1 reply to this topic

[Shirlsee]

Hello all, I'm new here and worried that maybe I didn't buy the best camera to fit my needs. I just purchased a d3500 with lens kit 18-55/3.5-5.6 and 70-300/4.5-6.3. I probably didn't need the 70-300 but I thought it might be fun to try out. I needed a camera to take photos of my artwork to use for having prints made. That is my primary goal. I use to know a lot about cameras but that was a very long time ago. So right now, I'm interested in the camera's automatic features. I've shot photos of one of my paintings and I'm less than impressed. I used a tripod and shot in Auto in all the different modes (portrait etc.) just to see the difference. I used the Guide also and worked through all the options. I used natural light in both the shade and sun. All of the photos look just so so to me and I can't really tell much difference between any of them. I was able to get better clarity and sharpness with my iPhone. I don't mind pursuing the Manual mode if it will give me the shots I want but my question is this, is the Nikon d3500 good for shooting artwork? Please help. I'm seriously considering returning this camera if possible. 

[Merco_61]

First of all, what version of the kit lenses do you have?

What aperture did the camera choose for you?

The D3500 should be quite easy to use for repro shots, but it would be easier to get good results with a dedicated repro/macro lens like the AF-S 40/2.8 G Micro or the discontinued AF-S 60 G Micro. 

 

For repro shots in available light, shoot in the shade, make sure the lens is perpendicular to the surface of the artwork. Shoot in raw with full control of all three exposure parameters, but first try to find the sweet spot of your lens aperture. Start by shooting a series in aperture priority starting with the aperture wide open (smallest number) and close it down 1/3 of a step at a time all the way to the smallest opening you have. When you inspect your shots @ 100%, you will see a hard contrast getting sharper as you close the lens aperture down until you start losing sharpness to diffraction. If you close down 2/3-s of a step from that, you will get as sharp shots as possible from this combination of lens and camera. Set your ISO to the lowest you can get, I think that is 100 for the D3500. Then use a shutter speed that gives the correct exposure without clipping any highlights. Use the Flat picture control to get a correct histogram to evaluate exposure in-camera.

 

When you get your files into your raw converter, it will look awful if you use a converter that uses the Picture control information (Capture NX-D or NX Studio). Your first step is to change to a Picture control that gives you something closer to the final look you are after. This might be either Standard, Landscape, Portrait or Vivid. Tweak contrast, saturation and clarity to your liking and save as a preset. You should now be able to get good repro files.

 

If you want to save work in your workflow, it might be wise to shoot a gray card to set the white balance at the beginning of each session. The auto WB will usually get things close enough for the histogram to be accurate, but setting the WB to the value for the light of the day manually will get better results in the end.