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Questions about your photography setup

I'd like to know what type of setup you guys got. What do you mainly shoot with, what are you shooting on, light source, etc. I shoot on paper, but when I teardown stuff it tends to get scuffed up with dark marks and stuff. Flashes or continual​ lighting? I'm using continual lighting (dual 1000W LED's with umbrellas) but are there advantages to a flash for this work? Also, what is being used to shoot with?

Thanks

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Our photo setup is very DIY. In terms of lighting, we only use constant light sources. Our standard teardown setup has two banks of fluorescent tube lights on each side, and a couple more lights beside the photographer for front lighting. In general, it's best to have light pouring in from as many directions as possible to reduce shadows in your photos.

In terms of background, we use rolls of white paper that we swap out pretty frequently. We use full-frame DSLRs with a 50mm macro lens, but you can achieve pretty great photos with a point-and-shoot camera as long as your lighting is good (Conversely, if your lighting is bad, the nicest camera in the world will give you garbage photos).

If you haven't seen it already, we have a guide on How to Take Awesome Photos that I highly recommend reading.

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3 Comments:

Thanks again, Evan. Do you have any risk of compromised ESD saftey on paper? Also, You can see in this guide I made I have some shadows. So I'll try putting my lights over to the side and using a small on-camera flash to even things out. Thank you!

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When writing guides, we tend to play fast and loose with ESD protection since device health is not our top priority. Additionally, we do most of our work on a grounded ESD-safe mat, and move to the photo table just to take photos.

I'd recommend against using an on-camera flash, as those tend to produce harsh glare and shadows since it overpowers your continuous light sources. I'd recommend adding a couple continuous lights (house lamps will do just fine) to your photo table and shooting with a slightly slower shutter speed (we usually hover around 1/50 ~ 1/200) to increase your brightness.

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I think the flash issue is interesting and should be discussed from both angles. I feel like the glare issue largely depends on the device material. For example, ThinkPad T series plastics may be less troublesome with the flash at the right angles (or at least manageable), but plastics that are shiny from the factory or worn down to the point they became glossy are prone to issues. Some components like laptop screens tend to be a nightmare no matter what you do to mitigate it, even if it's matte.

Since my T420 has a shiny keyboard from being well used before I got it, I will always have flash issues unless I replace the keyboard. These keyboards are ~$30-40, so I don't plan on buying a keyboard unless I start having keys drop out and I know the Ethernet issue can be repaired.

On the other hand factory plastics that are shiny or potentially clearcoated from the factory (examples: Pavilion 15 P Series or the HP G60's high gloss/clearcoated palmrest) are complete non-starters for flash use, unless you have no other option available and you're forced to do it. Dither the light with a white background to improve the situation for those plastics.

While I disagree against total non-use of the flash, I do think it can be used within reason if the materials are right and you have no other choice. It has a place, albeit very limited.

T420 palmrest with shiny keyboard

HP Pavilion 15 with factory shiny plastic

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George A. will be eternally grateful.