Cameras!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[farmersammm]

I used to use a Canon Rebel Shot 490. It was actually as good as a medium format DSLR.

I left it out in the rain, and it got messed up. A year after it got messed up, I put some batteries in it, and it worked like new. I won't use it except for road trips now. I don't want it out in the shop.

Back at that time, K'kins got me a Canon Elph 170 to replace it. It's the shop camera now, and has been for quite a few years.

I love it because she got it for me. BUT I FLAT AZZ HATE IT

The damn thing is like my trucks. New computer technology that second guesses you. Both my Fords have some sort of thing in the firmware that thinks that if you tease the clutch at idle, you must be mistaken, and trying to stall the motor. In its wisdom, the stinkin' computer revs up the engine That works real good when trying to start the truck rolling on a sheet of ice

Anyways.......back to the camera thing.

I'm gonna show you a few pics of the same weld, taken at the same time, under the same lighting conditions.

I'm holding my hand over the weld to block the light. I want to see a TRUE pic of the weld. It has meaning when you're talking about how the weld was made.

Same weld without blocking off the light. It's a totally different animal.

In another post, I tried to explain the rod manipulation. This is an approximation of the movement.

I don't like weaving. It's not good, and I don't like it. But, this one was easier to weave, rather than do stringers. The top of the bevel is about 3/8" wide. It's in between the requirements. You could do stringers, or you could do a weave. This is a one-and-done weld.............get it out the door. Easier to just weave it.

But.......................I wanted to show that you can do a mild weave with generally good results. That was shown in Pic #1. It just looks like a regular weld. Doesn't look like one of those sloppy shortcut weaves. (That's just my opinion, not a rule)

The crux of the thing is how it was made. A straight travel across the middle, with a pause and push at the toes. I go along the edge of the bevel, fill it, and push back into the puddle to make sure the metal is slightly above the edge of the joint. Then travel back across to the other side, and do the same thing. BUT, the arced shape of the ripples doesn't give a clue as to how the hand was moving. This is the goody. You can do a weld without showing what you did. The second pic doesn't show this............it's just a big light blowout. No inkling of the fine ripples that the first pic showed.

I like to talk about "pushing" back into the puddle. It's maybe a 1/16 to 1/8" movement. The rod isn't taken out of the puddle..........it stays in, and you just push it to build metal.

If you keep a close eye on the puddle, it's like you never did any hand movements. There's just a clean arc across the face of the puddle. You just pull it along as you go.

Most of the time, I'm able to get around the problems with the camera. Take pics at different angles, and try to take pics in the evening when direct sunlight isn't on the surface of the weld. But......If I have to get done with something, I don't have time for that crap. This was the last weld of the day.

Bottom line...........is there a point-and-shoot camera out there that actually puts out a pic that looks like what you're seeing with your human eye???????????? The Canon works well under shop light, but sucks under natural lighting conditions when you're doing macro shots.

[whtbaron]

Back in my 35mm days I had a Canon AE-1 that I really liked so I've had a couple little Canon pocket cameras. The last one is a little bigger with a somewhat better lens , the Powershot, but still nothing near the quality of the AE-1. One of my relatives was a bit of a camera snob and liked to look down on my Canons so I actually broke down and got a Nikon Coolpix, but I really didn't like it. The wide angle lens had a tendency to "fish eye" any closeups. When I was freelancing I liked to carry the little Sony's with Carl Ziess lenses.... basically just a pocket size holder for the best lens I could get on them. The point of my parable is that I have tried a few, and I don't see a lot of difference in brands. Most of the pics I've been posting lately just came off my i-phone because it was handy. If you want a really cheap recommendation (like free) , download Picassa from Old Programs .com . It has some settings for changing color/lighting etc. and I've come to like the auto-color button... it works quite well about 80% of the time. Might be something to try before you start buying $1000 cameras that come with a Chinese encyclopedia you don't have time to read.

[_Weldman_]

I know how to operate one of those cameras with Chinese encyclopedias and then some it's another specialty I have besides welding, building the structure everyone sees, turning wrenches on diesel/gas engines, solar systems and the different battery systems (FLA,SLA, AGM Li-Poly LiFeP04) with them. Here is from my Canon Digital Rebel Ti SLR I use to own, I need to get another one.

[mla2ofus]

I have an old, at least 15 yrs, Olympus SP 500UZ that's always taken good pics tho it's a little fussy on auto focus doing closeups w/o flash. I've been surprised at the longevity of it.

[_Dom]

Have been fiddling with film and now digital for awhile myself. Can't say I am getting any better.
Rare for me these days carrying anything more than a cell phone, the technology so exceeds my skills. Have been thinking of the LIDAR features in iphone and ipad, if spending that much it will be the ipad, screen size better suited to my eyes.

[ghost_walker]

weldman, now thats someone who really will bite your head off if they don't like the picture!!

[VaughnT]

I've been doing all my shots with a Canon G10. When I first got it a couple years after they debuted, it came with a great recommendation, often called the professional photographers travel camera. Everyone loved it because you could manipulate it like a traditional film camera or one of the bigger DSLR cameras, and it turned out a picture that was top of the line as a result. No changing lenses on the thing, but that's a small price to pay for the simplicity of it and the quality of the photo it'll take if you do your job.

Now that they're ancient tech, I can buy them on ebay for around a hundred bucks or less. My first one worked well for about 20 years, I'd guess. Then one day it just quit working. No idea why, but I'll accept that it might have something to do with me leaving it in the shop overnight and the moisture building up.

Anyhow, I got another one "almost new" and it's been just as good. Easy to understand dials. None of that nonsense with surfing through screen after screen of options. Excellent for close-up shots.....

[Broccoli1]

Either a Canon PowerShot SX540 HS or a Nikon - COOLPIX B500

They're in the $300.00 range though.

neither one is as compact as the Elph but offer full manual modes iffin' ya want.


The G10 that Vaughn mentioned is a great choice but they only available used now - about $100.00

[Broccoli1]

or rig up better lights 18,000 watts should solve yer low light problems

[Broccoli1]

mo' is better

[psacustomcreations]

Either a Canon PowerShot SX540 HS or a Nikon - COOLPIX B500

They're in the $300.00 range though.

neither one is as compact as the Elph but offer full manual modes iffin' ya want.


The G10 that Vaughn mentioned is a great choice but they only available used now - about $100.00

I have a Nikon Coolpix B500 I am using. It seems to do well for my limited ability. Add in some photshop and the pic are presentable, but no where near polished.

Which goes to show that the camera is only a small portion of a good photo. All the intangibles are what make or break it.

[thebmrust]

Actually, you switched sides between the first and second pic (the clamp is on left in first pic & on the right in second pic). They are not the same photo from same angle.

So, here’s a little 101 on photography.
Photography is literally “light writing”.
photo= light
graphy= writing

Welding uses electricity to do its thing (think about all the variables of electricity flowing into metal).
Photography is about controlling light and how it is recorded. There are a LOT of variables to control.

Photography uses three settings to produce an image:

aperture:
an opening in the lens (the size is the “f/“ (called “f stop”). It also controls “depth of field” or the total amount of area near to far that is in focus.

shutter speed:
how fast the shutter opens and closes. This also determines if the subject is stopped or blurred based on the subjects motion. It is relative, a fast subject needs a fast shutter speed to “stop” its motion. A relatively slow subject can also have a slow shutter speed and its motion will looked stopped.

ISO:
effectively the sensitivity of a sensor to light passing through the lens and shutter. ISO also has a result of “quality” which equates to “noise” in a digital image. It used to be called “grain” in the days of film. There is “high quality” less noise and “low quality” a lot of noise.

In the simplest of explanations, your first pic you blocked off light and it created highlights and shadows. That’s why you can see the edges of the weld. In the second pic, you moved and probably didn’t block the light and that created a “flat” look where you did not have shadows (the edges disappeared). The second pic you are also taking a photo INTO (towards) the primary light source you can see this based on where the shadows are and their angle/depth.

Shadows give detail and texture. A detailed image will have both highlights and shadows.

There are so many different ways to take photos of welds, the best thing to keep in mind, put the brightest light source above and to the side of your subject. Since your subject can be all sorts of shapes, it is impossible to give your exact locations, angles, distances.

To understand how this works, just shine a flashlight at an object and move it ALL AROUND it to see how the light creates highlights and shadows.

You can even shine it slightly away from the object and see how that “feathered” light creates highlights and shadows in your object.

You could also fix the light towards your subject and just walk around and see how the details change as YOU move around.

In a sense, none of the great welders just flick on a welder and let the auto settings do their thing. You all probably manually set a welder based on all the conditions (metal, wire/rod, etc.) A camera is the same. Auto settings are okay, some times. But to really create a great photograph, you might need to learn manual photo settings so you know how to capture the best image that you can. (The camera has absolutely NO IDEA what your taking a photo of).

Understanding light helps you understand photography.

Good luck!

[VaughnT]

...The camera has absolutely NO IDEA...

That's the problem in a nutshell. Stupid cameras never listen! Can't wait for Star Trek technology to finally get here so I can talk to a smart camera and make sure it understands!!!

[farmersammm]

Naw.........I absolutely have no clue as to lighting, exposure, aperature...............etc.



Pics always should be shot in the morning, or late afternoon. Horizontal light adds dimension, as well as making the colors pop. Contrast increases too.

In the old days, before DSLR's, you'd shoot this at 5.2 for depth of field, and center meter on the mill while decreasing shutter speed a bit to get your foreground. Otherwise, metering on the elevator alone, would lose the foreground detail. It would look like the inside of a coal mine

A better camera today......DSLR would allow you to do some overrides,, and accomplish the same thing.

A point and shoot camera is limited. Some are better than others.

The above pic was taken using a very old Vivitar point and shoot. A dinosaur by todays standards. But its firmware was better than the Cannon I'm using now. And it probably had better glass. The raw image file didn't actually need any post processing,, it was that good. So..............there is a huge difference in modern digital cameras. They've taken the skill out of photography, and sometimes leave you with crappy results.

[farmersammm]

In the "old" days, 5.2 was your compromise. Smaller aperture would give finer detail, but film speeds were so slow that you'd require a tripod for the additional exposure time needed. Off hand shooting was done at 5.2 to allow you to utilize an ASA 100 film. 100 was a compromise too. Faster film would allow you to up the shutter speed, and close the aperture down............but it was as grainy as all get out.

Kodak, in its final years, brought back an ASA 25 film to replace its legacy 25. It was some Gawdawful Nice stuff. I miss that stuff. I can't even remember the film's name.

[farmersammm]

I think PanX was the original 25, but I'm not sure. For the life of me,, I can't remember the newer version.

[smithdoor]

ASA 32 to 40 very slow.
I still have my good 4x5 crowgraphic it maybe the last one as no one has a higher S/N
Takes great photo but today it simpler to use my phone.

Dave

I think PanX was the original 25, but I'm not sure. For the life of me,, I can't remember the newer version.

[farmersammm]

ASA 32 to 40 very slow.
I still have my good 4x5 crowgraphic it maybe the last one as no one has a higher S/N
Takes great photo but today it simpler to use my phone.

Dave

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was 32. Been so long I can't remember the number. Pics like razors!!

[thebmrust]

You are the expert. 5.2 in the morning.

/sarc

[farmersammm]

You are the expert. 5.2 in the morning.

/sarc

Hey, you're right I was just gettin' some clean socks out of the drawer, and took a look at one of my old lenses. 5.6 Been a hundred years since I used any of the stuff. My bad.

[Broccoli1]

Yo Sam,

Jack the Sprout says ya need to upgrade cameras.

Attachment 1733341

[Broccoli1]

[smithdoor]

I used black and white for most my photos. I even had a 35mm with black and white flim in my truck for job sites.
It lot lower in cost and pay very well a few times when they I did something wrong. But flim showed I did work and right.
They drop everything at point thank God for camera's and photos 📸.

Dave

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was 32. Been so long I can't remember the number. Pics like razors!!

[farmersammm]

Yo Sam,

Jack the Sprout says ya need to upgrade cameras.

Attachment 1733341

Hell Ed...............I don't do pics anymore. It's gone the way of a lot of other things. Your life compresses when you hit a certain age. Sad, but true.

NOthing works right. I FORGOT K'KINS BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK. The mind kind of collapses in on itself. You lose interest in a lot of things, and struggle to maintain a certain level of competence in the day to day things. Probably why I got along so well with Roy. Miss the daylights outta that guy.

[farmersammm]

That man could absolutely pack a box, and defy anybody to get into its contents