Creative photography

[Laurance Clarke]

I am fumbling with a Nikon 995 and I need to accomplish two things:

I need to do close up product shots using available light or supplemental [but not studio] lighting. Flash shots are unacceptably boring and the subject is highly reflective [the product is highly polished metal, the package is a box with an acrylic lid, and the lid has silver foil printing on it... so everything about this subject causes flashback]. I can solve the reflection challenges with careful positioning, so that's not such a problem but I'm having difficulty setting the camera for available light and still getting absolutely sharp images which is essential for the closeups. I'm sure this isn't rocket science, just some typical setup appropriate for the circumstances, but rather than experiment more, I'd rather get advice from a knowledgeable source.

The second task is more daunting: I want to try using one of the Nikon fisheye lenses for the 995 type camera to get more content in the images and then use Photoshop [or ?] to do the "corrections" so that extreme distortion is removed. Advice on both the lens of choice for this, the probability of interesting results, as well as how to do such corrections is what I'm seeking.

Thanks to any who respond--
lrc46

[Mike54]

Hi Laurence and welcome to the Q&A Board. I don't know that I'd consider myself a knowledgeable source but I'll try to offer some advice anyway.
For your first task I would suggest using manual mode and trying a more closed down aperture, say maybe f/20 and a slow shutter speed. Your camera will allow up to 8 seconds so I would expect that with available light you should be able to get a decent closeup without too much trouble. Obviously (I hope) a tripod will be necessary to sharp images.
As to your second task I'm afraid I can't suggest a lens as I'm unfamiliar with the specifics of the camera accessories. I have tried using the fisheye correction tool in Paint Shop Pro 9 and frankly feel it left a lot to be desired but I can't comment on Photoshops capabilities. I will say that you might do just as well attempting a closeup "panorama" and stitching the pieces together for your wide angle shot. There are several panoramic stiching softwares listed here.
BTW how big is the product in question?

[Deb]

Hi there, I've used the 995 with the Nikon 3x teleconverter (actually a complete lens) and it worked like a charm. I'm assuming their wide-angle converter lens (the WC-E63 Wide angle) would work similarly.

These lenses screw to the threads on the front of the 995's lens. This lens converts to a 24mm-96mm. There is also a WC-E24 which converts to a 24mm-72mm. Both will block your view through the viewfinder so you'll need to use your LCD for composing your shot. The flash sensor is also blocked but you won't be using flash with this lens anyway. When the converter is mounted AND you've selected that lens mode on your 995, both internal and external flash are disabled. Vignetting is eliminated in this mode. (If you desire vignetting, simple use the stand lens mode.) I'd recommend locking the body so that the lens weight doesn't cause the camera tilt feature to swivel. Use that little slider on the bottom of the camera to do this.

Having said all of that  , if you're shooting products then I'd definitely use the standard lens and stitch the images as Mike suggested. You won't run the risk of any distortion that way. If need be, shoot three across and two up. Depends on the proportions of the item you're shooting of course. Also, shoot on TIFF mode so that you have use of all those pixels. Then size down if you must after all post-production editing is complete.