral results from further distances, so using the long
axis will be best. Bear in mind quality issues will arise if you start
using a digital zoom, and possibly from the extremes of the optical zoom
too.


Alternatively, if I have them pose outside on a bench in a courtyard, at
noon, the lighting should be constant

Constant but harsh, as it's coming from overhead. You'll get a lot of
contrast if it's strong sunlight too - panda eyes and so on. An overcase
day would work for this, if you're not battling weather issues and
backdrop issues, and so forth.

Hope this helps,

--
Alex Pounds (Creature) .~. http://www.alexpounds.com/
CS Student /V\
// \\
"Variables won't; Constants aren't" /( )\
^`~'^