Metrology

[Manfred M]

Trying an experiment using precision measuring tools (metrology; the science of measurement), but am not totally satisfied with the results. I might switch to a black background to see if that works any better...




The instruments moving clockwise are:

1. Telescoping guage;
2. 0 - 1" Outside micrometer;
3. Thread guage;
4. 1" calibration gauge for checking a micrometer's accuracy;
5. Scribe tool; and
6. 1" - 2" Outside micrometer

[ST1]

I shall look forward to your rework Manfred, the current composition works for me.


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[TonyW]

That seems to me to be a very difficult lighting exercise and this looks like a good attempt. It is usually difficult to avoid too much specular reflection on the front of shiny convex objects because they have such a wide "family of angles" and tend to concentrate the reflected light, but here they seem to be well enough controlled.

The problems seem to be at the edges, in particular the top edges of the cylindrical parts, where the edges get confused by the shadows. Similarly with the head of the telescoping gauge. I wondered whether a translucent background with some back lighting (as well as the front lighting) might help but I would find it hard to know without trying it. It will be interesting to see what happens with a black background.

[Manfred M]

Thanks Tony.

My issue is not so much the lighting, but the fact that the image is not performing particularly well as a high key image. I can rework the shot to reduce the glare somewhat by making the light more diffuse and less intense, but I'm not sure that I would want to go in that direction. The "hot spots" are not blown out and can be tamed, but that will take away from the instruments not looking like they are made of high quality steel.

My issue is that there is no real emotional impact on the viewer. Part of this comes from the shot being too busy, so I will likely just change that by shooting a single tool. I'm just not happy with how something I thought would work well as a high key shot really does not. I know from my previous shot against black, that approach can be quite effective. I wanted something more low key to complement this image:



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