Nikon 55~200 AFS

[robbins.photo]

Couple of thoughts, shutter speed needs to be faster. 1/60 or 1/120. Up the iso if need be, 100 iso will only be enough if you add a lot of light and honestly it's not necessary on a camera that has decent high iso to noise which.The 3200 has.

The Lens is not a good choice, it's not a sharp lens. Use a different lens. You don't need to.be 9 ft away. If you have an 18-55 use it and just move the camera closer. Your bags really don't require a huge DOF so start with f8 and check the results. Stop down from there one stop at a time till you get the results you want.



Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[Quovadis]

Using the low-power lights that you have, you can crank up the ISO which will allow a faster shutter.

Does your camera have a focus-assist light? Is it turned on?

Besides the focus issue, more light on the front of your subjects will make them look better.

Changing light bulbs will help only if they produce more light than your CFL bulbs.

As for using your 55-200mm lens as opposed to some other focal length, how large are the files that you are making? You should be able to crop to the optimum frame and still have adequate resolution. Use "large" size files then crop down.

Ah! I'm using small size pictures, I do not know about focus assist on a D3300 i will look it up. I will try a few pics with higher ISO, but a professional photographer said that for bags i needed 100 ISO

No, you don't need 100 iso. You should be able to shoot at up to 1600 iso on a d3200 with little to no noise reduction, up to 3200 with noise reduction and still get very usable images.

0.5 sec shutter speed ?
you may be getting some shutter flap

Try upping your Shutter speed to 1/125 minimum
or try "Exposure Delay" as the d3x00 and d5x00 series do not have MUP

1/125 gave me a black jpeg and a black raw file.

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

I tried to add light in front of the subject, and I tried auto ISO on A mode. I normally never shoot on A mode. I found auto ISO set itself to 900. The pictures were totally grainy.
Also adding strong lights pointing at the bag I noticed something else. I lost all the textures on the bag. I will shoot some more tomorrow.

 

[robbins.photo]

Using the low-power lights that you have, you can crank up the ISO which will allow a faster shutter.

Does your camera have a focus-assist light? Is it turned on?

Besides the focus issue, more light on the front of your subjects will make them look better.

Changing light bulbs will help only if they produce more light than your CFL bulbs.

As for using your 55-200mm lens as opposed to some other focal length, how large are the files that you are making? You should be able to crop to the optimum frame and still have adequate resolution. Use "large" size files then crop down.

Ah! I'm using small size pictures, I do not know about focus assist on a D3300 i will look it up. I will try a few pics with higher ISO, but a professional photographer said that for bags i needed 100 ISO

No, you don't need 100 iso. You should be able to shoot at up to 1600 iso on a d3200 with little to no noise reduction, up to 3200 with noise reduction and still get very usable images.

0.5 sec shutter speed ?
you may be getting some shutter flap

Try upping your Shutter speed to 1/125 minimum
or try "Exposure Delay" as the d3x00 and d5x00 series do not have MUP

1/125 gave me a black jpeg and a black raw file.

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

I tried to add light in front of the subject, and I tried auto ISO on A mode. I normally never shoot on A mode. I found auto ISO set itself to 900. The pictures were totally grainy.
Also adding strong lights pointing at the bag I noticed something else. I lost all the textures on the bag. I will shoot some more tomorrow.

Iso 800 on a d3200 would only look "grainy" if you pixel peep or blow up the image to a ridiculous degree.

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[jcdeboever]

Prime

 

[astroNikon]

Prime

Except with a Prime he would have to use a large aperture, which he'll loose DOF.

Best just to add some real lighting.
Yongnuo flashes and radio triggers are cheap. He'd just would have to learn how to use off camera flash properly.

 

[Quovadis]

Then we really have a problem somewhere, I will take more pics today at high ISO and show you how grainy they are. I always look at my pics at 100% magnification in photoshop (actual pixels).
At actual pixels they are grainy.

 

[Quovadis]

I cannot use flashes for bags. Some bags are patent leather, and others reflect light a lot. In fact it's close to impossible to have any bright light aimed at the bag directly in front because there will be a loss in textures. We want to see the leather and the texture. GAWD!!!!!!!!!!! this is becoming really difficult.

 

[Quovadis]

I can use a flash on canvas bags I suppose but most have silver tone hardware, which would create a sudden blast of light and cause the silver to reflect. It's for these reasons that I am using a lighting tent and diffused soft boxes, but they are not producing nearly enough light to shoot at the s numbers you guys want me to shoot at (1/125).

 

[astroNikon]

I cannot use flashes for bags. Some bags are patent leather, and others reflect light a lot. In fact it's close to impossible to have any bright light aimed at the bag directly in front because there will be a loss in textures. We want to see the leather and the texture. GAWD!!!!!!!!!!! this is becoming really difficult.

This is all about PROPER lighting
diffusion, angles, etc.
This is not something that you start and think it's easy. You have to learn to properly do it.
There's a book out there called Light, Science and Magic
==> https://www.amazon.com/Light-Scienc...50329&sr=8-1&keywords=light+science+and+magic

Though reading it, understanding it and properly implementing the techniques takes practice.

If you just look at pictures ==> photographic product photography setups - Google Search

you'll notice that a light is not setup for DIRECT pointing to an object.
It is diffused, or even bounced to that subject. If a flashlight is pointed directly towards a mirror and that light goes directly to the camera sensor you won't be able to take a picture of the mirror. If you diffuse/bounce the light to the mirror you'll have no problem taking a picture of a mirror.

search this site for "product photography"

 

[Braineack]

This thread is surprising on many levels. I dont understand all the focus on lights and shutter speed and a bunch of all crap that doesn't matter to what the OP is requesting.

The light is fine coupled long shutter speeds.

He simply needs better optics that can resolve the level of detail/sharpness that's desired. The 55-200mm is a SOFT lens.

Changing the lighting wont change the fact that he's using a doorstop for a lens. Just look at comparisons...

 

[Quovadis]

I cannot use flashes for bags. Some bags are patent leather, and others reflect light a lot. In fact it's close to impossible to have any bright light aimed at the bag directly in front because there will be a loss in textures. We want to see the leather and the texture. GAWD!!!!!!!!!!! this is becoming really difficult.

This is all about PROPER lighting
diffusion, angles, etc.
This is not something that you start and think it's easy. You have to learn to properly do it.
There's a book out there called Light, Science and Magic
==> https://www.amazon.com/Light-Scienc...50329&sr=8-1&keywords=light+science+and+magic

Though reading it, understanding it and properly implementing the techniques takes practice.

If you just look at pictures ==> photographic product photography setups - Google Search

you'll notice that a light is not setup for DIRECT pointing to an object.
It is diffused, or even bounced to that subject. If a flashlight is pointed directly towards a mirror and that light goes directly to the camera sensor you won't be able to take a picture of the mirror. If you diffuse/bounce the light to the mirror you'll have no problem taking a picture of a mirror.

search this site for "product photography"

Yes I agree that the camera perceives there is not enough light, therefore at F11 iso 100 and shutter speeds in the 1/125 ranges the pictures are BLACK. We also agree that turning the S wheel away from 1/125 towards 1, will give me the correct exposure, but the pictures will not be in focus 100%. We are getting there. However, I simply do not have time to start reading books, I need to hire a professional that can set up lights for me in this specific setting. This is not a hobby, I have to photograph 20 bags a day that are then sold on Ebay etc. You may well ask, why go through all this trouble to take good pictures for Ebay, when you could take them with an iphone? Partly because I want to get to the bottom of this.

 

[Braineack]

Except with a Prime he would have to use a large aperture, which he'll loose DOF.

seriously, man?

really?

I'm hoping that was some sort of inside joke...

 

[astroNikon]

He simply needs better optics that can resolve the level of detail/sharpness that's desired. The 55-200mm is a SOFT lens.

Changing the lighting wont change the fact that he's using a doorstop for a lens. Just look at comparisons...

yes that was mentioned at the beginning.
He even accepted it
then went to over avenues of trying to get a sharper image ignoring his lens problem.
see post #10 and #11 on the first page.

 

[astroNikon]

Except with a Prime he would have to use a large aperture, which he'll loose DOF.

seriously, man?

really?

I'm hoping that was some sort of inside joke...

Say he gets a prime.
Then starts using f/1.4, then like most newbies things will be OOF due to the aperture selection ...

 

[Quovadis]

This thread is surprising on many levels. I dont understand all the focus on lights and shutter speed and a bunch of all crap that doesn't matter to what the OP is requesting.

The light is fine coupled long shutter speeds.

He simply needs better optics that can resolve the level of detail/sharpness that's desired. The 55-200mm is a SOFT lens.

Changing the lighting wont change the fact that he's using a doorstop for a lens. Just look at comparisons...

Thank you, However the 18-55 is giving the exact same picture as the 55-200. I am going to try a Tokina 100mm, which is notoriously a sharp lens.

Except with a Prime he would have to use a large aperture, which he'll loose DOF.

seriously, man?

really?

I'm hoping that was some sort of inside joke...

Ok so what is a notoriously sharp lens I can use? I need to stand back at least 5 feet, or the bag will not look natural. Someone told me the Tokina 100mm is razor sharp