# Nikon D3200 + 50mm 1.8g: Product Photography?



## bryguy_ASU (Sep 2, 2014)

Hey guys..

Would the D3200 + 50mm 1.8G be a good combo for sharpness on product photography such as wheel rims?

If not, what lens on a budget that's similar to that lens? 

Also what's the best settings for sharpness?


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## JohnnyWrench (Sep 2, 2014)

That set-up will be fine. There are no "best settings for sharpness."  What you need is good light, appropriate depth of field for the look you want and sufficient shutter speed.


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 2, 2014)

Thanks... We have the 18-55 and 55-200, but we're thinking of getting a prime lens because I was told they're sharper. Also, the DXO rating on the 50mm 1.8G appears way better than the kit zooms. Thoughts?


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## sscarmack (Sep 2, 2014)

Get a macro lens


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## JohnnyWrench (Sep 2, 2014)

Are your shots with the 18-55 not sharp enough?  Post a photo or two if you can. It might be your technique that's letting you down and not your equipment.


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## PropilotBW (Sep 2, 2014)

sscarmack said:


> Get a macro lens
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk




I agree.  Minimum focus distance for that 50mm is 1.5 feet.  There might be times when you want to get closer to accentuate a certain feature, and having a macro lens might be nice to have.  
For a budget lens, Take a look at the 40mm 2.8 DX lens.  It sells for $250-$275 new.  You can find them used for $225 at Keh.


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 2, 2014)

sscarmack said:


> Get a macro lens
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Macro even if the subject is the size of a car tire rim?


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## PropilotBW (Sep 2, 2014)

bryguy_ASU said:


> sscarmack said:
> 
> 
> > Get a macro lens
> ...



If you're on  a budget, it's nice to have a lens that gives you options.


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 2, 2014)

JohnnyWrench said:


> Are your shots with the 18-55 not sharp enough?  Post a photo or two if you can. It might be your technique that's letting you down and not your equipment.


Okay... I'll ask the boss if it's cool that we do that. Thanks for the help guys.


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## KmH (Sep 2, 2014)

The 50 mm may distort wheel rims.
It would depend on your set up.

I would use a lens in the 85 mm to 135 mm range for car wheels.


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 2, 2014)

Even considering the crop factor bringing the 50mm to ~70mm equivalent?


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 2, 2014)

Here's the setup.. 5 continuous lighting softboxes.


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## JohnnyWrench (Sep 4, 2014)

Can you post a couple photos taken with that set-up?


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## KmH (Sep 4, 2014)

Where will the camera be in that light set up?
If the wheels will be flat on that round support. to minimize distortion the camera will need to be directly overhead and pointed straight down.


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 16, 2014)

Okay... So we bought an intervalrometer and we're going to take pics from scratch. The turntable shown in the picture takes 30 seconds for a complete 360. We're going to retake the sets 1 per sec, so 30 shots. 

We are standing the wheels vertically on that turntable. Camera is elevated on a tripod pointed slightly down. 

What are the best settings to minimize motion blur and expose properly at f/8?

Edit: at a high shutter speed, like 1/250 the photo gets really dark. Help please.


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## JohnnyWrench (Sep 16, 2014)

If you need 1/250 to eliminate motion blur and f/8 for depth of field your only two options are to make the light brighter or to boost your ISO setting.


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 16, 2014)

What's the max ISO on a D3200 before noise really degrades the images?

Oh and is 1/250 necessary on a slowly rotating subject? The lens is the 50-200mm @ 60mm.


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## PropilotBW (Sep 16, 2014)

I'm interested to see a sample pic of your work


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## hamlet (Sep 16, 2014)

bryguy_ASU said:


> What's the max ISO on a D3200 before noise really degrades the images?
> 
> Oh and is 1/250 necessary on a slowly rotating subject? The lens is the 50-200mm @ 60mm.


For me it would have to be iso 800 when there is little light, and at iso 3200 when taken in good lighting conditions.

From one d3200 user to another: take your camera out to town and spend a whole day from day to night taking your camera through its paces. Doing things hands on in varying lighting conditions throughout the day in manual setting, that will give you incredible clarity into what the technical side of photography is all about. Go out and get your hands dirty.


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 16, 2014)

I'll try to get samples up soon. Problem with trying to take this camera out on the town is that it's the company's camera, and I have access only at work in a make-shift studio in the attic of the building. 

Sidenote, I do have my own ILC, but it's a mirrorless NX300. So much easier to use and handles high ISO pretty well. But that's neither here nor there because my knowledge of the nuances with a D3200 are sparse. So the help provided is very much appreciated.


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## molested_cow (Sep 16, 2014)

1. Use a macro lens(60mm or 105mm), set it to low aperture until the entire product is within the depth of field area(got to do test shots to be sure).
If you don't have a macro lens, you can also use a telephoto lens, except that you will need to shoot from quite far away(space limitation indoor?)
2. Put your camera on a triopd. Use either a remote trigger or timer to avoid camera motion when you press the shutter. If the D3200 has a M up mode, use that too. In this case, you can use the lowest ISO/long shutter speed since you've eliminated the chance of motion blur.
3. Of course shoot in aperture priority mode and set it to the aperture size as mentioned in the first point.
4. Shoot in RAW and edit in post processing(if you have the resource).

Rims are often with shiny surfaces, meaning it's going to show reflections of the surroundings. Therefore, your choice of environment matters. I'd prepare a big white board and a black board to create reflection (like those you see on Apple product shots even though they are CGI) on the rims to help create better form definition. You will need someone to hold those boards for you.


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## korreman (Sep 17, 2014)

We should get a banner next to the forum logo saying "POST A FREAKING EXAMPLE PHOTO".


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 17, 2014)

Sorry for the delay... it's not my own personal files so it's hard to upload examples right away. Anyways, here are a couple. One is a still subject taken with RAW + JPEG. The one posted is the JPEG with no post-processing. So I know I can do a lot in PP to get the RAW file sharp, denoising, etc. 

The other, that has motion blur, was on a turn-table that spins very slow. Takes about 30 seconds for a full 360. So I need to figure out settings that I can snap about 30 pictures on the turntable for a 360 view with proper exposure and no blur. So fast shutter speed.


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 17, 2014)

I have this intervalometer for the interval shots, 1 every second since I need 30 shots for a 360 viewer online.

http://www.amazon.com/JJC-TM-M-Timer-Remote-Control/dp/B008XW7T8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410980947&sr=8-1&keywords=nikon intervalometer


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## waday (Sep 17, 2014)

bryguy_ASU said:


> Camera is elevated on a tripod pointed slightly down.



I'm not a product photographer, so it's intriguing that you would have the camera pointed slightly down rather than in-line with the rims. 

Why would you not have the camera in-line with the rims to show off the design? Otherwise, would you not capture some of the inside-top of the rim, which, as a consumer, I wouldn't really care about? I can see if you are rotating and I get to see some of the inside-side of the rim, that'd be more interesting than the inside-top. I really hope that makes sense.

(I'm literally asking the question to learn something/be inquisitive. Not trying to tell you how to do your job. )


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 17, 2014)

Well now that I posted the actual product, they're industrial reels for hoses.. not car wheels. I only mentioned that they're the size of car wheels to give a descriptor in terms of size reference. My boss gave me permission to post a couple, which I just did in  my previous post.


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## JohnnyWrench (Sep 17, 2014)

Feel free to tell me to go pound sand, but it seems like you're making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Do you really need 30 photos of a hose reel? 30 photos gives an image every 12 degrees. Couldn't you just do 8 photos which shows it every 45 degrees? That seems like more than enough to sell a hose reel. You could just rotate the thing by hand for each shot and do long exposures at base ISO and whatever f-stop you want.  Just my .02...


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## bryguy_ASU (Sep 17, 2014)

Yeah I suppose I could just manually rotate the stand to get various angles of the product at a much slower shutter speed. However, we have so many various models and series of reels, that I thought it would be more efficient to use the intervalometer. We're going to be using Web Rotate 360 viewer and it's suggested to use 24 to 30 images to get a smooth interactive rotation on the product. Hence why I needed so many images. 

Guess I'll just have rethink the strategy on getting the photos.


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