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I took a half decent photo of a pipe! Now if I can only remember how...

Congrats! nice pipe

It's much smaller in real life. I took a lot of grief in Chicago for making a tiny pipe.

Nice! Now add a light in front at a 20° or so angle from your lens and you'll have it down.

Agreed - and I have a trick for that too, just need some material and probably a bigger light. The idea is that this can be a one light rig, with a lot of reflected light.

Tiny pipes are the best.

d.huber wrote:Tiny pipes are the best.

+1

I made a cardboard light box with thin white fabric on 5 sides years back and still use it. It works great except ... I'm never happy with the results. The pipes never look like the real thing. I have 4 "daylight" lights that I experiment with in various locations. I always like the look and color of a pipe photo when I use real sunlight (even on my kitchen table). The pipe colors just look vastly superior. I have Photoshop Elements and have never been able to correct the look of artificial light to my satisfaction. Maybe I should try placing the light box in direct sunlight? Never done that.

I've never had any formal training in this type of photography so it's all trial & error.

Putting the lightbox in sunlight is helpful. I have one made specifically for product photography. I have a light on top of it, one clamped to shine in on the left side, one to shine through the front, and my detachable flash, which I set on the table that the stand is on and angle it up into the box. I'm sure I can still improve my pictures, but it's good enough. The main lesson is to make sure they are full spectrum bulbs, to have enough lights to eliminate shadows, and if possible, to shoot in high aperture so the whole pipe remains in focus. I typically shoot for F14 or so.

If your camera can't shoot in manual mode, you're going to have some pictures that will look weird.

Small pipes smoke well, and that one looks great SAS.

nice photo, I still can't take one worth a crap

and my main rotation of pipes are all tiny pipes, what hard worker has time for a hour long bowl in a pipe that weighs over an ounce? Hopefully when I reach an elder age I will have time for bigger pipes and longer smokes

Vermont Freehand wrote:nice photo, I still can't take one worth a crap

and my main rotation of pipes are all tiny pipes, what hard worker has time for a hour long bowl in a pipe that weighs over an ounce? Hopefully when I reach an elder age I will have time for bigger pipes and longer smokes

I can't win this either. When I smoke in the workshop, I puff like a maniac because I'm not paying attention to the pipe I'm smoking. So my lightweight pipes in the shop are almost too short of smokes.

Then when I sit down to smoke, the same pipe will take me twice as long to finish.

I can't smoke big pipes in the shop without hurting my jaw, and I can't smoke big pipes in the house because I don't have that much time.

When I make your billiard, I'll make it perfect for you, though.


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Pretty !!!!!!!!!!!

Respectively, afternoon sunlight(the golden hour) with a samsung mirrorless dslr and a fixed 30mm lens
White background, 2 day lights through white fabric. At maybe 5* above lens center iphone4s
Contrasting blue back ground. Same set up as middle shot.
I think learning good pipe photography is just as important as say contrast stain. Real sunlight always looks best. I think now that I am back from vacation I will be trying the Samsung in the photobox on the next one as well. I thought it was pretty interesting that the blue background washed the pipe out so much? Playing more soon.


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Of course sas you really are too good to worry about pics just send them to me and I'll photograph them. You can trade me out mentorship when I can get up there.


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