Nikon D50 Camera

[Garth Herrick]

Bobbi,

That's some serious distortion! A reason your lens may be doing this is to avoid stretching and elongating the image to the corners. My lenses have never produced anything like that (usually they have an extremely mild reverse of this problem, - pin-cushioning, where the corners are slightly extended). I bet you were standing close to your work with the lens focal length toward the 18mm end. I would suggest trying the same pictures from a much greater distance. If that does not work, then you should shop for a better suited lens; there are so many other candidates.

My three current lenses are zooms also, so they are not entirely perfect. Maybe someone can pipe in whether their prime lens (non-zoom) is distortion free. I have a Sigma 15 - 30 mm that compensates to avoid your problem by stretching and elongating the images (another distortion) to the corners, keeping the image rectangular at a cost. My Nikon ED 24 - 85 mm lens is silent, but imperfect too, although not like yours. My Nikon ED 70 - 300 mm does the best job at copying paintings without distortion, but I need to stand quite a distance away with a required tripod.

Garth

[Bobbi Baldwin]

Dear Molly and Garth,
Thank you both for the information. Molly, I will print this out and try it soon. Thank you so much. I hate to read the literature and still have to go through the DVD to learn more about my camera. It can do so much that I haven't even tried. My fiance tried to get me to use the RAW mode ... but, I just found that to be a hassle. Unless I were going to make giclee's of something, I can't see using that mode for photo references. Plus, you can't view them easily in thumbnails. I ended up manually converting too many photos into JPG's after this. Oh well.
I am going to price a straight 50mm lens to make it easier to get photos done in a way that won't waste time.
thanks again!
Bobbi

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Another question for the panel of D50 experts!

I am experiencing difficulties in getting a proper photo of my last painting, and I was wondering which settings you lot are using for this.
My pictures seem slightly out of focus. I tried the auto and premesured white balance settings, and set the autofocus to nearest subject. Bracketing resulted in the best shot being slightly underexposed. Unfortunately I couldn't use my tripod ( lost somewhere in the house) but I have been shooting yesterday at a speed of 1/325 and I don't think it is my hand shaking.
I don't understand, maybe it is a matter of glare.
I painted for the first time on a sanded surface, which perhaps bounces out the light more then a textured one.
This was my best result
http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...8219#post58219
and even when seen in full quality is not very good.
Any suggestion?
Ilaria

[Alexandra Tyng]

Ilaria, I am in NO WAY an expert with this camera! I probably never will be. But I had trouble photographing my paintings, too. I finally had success when I:

1) used tripod
2) set up incandescent photography lights on either side of painting
and turned them until there was no glare
3) switched white balance to "incandescent"

There may be other better ways, but that was what worked for me. The lighting was just a cheap kit with two flimsy tripod stands with sockets and aluminum shades, and two "incandescent lamp" bulbs.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Thank you Alexandra,
I'll try that one, as soon as I'll remember WHERE I put my tripod (shouldn't be that difficult to find it, but I have searched the whole house and I only have a vague memory of thinking once: I'll put it here, and now I just have no idea...).
Also thank you for your comments on the painting, I can see your point very well and am thinking if I want to go all the way with such extensive rework, or perhaps save the lesson for the next work...
Ilaria

[Mike McCarty]

Llaria:

If I were you I would remove the "focus closest" setting. You may have to put your dial setting into the "P" mode to do this.

Also, you need to be very careful to keep the surface of the painting perpendicular to the line of site of your lens. This would be especially important if you are in "focus closest" mode. If the painting is slightly tilted back at the top it would be focusing on the bottom close edge, or visa versa.

I have my best luck when I photograph my paintings outdoors under the cover of an awning (shade, not direct sunlight). Another helpful tool is to lay a black cloth behind the painting, such that the only thing that enters your view finder is your painting surrounded by black.

Of course the tripod is a very handy tool for this project.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Mike, thank you very much, I wil try again, today is overcast, thanks to the cloud of smoke over here!

[Jean Kelly]

Thank you Mike, I really appreciate your advice! When I started reading about all the different lens, I got so confused I gave up. I will go with your suggestion. I like to shoot outdoors because of all the beautiful nature out here, and have wanted a telephoto lens for a long time. Last fall I watched (and tried to photograph) a set of cranes in a field near here and all I have is blurry crane type images. I just couldn't get close enough. But there are too many lens to choose from. Thanks again.

Jean

[Michele Rushworth]

Like Mike, I also have the D70, and I agree with his recommendation about which lenses to use. I love my camera and I'm sure you'll love the D50 too.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Jean, as you might have read I found difficulties at taking pictures of one of my paintings, which was quite large, but I took very good reference photo with my D50 and kit lens, even in this dreadful January light. Worked very well inside with natural light.
Ilaria