On fence w/D3200 / best settings for white background dark foreground

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guitz

New member
I have a new D3200 that I bought with the two lenses kit from BestBuy...I take lots of pictures of guitars for selling and have always used my trusty Panasonic Lumix ZS1, truly easy point and shoot...While it gets reasonable good images (though not as razor sharp clarity as I'd like) for blackground / colorful foreground pics, ..like a sunburst guitar on a black velvet material background with a 3 tripod lighting source , it seems to struggle with white background material and black or dark guitars...it looks dark and undetailed...maybe I need to crank up more lighting, but the images look so good with the black backgrounds...anyway, I am so new to the D 3200, that I don't know what the optimum settings would/should/could be for the white backdrop - dark guitar pics....I tried a few tests using multiple settings but quite honestly , the results weren't any better than with my Panasonic, and were actually worse!...The cool thing with the Panasonic, is there is a simple 'Exposure' setting that you can click to increase the brightness while snapping pics, that helps. Maybe the D 3200 has something similar while taking the pic? ...I'm hopeful that the ultimate solution doesn't involve forking over big bucks for a low light source lens or something..
 
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Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
You could try a few things but know going in there are no "best settings" for this; you have to understand what tools you have and how to apply them to get the results you want. Two big questions: 1. Are you shooting RAW or JPG and, 2. Do you do any post processing and if so, what software are you using to do it?

As for getting correct exposure, it could be as simple as using "Spot" metering on your camera and metering off the guitar in the photo.

Another thing to try would be the Exposure Compensation button which will increase or decrease exposure using discrete fractions of a stop, probably 1/3 of stop per "click". The Exposure Compensation button lies adjacent to the shutter-release and has a "+/-" on it. Press and hold that button while turning the command wheel and you can increase and decrease exposure of your shots in small increments until you get the exposure you want.

It might be you need to use both Spot metering AND Exposure compensation... Or something else entirely. Still, this is a good place to start. I have a feeling, though, that shooting in RAW and learning to post process will be your best bet.

If you're shooting in RAW and using good post-processing software, the solution is to correct these issues there as the RAW format will give you a lot more flexibility.

....
 
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G

guitz

New member
Horoscope Fish said:
You could try a few things but know going in there are no "best settings" for this; you have to understand what tools you have and how to apply them to get the results you want. Two big questions: 1. Are you shooting RAW or JPG and, 2. Do you do any post processing and if so, what software are you using to do it?

As for getting correct exposure, it could be as simple as using "Spot" metering on your camera and metering off the guitar in the photo.

Another thing to try would be the Exposure Compensation button which will increase or decrease exposure using discrete fractions of a stop, probably 1/3 of stop per "click". The Exposure Compensation button lies adjacent to the shutter-release and has a "+/-" on it. Press and hold that button while turning the command wheel and you can increase and decrease exposure of your shots in small increments until you get the exposure you want.

It might be you need to use both Spot metering AND Exposure compensation... Or something else entirely. Still, this is a good place to start. I have a feeling, though, that shooting in RAW and learning to post process will be your best bet.

If you're shooting in RAW and using good post-processing software, the solution is to correct these issues there as the RAW format will give you a lot more flexibility.

....
Click to expand...


Thanks for the reply! ..I do use the raw settings but photoshop doesn't seem to want to open those, or I don't have something set correctly yet....when I try, photoshop says 'could not complete the request because it is not the right kind of document' ....Thanks for the tip on the exposure compensation...I must have missed that in the guide, ...need to try that ...
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
guitz said:
Thanks for the reply! ..I do use the raw settings but photoshop doesn't seem to want to open those, or I don't have something set correctly yet....when I try, photoshop says 'could not complete the request because it is not the right kind of document' ....Thanks for the tip on the exposure compensation...I must have missed that in the guide, ...need to try that ...
Click to expand...

I suspect that your photoshop version does not support the D3200. Maybe you should update it... As far as exposure compensation, your best bet would be just to use manual settings, do a few test and look at the Histogram to make sure that you have details on the objects you want to show. I'd suggest reading a few tutorials on exposure and metering.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
guitz said:
Thanks for the reply! ..I do use the raw settings but photoshop doesn't seem to want to open those, or I don't have something set correctly yet....when I try, photoshop says 'could not complete the request because it is not the right kind of document' ....Thanks for the tip on the exposure compensation...I must have missed that in the guide, ...need to try that ...
Click to expand...
Well if you're going to shoot JPG then I'm going to suggest you make a couple changes to your camera's default settings. The fact that Photoshop is not playing nice with your RAW files is not good... We need to sort that out because THAT... Is no bueno.

As to your JPG settings:

Press the menu button and highlight the Shooting menu (the camera icon).
Drop down and highlight, "Picture Controls".
Click right one time to enter the menus.
Drop down and highlight, "Standard", then click right one time.
From this settings menu highlight the "Sharpness" slider and adjust it to +7.
Drop down and highlight the "Saturation" slider and adjust it one notch to the right.
Press the "OK" button to exit the menus.

This one setting will have a huuuuge impact on the overall quality of your JPG photos.

Now, as to your RAW files... What version of Photoshop are you using and how are you transferring your image files to your computer?

....
 
E

eidian

Senior Member
I'm not too familiar with some terminology so could you describe what a "3 tripod lighting source" is? Is the lighting hitting the guitars directly or are you bouncing the light off of the ceiling/wall?

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
 
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