How do you photograph fishing lures

[turchino]

First, hi. I know absolutely nothing about taking pictures, real ones anyway. I have airbrushed some fishing lures and now I need to photograph them to catalog them and also to be able to show them. I have taken over 30 pics of these lures and none of the pics are really usable. I'm using an HP735. It takes good pics, it's just the operator. Can anyone please tell me where to go to find info?? Thanks in advance.

 

[Contra|Brett|]

i'd use a three light setup.

I made the lights different colors in the diagram, but i really just used table lamps, and my dad's coolpix8800 b/c it can set a good white balance. (by itself)
I also set it to overexposed two stops over what the matrix meter said, but if your camera can, i'd go 2.5 stops.

that is how i got this shot:

 

[Hertz van Rental]

If you put the items on a sheet of glass using the above set-up, then you don't need to use fishing line.
Adjust the lighting position through the viewfinder to remove any unwanted reflections.
Turn the background lights off and meter off the object lit with just the one main light. A softbox overhead (or a light with diffuser) is best. You might find metering easier if you use a grey card - that will give you the mid-point exposure.
Adjust the b/g lighting to give 2-3 stops over the grey card reading. That should give you white - if you over-light it too much the b/g light cuts into the object and you loose the edges.
If you have bright, shiny objects you can reduce the lighting behind to give shades of grey and make the items stand out more.
If you put both lights to the top or bottom of the background you can get a graduated fall-off. The b/g will go from white to dark grey. Can be effective.
In all cases the glass must be absolutely spotless and blemish free or it is noticeable.
Expose using the grey card reading.
Once you have it set up and got the exposure pegged you can just bang through the pictures. Doing catalogue shots like this you can get a through-put of one every couple of minutes.

 

[Christie Photo]

If you put the items on a sheet of glass...

Woah... this is a bit freaky. The first ever merit I received from the PPofA was for a 4x5 color trans shot exactly like this. That was around 25 years ago.

I did do one thing different. I wanted the hooks to hang naturally, so I mounted the glass vertically, like a window pane. Most lures are not very heavy, so it was easy to secure the product to the glass using a bit of double-stick tape. This also allowed me to be a bit creative with the background, while lighting the lure from any angle.

Be careful to block any light from falling on the camera, and use black stands and tripod to minimize any unwanted reflections.

We didn't have Photoshop when I did this, and retouching a transparency was virtually cost prohibitive. You should have an easier go at it now.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Remember one around 1980 with over 100 things stuck to a sheet of plate glass. The sheet of glass was something like 8'x6' and the backround was a seperate exposure using a slide projector. The shot took 12 weeks....

 

[nerddroid]

First, hi. I know absolutely nothing about taking pictures, real ones anyway. I have airbrushed some fishing lures and now I need to photograph them to catalog them and also to be able to show them. I have taken over 30 pics of these lures and none of the pics are really usable. I'm using an HP735. It takes good pics, it's just the operator. Can anyone please tell me where to go to find info?? Thanks in advance.

hey I used a natural light set up.
I used a diffuser on the left corner, and a reflector on the Right. used a mirror and bounced light behind the lure

 

[nerddroid]