Post Your Tabletop photography, pack shot and still life

[Blue439]

Textures (2019)

Photograph taken for a Flickr theme-based group and meant to show assorted textures: wool, cotton, leather, glass and liquid (limoncello). Soft leather case by Lucrin in Geneva for my half-moon glasses; Armor-Lux marinière sweater; Uniqlo Summer cotton shirt; and in the background, a splendid cashmere scarf bought for my wife in the souks of Istanbul, and for which I haggled for almost half an hour (was worth it!).

Nikon Z7, Micro-Nikkor 60mm ƒ/2.8 macro lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting. Composite shot made up of 25 focus-stacked exposures, using the built-in function on the camera. Stack processed with Helicon Focus.

 

[Blue439]

Exotic veggies (2019)

Nikon Z7, Sigma 135mm ƒ/1.8 Art lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1geared head. Multi-flash lighting. Composite shot made up of 34 focus-stacked exposures, using the built-in function on the camera. Stack processed with Helicon Focus.

 

[Blue439]

A Mediæval lockbox (2019)

Among my most valued antiques is this late Mediæval (14th century) lockbox. Made of engraved iron plates, still quite sturdy in spite of the damages caused by the passing of time (and probably less careful previous owners), it features a very cleverly hidden lock. It was passed down from my great-aunt Aliette, marchioness of Maillé. I’m not sure it is a museum-grade piece, as it is not really in absolutely pristine condition, but it would certainly interest a local museum.

Nikon Z7, Micro-Nikkor 105mm ƒ/2.8 G VR macro lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting. Composite shot made up of 25 focus-stacked exposures, using the built-in function on the camera. Stack processed with Helicon Focus.

 

[Blue439]

A bunch of Faber Castells (2019)

A box of assorted Faber Castell Pitt artist pens I bought for my wife. We discovered last year that, when the ambient temperature is too high, they change color and become utterly unusable. However, when the thermometer goes down again, they go back to their original assigned tints!

Nikon Z7, Micro-Nikkor 105mm ƒ/2.8 G VR macro lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting. Composite shot made up of 15 focus-stacked exposures, using the built-in function on the camera. Stack processed with Helicon Focus.

 

[Blue439]

Rotring 800 mechanical pencil (2018)

This dates back from the time I was exploring very low-key flash lighting, a domain I still find extremely interesting, as it leaves so much more to the imagination...

Nikon D850, Micro-Nikkor 60mm, ƒ/2.8 D macro lens. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting.

 

[Blue439]

A hint of a bellows (2019)

Another try at low-key flash lighting, this rime showing (?) the Novoflex bellows with a Z7 camera and an 85/1.8 S lens. Too dark, this time, maybe, huh?

Nikon D850, Micro-Nikkor 60mm, ƒ/2.8 D macro lens. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash ligthing, single exposure.

 

[Blue439]

Colorchecker Passport (2019)

The X-Rite tool that I use almost all the time when shooting indoors (or outdoors with flash) for color calibration and accuracy. I also have the Datacolor Spydercheckr, which is essentially a larger version of this, but I use the Passport more often.

Nikon Z7, Micro-Nikkor 105mm, ƒ/2.8 G VR lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting.

 

[Blue439]

The Frog (2020)

The frog was pilfered from my wife’s workshop to sit on yellow leather for a theme-based Flickr group. You guessed the theme: “yellow”.

Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z “Nifty Fifty” 50mm, ƒ/1.8 S lens. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting.

 

[Blue439]

Red and Blue (2020)

Even humble Sharpies can look good when they do their best. It’s all about the lighting!

Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 85mm, ƒ/1.8 S lens. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting. Composite shot made up of 10 focus-stacked exposures, set automatically using the built-in function on the camera. Stack processed with Helicon Focus.

 

[Blue439]

An anti-heat weapon (2020)

As is generally the case owing to global warming, near Lyon where I live in France Summers tend to be hotter and hotter, and longer as well. As my wife is fiercely opposed to air conditioning (and of course she’s right about its adverse effects on the said global warming), I’m not planning on having that installed in any foreseeable future. This Dyson Cryptomic appliance is not much more than a glorified fan, only a lot more expensive and with plenty of bells and whistles in terms of air filtering and purification. It works reasonably well and lighting it for the photo was fun. We now have several for various rooms and last year I bought a German one with a water supply that is even better at keeping the main living room cool. With the passing of time, I tend to be both more sensitive to cold, and less tolerant to heat —not reassuring!

Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z “Nifty Fifty” 50mm, ƒ/1.8 S lens. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting. I composited two exposures for this photo: one taken with the flash, and one without for the little round dial to better show its display.

 

[Blue439]

Orange (2018)

The “cheap”, supposedly second-tier Micro-Nikkor 60mm ƒ/2.8 D macro lens is the best glass deal I ever got in my life. Back then in the days of the F mount, my macro lens of choice was, of course, the 105/2.8 G VR, and I regarded its smaller, non-VR brother as an inferior performer. Then, the ES–2 film and slide reproduction thingy came out and I thought it would be great to finally get to digitize some of those old Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides that had been sleeping for so many years in their grey Leica Pradovit trays from the 1980s and 90s... The problem was, the ES–2 did not work with the 105mm lens and required the 60mm... So, I bought a secondhand copy, and the irony is, I ended up never using that slide reproduction kit (I will get to it some day), but began instead to use the 60mm for tabletop and macro work, as it had proved to be such a remarkable performer as soon as I began to put it through its paces...

This was a good lesson in lens snobism! Even today, I retain the 60mm while the F-mount 105mm is long gone, if only to use it one day to digitize slides...

Nikon D850, Micro-Nikkor 60mm, ƒ/2.8 D macro lens. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting. Single exposure.

 

[Blue439]

Doesn’t get any cuter... (2020)

Beyond the challenge of lighting round-shaped glass, the sheer cuteness of this little USB key made it all worth the effort. What an absurdly lovely example of a protective casing more fragile than its content!

Nikon Z7, Micro-Nikkor 105mm, ƒ/2.8 G VR macro lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting, high-speed sync. Single exposure.

 

[Blue439]

The (then) new and the (not so) old (2018)

iPhone snapshot of my then-newly-acquired Z7 camera body with a seemingly old–fashioned Nikkor lens attached to it via the FTZ adapter. In fact, that lens is fairly recent, it is a Voigtländer Nokton 58mm f/1.4, made in Japan by Cosina, splendid build and optical quality, and designed to look exactly like the old “bunny–eared” Nikkors —with Nikon’s full approval, no doubt. Manual focus lens of course, a pleasure to use, especially on mirrorless cameras where the assistance of focus peaking makes focusing a breeze.

Contrary to the lens, the hood is very old: it is the clip–on, full metal HS–6 lens hood designed by Nikon to go on 50mm lenses. At the time, most Nikon lenses were 52mm in filter size, and this Voigtländer honored the same tradition. Therefore, the old lens hood which I bought in the 1970s (and which, as you can see, is in perfect condition and working order) fit on the Nokton as if it had been made for it.

The Eddycam elk hide shoulder straps were the best ones I had ever used with my DSLRs. I had tried many of assorted types, traditional ones and “technical” new ones with lots of features, and eventually found that these Eddycams were the absolute best for comfort and ease of use (and they would never make you sweat underneath, no matter how scorching hot it was). I had two, a wide one for DSLRs, and this thinner one for the Fuji X–Pro mirrorless cameras I had for some time.

I only stopped using the Eddycams for the unbeatable convenience of the Peak Design system of bags, pouches, attachments plates and shoulder/wrist straps, and even though the Peak Design system is most excellent, I do from time to time regret my Eddycams... Well, they're still in the closet, and will maybe come out of it some day, looking and feeling good as new...

 

[Blue439]

Books bound in leather (2020)

Early 20th century leather-bound books.

Nikon Z7, Micro-Nikkor 60mm, ƒ/2.8 D tilt-shift macro lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1geared head. Multi-flash lighting. Single exposure.

 

[Blue439]

Snowman on the Christmas tree (2020)

Nikon Z7, Micro-Nikkor 105mm, ƒ/2.8 G VR macro lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Natural light, single exposure. In the background is one of those hand-made glass Christmas balls from the Biot glassmaking factory in the south of France. We have a couple of them and always hang them up high, out of reach of the (younger) children!

 

[Blue439]

Lifestyle (2018)

Composition organized for a themed challenge (“Lifestyle”) of a tabletop photography group on Flickr.

Nikon Z7, Z 35mm f/1.8 S lens. Gitzo GT3543 XLS tripod with Arca–Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting. Composite shot made of 12 focus–stacked exposures, using the built–in function on the camera. Stack processed with Helicon Focus, Method C.

 

[Blue439]

A watch ready to sail (2020)

My Citizen watch propped up against the background of Au large, a technical and practical sailing handbook by Alain Gliksman. Published in 1967, this was the first such large book I ever bought, maybe a year or two after it came out. I was just a young boy learning to sail and dreaming about bluewater sailing and racing and it was my first sailing Bible. It was very expensive and I’d had to save quite some pocket money to afford it. I still have it to this day.

Author Alain Gliksman became a mentor and a friend in the decades that followed. He had retired from sailing for quite a while when he passed away in 2023 at age 91.

Nikon Z7, Micro-Nikkor 105mm, ƒ/2.8 G VR lens, FTZ adapter. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Multi-flash lighting, single exposure.

 

[Sandpatch]

Not sure where to post this kitchen goodness still life, so I'll place it here. [D5100]