So, this is probably the most important and possibly the most frustrating step.
For Little Things
Set up your object. Try to pose it so that the maximum amount of surface area is visible. Playdoh is good for this, as are paper towels. I’ve had fishing line suggested to me, which I haven’t tried yet.
Now start taking your pictures. Here’s some tips:
- Blur and shake are bad, don’t do those things.
- Do Not change the focal length of your camera. That means if you have a non-prime lens you can’t zoom in/out after you’ve set up. If you’re using a cell phone don’t zoom in, period.
- Significantly over or under exposed areas will be a “blind spot” to the photogrammetry program.
- If you have an HDR setting, use it.
- Don’t dismiss on camera flash. If you can use it and it helps, then do.
- Make sure there’s a clear delineation between the foreground and background. Contrasting colours are your friend.
- Parallax is good, don’t fret if your camera moves around.
- You want huge amounts of overlap. 60% or so seems to be the consensus.
- Depth of field is good, set your f-stop as high as you reasonably can.
- More detailed areas need more pictures (duh).
If you can’t get it all at once, you’ll need to take the photos you can, repose the object so you can do the other surface(s), and run each photo set as a separate object.
For Big Things
This advice generally holds true for larger or immovable objects. Just set your camera to a good hand-held speed and start circling, like a very dorky bird of prey. Don’t be afraid to get those weird angles. And if anyone asks you why you’re photographing a statue’s genitals, the answer is “for science”.
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