How do you photograph or what technique do you use so that the image/subject is clear from all angle? Every time I photographed my toys in the three-quarter view, one side of the toy is very clear and the other side would be blurry. For example, if I shoot G1 Onslaught in his vehicle mode and position at a 45 degree angle, the cab part would be sharp/clear while his rear is fuzzy.

Assuming lighting isn't an issue, this is what I did:
1 - Macro mode is turn on. (Sometime I turn it off)
2 - My focus point is the front of the cab. I wish I could split the focus box so that the image would all be focused.
3 - I'm shooting about 6 inch away from the subject.
4 - My flash is turn off because I have 2 spot lights already.
5 - My camara is Canon Powershot Sd1300 w/ 12.1 Mega Pixel.

So, what did I do wrong or any tip would be appreciated it.

 

What happens if you move the camera back and zoom it in?

Hakka.

 

It sounds like the main thing you need to do is aim a bit more for the middle depth in the shot. Aim for the back of the cab / base of the cannons, and crop the photo so it is centred properly afterwards and see if that helps at all.

That said, a multi focus area is a great tool. It sometimes focuses on what is nearest to the camera, but most times I've found it does a good job of picking a wider area to focus on.

Do you have AE metering on that camera? Try setting that to a multiple source if you can and see if it helps at all.


Yes, or try getting a bit further back. Don't worry about the zoom so much, you should be using the higher megapixel ratings and resizing in photoshop after anyway. Gets better definition that way.

 

AE metering? I didn't know what those boxes in my camara mean until I googled your word AE metering which showed: Spot metering, Centre weighted metering, Matrix metering. On mind the last one shows, Evaluative instead of Matrix.
All this time, I just pick the default value. I'll play around later.

The multi focus, is this related to AE or different? I noticed sometime when I click the shoot button halfway, my focus point will show multiple boxes/focus on the subject. Of course sometime it will only show one box. I have no control or how to bring the focus box to do multiple focusing.

As for Hakka, sometimes I did move the camara back when I'm in the normal mode, but the result is the same.

I was told by the camara seller, if I'm in Macro mode, I'm now allow to zoom the camara. My zoom is supposed to be in the far out zoom (tele zoom?) position. Otherwise the quality will be blurry and beat the Macro purpose. My question, is this true? Sometimes I just shoot which ever mode looks best.

 

I usually increase the f-stop to maybe around f/16 or f/22 to make the figure look sharp everywhere. Take your example as an example (WHAT?!?!)...

If the f-stop is low (f/1.4 or f/2), the G1 Onslaught in his vehicle mode that I'm shooting at a 45 degree angle, the cab part would be sharp/clear while his rear is fuzzy.

If the f-stop is high (f/16 or f/22), the G1 Onslaught in his vehicle mode that I'm shooting at a 45 degree angle, both the cab part and his rear would be sharp/clear.

In a nutshell, lower f-stop = more blurred background, higher f-stop = less blurred background. I hope this helps you.  

EDIT: Oh... and macro is usually used to make the f-stop lower which means the background is more blurred thus allowing the person looking at the photo to focus on the subject rather than the background. Just type macro in Google images and there are plenty of examples. I personally do not use macro for high f-stop - close-up shots. Yet again, I hope what I've said would answer your question.  

 

F-Stop? As I pressed the shoot button halfway, I noticed it always display the distance (1/10, 1/30, 1/60, etc) and next to that is a fixed number "F2.8". Is this the F-stop you are talking about, F2.8? If yes, I have no idea or where to adjust the setting. I look everywhere, can't find it. Maybe I need to buy those big/bulky camara that has interchangeable lens to have that feature? Because mine is only a pocket size camara, canon powershot.

Hm, what camara would anyone recommend for photographing models/toys?

 

Great info in that post.

Thanks.

Hakka.

 

There's not really a need to buy DSLRs (big/bulky cameras) or SLRs or any professional cameras to take good photos. Canon PowerShot SD1300 is okay for a take out and snap a photo, but it's better if you have a camera that has manual or aperture priority modes (which your camera does not have). I use a Canon PowerShot A640 which has both of the modes mentioned and is cheap (due to its age).

For manual mode, basically you can adjust the ISO, f-stop and shutter speed. Whereas aperture priority, you can only adjust the ISO and f-stop, while the computer AI will help you set the shutter speed. I usually use the aperture priority for photographing models/toys as shutter speed is not really a factor when photographing models/toys if you have a tripod.

Back to the main point, f-stop. F-stop is usually showed on the camera's LCD screen as F2.8 or F16 or any number after F. As for shutter speed, it's showed as 1", 1/10, 1/30. The larger the number the slower the shutter speed, the smaller the number, the faster the shutter speed. For f-stop, as I have explained before lower f-stop = more blurred background, higher f-stop = less blurred background. For the ISO which I mentioned before is to generally make your photos brighter, so low ISO = dimmer, high ISO = brighter. But there's a price to pay for a high ISO, which is... your photos will have more noise, but this is not a problem when you have a lightbox.

Here is a good tutorial on how to take good photos, mostly on the manual mode settings: Photography 101

I recommend buying a good camera which has a manual mode, two examples would be PowerShot A640 or A630. Don't mind about the megapixels as nowadays, most cameras have 8.0 and above megapixels which is good enough already. Yet again, I hope this would help you.  

 

Thanks a lot LeAmourVrai and everyone here. That were very helpful.

 

I've just been playing around with my camera, a Canon Ixus 105. It doesn't have a setting to adjust the aperture/fstop but by moving the camera back and using the optical zoom the fstop went from 2.8 to 8.0.

This might come in handy if your camera doesn't have the setting.

hakka.