Questions about taking taking photos for textures

#1

Hi, all

I have Finepix S6500fd camera. I don’t know what settings I need to use to take photos. They don’t always come out detailed. Is there any techniques or settings I can use?

How do you guys take photos?

Cheers

#2

“How do you guys take photos?”

That’s a wide ranging question, as techniques differ depending on the subject being shot. Give us more info on what you are shooting, so we can help.

#3

Did a quick search for your camera and found some info.

First of all, it’s 6.3 megapixels which is plenty of resolution for nice large (2848 x 2136) texture reference. You also have a nice iso range and f-stop range (F2.8-F4.9). With that out of the way, my suggestions are first get a good book on photography. This is a silly suggestion but like Dillster said, there are a ton of ways to take photos.

In this case, if you’re getting a blurry photo there are a few things I would check. A good reference photo is a combination of f-stop, iso, shutter speed and, most of all, available light. It also helps to make sure your image is white balanced and that you are shooting in RAW format if your camera allows (which it supposedly does).

F-stop, also called “lense speed” is a number that represents how much large the aperture blades in the lense expand to allow incoming light to expose the image. A lower f-stop number is a larger opening. This means the camera can expose the focused subject faster. However, less time exposing the subject also means more depth of field or blurring of the background. For example, I use a Canon 50mm 1.2 lense which at f1.2 causes the background to be completely blurred. If I shoot a persons face from within 1.5 feet I might even get the ears blurred as well. For reference photography, I recommend using a higher f-stop. For clothing and people I recommend something around f9-16 as a rule of thumb.

ISO represents how sensitive film or a digital image sensor is when exposed to light. In digital photography, a higher iso exposes faster than a lower one. However, a higher iso also introduces a varying amount of noise into the image (called “grain” in traditional film terms). So, for the cleanest possible reference images, a lower iso is ideal. 100-400 are usually fairly safe. 800 and up I would stay away from but the amount of grain added really depends upon the camera. Some cameras take perfectly acceptable images with iso’s up to 100,000.

Shutter speed is related to how long the digital sensor or film is exposed to light. A higher shutter speed is going to give sharpest detail on a hand held camera. A slower shutter speed on a hand held camera will introduce motion blur. Right now, I can hand hold to around 1/30 of a second without blur, but it took a lot of photographs to get the technique. Some professionals can do a one second exposure hand held without perceptable blur. After that, you will need to invest in a tripod. I recommend using a higher shutter speed as much as possible (1/125 or higher). However, shutter speed is going to be dependent upon how much available light you have.

Light is the basic food for cameras. The camera sensor needs light to expose a nice sharp image. If your f-stop is high, iso low, and shutter speed high then you are going to get an underexposed (dark). If your f-stop is low, iso high and shutter speed low then you are going to get an overexposed and blurry (from shutter speed) image. It will be a balancing act to see which is out of whack, but these are ultimately the root causes of 99% of poor reference images.

#4

Another thing to be careful of if you are making say tileable textures is the lens setting. Wider angles distort the image at the edges, so try to shoot at mid-range or slightly into telephoto end. You can test the best zoom setting for your particular lens by shooting a brick wall. Red brick walls have nice small bricks for this, and the cement lines between the bricks will be your guide to getting straightness as good as possible. Some editing in Photoshops transform tools will get it the rest of the way.

#5

Adding on to the information vine gave about photography in general, sometimes using a tripod is simply just the way to go.

If your subject matter has some depth to it, and if you want it all in focus, you’ll have to use a higher f-stop. Since you generally don’t want image noise, you’ll probably want to use a low ISO as well.

As mentioned though, you won’t get a lot of light with these 2 settings using any remotely fast shutter speed (which is the only way you’ll get a nice sharp image if you’re holding the camera in hand).

A tripod allows you to use slow shutter speeds in order to let in enough light to properly expose the image. You should also consider using your camera’s self timer (or a wired/wireless shutter release button) with the tripod so that you don’t shake the camera when pressing the shutter release button.

#6

Along with all the useful information said by the others I would add that weather is another “basic” thing you should be aware of. The best texture pictures can be made in cloudy weather and there must be almost no visible shadows on the subject. As a 3d artist and texture maker (I have three texture collections so far) I know that a good camera(with of course appropriate settings) and cloudy weather is all you need to make great textures. Good luck!

#7

Go to CGTextures to see how others have photographed textures for use in modeling/texturing apps.

#8

Yes indeed, the dull days are best. The enemies of good textures are shadows, and highlights that burn out detail.

#9

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