LP vinyl record photo studio, square format from digital camera

When trying to photograph album covers with shrinkwrap still on them, or glossy covers, reflections are VERY difficult to control. To see the camera, photographer, background in the photo of the cover just sucks. The best one can do to minimize reflections is make a black (fabric might be best) "shroud" with a hole in it (as small a hole as possible) and the camera on the other side of the hole.

Getting a good light source is a bear, but the good thing is that on a tripod, longer exposures are not a problem.

Unless you own one of the 3 digital cameras out there (it's true!) with a square format option, you will end up with a non-square image. Cropping on multiple images is no fun, but there is a great free program out there where you can crop 100's of images at the same time. http://ekot.dk/programmer/jpegcrops/ Of course, you will need to have ALL the albums in exactly the same position (which is what the "Atlantic Box Set" is doing on my table: as a stable platform for "centering" every LP) and don't even touch the camera position until all shots are finished.

If you shoot with the albums flat, you will need an extension for the tripod. It will take some time (with a level) to get the camera 180degrees to the "stage" and the center of the "album platform" directly under the center of the lens (or else your album covers won't be square!) It is VERY time consuming, with many tests needed, to get the image as square as possible. Level. Centered. And depending on your camera, the correct distance for sharpest focus.

I use the fantastic Google Picasa to do batch image "tuning" and have found the "I'm Feeling Lucky" improves most of the jpegs to more suitable qualities, and I can hand manipulate the difficult images (like a totally black LP cover....)

Note that the table is sitting on paint cans. Repeating the "bend out and over" to place 100's of albums can lead to a no fun sore back.

See also, my (22 minute long) video on Square Format "batch processing" cropping of 1000's of album covers and using Google Picasa and Picasa Web Albums:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0seDgkh2oms

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• LP photography
• square format
• batch crop