I'm taking rubbish pics in a warehouse

Hi chaps ... I do some studio photography for a local auction house, I have a desktop setup there and all goes pretty well. The sometimes though ask me to take really quick shots in the storage area, I mean quick 100 objects an hour. This is not fun but I like to keep them happy so I get on with it (they normally do it themselves but when someones on holiday they have a problem). The trouble is I think I'm approaching it the wrong way. I stick a speedlite 580 ex on my 5d mkII and shoot away but the ceilings too high to bounce the flash so I get hot spots etc. I tried setting the camera to auto - this helped a little but I got very shallow dof on some subjects which they weren't happy with. Some advice please would be very welcome.

Roger

Did you try lifting the 580 Bounce/Fill card up (with the flash pointing up)?

Get the flash off the hotshoe, place some kind of modifier on it and turn the power down.

something like this should help.....$20.00 on ebay

http://www.amazon.com …1-13&keywords=flash+stan​d

and then

http://www.amazon.com …yung+nuo+transc​iever+pair

Hi

Why are you at 47mm on the top picture ?
I would be at 24 mm.
So what's with the lamp in the frame
In your second picture what's with the dust .
Are you trying tell people they might catch something just by buying the dirty dusty stuff.


On your top picture even if you where off shoe and using a rogue flash bender or a soft box your still not going to get the best photos.

Almost all of my photography is on exotic wood products with a clear smooth finish .

Use linear polarized film over your soft box or flash bender.
and use a CPL on your lens, you just filtered out allot of light and you may need to go with a tripod.

All lighting sources that ether emits EPW Electromagnet polarized waves.
or the light is reflected, refracted, or scattered is or now has EPW.
When EPW strikes all non metallic smooth surfaces it creates polarized reflection.
AKA glare.
its just like going to the lake on a sunny day without you polarized sun glasses. You will not be able to see because of the glare coming off the water .

Now look at ( your ) top photo and tell me its not blinding you with glare .

The book Light Science and magic will walk you right through this.
Starts about page 65.
Its called Cross polarization technic and it filters out about 1/3 to half of the light.


You can see the linear polarized film on the bottom of my soft box.
And the CPL on the end of the TSE 17mm f4 L lens.

IMAGE LINK: http://s1110.photobuck​et.com …/019_zps31136ac​b.jpg.html

IMAGE LINK: http://s1110.photobuck​et.com …dsPC_zps6404be4​a.jpg.html

IMAGE LINK: http://s1110.photobuck​et.com …vid1_zps0ed63fc​7.jpg.html

.

The one without the cross-polarization technique looks to be a nicer, overall better-looking photo, despite the glare coming off of the antler (or bone or whatever it is).

The one with the cross-polarization looks kind of dull and lifeless, as if the light was flat or something.

.

You obviously aren't of the antiquing or auction oriented crowd (which isn't a bad thing). People like to see what is hidden in the mix of other things, whether in person or via pictures, it makes it feel like more a treasure hunt than just a casual outing to shop. Auction houses themselves run so much through their facilities as well, that they don't always clean things up. It is all contingent on the auction house and the matter in which they are liquidating the goods, dust and all.

The TS already knows about the glare, he/she even stated it in the OP, and they are asking how to do this better. In this environment, having a remote flash or two on stands with softboxes being controlled remotely should do the trick in lighting up the various goods. Just put the stands on other tables/dressers, etc and lower or raise accordingly depending on the surroundings.

rogertb wrote in post #17755454
They sometimes though ask me to take really quick shots in the storage area, I mean quick 100 objects an hour.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17757278
In this environment, having a remote flash or two on stands with softboxes being controlled remotely should do the trick in lighting up the various goods. Just put the stands on other tables/dressers, etc and lower or raise accordingly depending on the surroundings.

TeamSpeed,
I am curious to know if what you suggest would actually be able to be accomplished in the rapid-fire shooting environment that the OP is forced to shoot in. . What you suggest sounds like a great way to produce better images, but I don't see how the OP could do all of that and still shoot all 100 items in an hour. . What do you think?

In an auction house, things are all crammed together, and from that picture, that looks to be no different. You can set the flashes up about 20 feet away or so off at angles crossing each other, and cover a large area this way. You could rattle off several items quickly with this setup, then move the stands to a new location. Basically wash the area, not the individual subject, with light. This requires a minimum of 2 flashes. I would even suggest a 3rd sitting on the transceiver on the camera, but with its own diffuser like a Fong, or one of those foam diffusers (DIY w/link below or purchased).

http://lifehacker.com …-diffuser-from-craft-foam

Now, exactly what are the purposes of these pics? Inventory needs, or for customer viewing for future sales? I would presume based on their needs and how they have this laid out (or actually not laid out), these are more for inventory/insurance needs. With the DOF comment in the OP, I guess I could see the other side of this, and they want pics to send out to potential buyers? If the latter, it would be more beneficial to have a staging area set up and just have the pieces brought through the staging area, like what an online car dealer will often do.

Thanks one and all for such good advice/comments ... there is a lot of dirt and dust but if I were to stop to arrange things or clean up and get the lighting good I'd lose the job and the best bit of the work is the "antiques" where I can can dust things off and shoot in more of a studio environment and get payed quite well for it. This rubbish they normally do themselves but sometimes ask me to help out but don't want to spend any money ... it's a bit of a loss leader but there's a limit to my generosity and they're not interested in the quality ... I'll try winding up the iso and standing back a bit with a bigger diffuser (I obviously need to keep 'post' work to a minimum as well. Thanks again everyone ... Roger