Mechanicals

[IMG_0001]

A friend of mine was reassembling small gearboxes in the office and I thought why would'nt I seize the opportunity to take out my old Novoflex macro bellows with 105mm on an XSI that I leave at work. Sadly, I had left my flash home and the fluorescent light did not prove to make for very nice textures. Moreover, my co-worker soon started asking for more general views of his work (which I'm not allowed to share).

Nevertheless, here is one not so bad image at close to 1:1.

Please feel free to add your own close-up images of mechanical gizmos to the thread.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

That's a difficult photo to capture, a flash might have ruined it. Shiny metal is among the most difficult for me.

 

[cid]

I really like all these metalic monochrome shots at macro or near macro distances and this one is also really nice

That's a difficult photo to capture, a flash might have ruined it. Shiny metal is among the most difficult for me.

Indeed, I would even say there is no flash necessary, I find natural light, maybe some reflector fine enough to create nice high contrast shot of metalic subject

 

[AcutancePhotography]

Gears and macro just seem to go together. I agree with the previous posters -- a flash would be more difficult to use correctly. A reflector and some consistant lighting will be much easier.

If you are going to explore this type of photography, I can highly recommend the book Light: Science and Magic as it will teach you more than you ever wanted to know about how to light reflecting things.

 

[Logan]

what i do for a living, and a little experiment with a homemade light box.

 

[IMG_0001]

That's a difficult photo to capture, a flash might have ruined it. Shiny metal is among the most difficult for me.

I would have used a flash to have a bit more lateral light, but I would have used a comparatively large diffuser. The light was an office ceiling neon array so it is very omnidirectional. For this particular shot, I was able to position the assembly so that the light was relatively good. On the other hand, for the non-macro close-up shots of the entire assembly, the diffuse light was harder to make interesting and the images look bland.

Here is another shot. Admittedly, this is a crop from a more general close-up. But I think it also looks good.

Still many thanks for the feedback and tips.

 

[IMG_0001]

what i do for a living, and a little experiment with a homemade light box.

This claw is not a macro shot is it? Anything mechanical goes, no worries... You photograph industrial stuff or you make mechanical stuff for a living?

 

[Logan]

what i do for a living, and a little experiment with a homemade light box.

This claw is not a macro shot is it? Anything mechanical goes, no worries... You photograph industrial stuff or you make mechanical stuff for a living?

sorry! i didn't actually notice we were in the macro section until just now. I work at a machine/fabricating shop, grapples are one of many things we make, they are for logging, kind of an old school method, but popular on the west coast and in new zealand.

photographing reflective surfaces is really hard, especially aluminum, it catches anything colourful behind you and throws off the colour, and hiding scratches is super hard, the light seems to catch them and really show up in photos. my lightbox is about 16x24, only big enough for small parts like that threaded pin, i was trying to take pictures of some aluminum boxes but i think the only way is to get them totally inside a white box with a hole just big enough for the lens. i have been wanting to try the setup that amazon patented with the glass plate to get rid of the floor reflection.

 

[ajperk]

A few years back my father rebuilt/refurbished the engine of his car. Lots of interesting little parts, gears, etc...

 

[tolusina]

I have lots of mechanicals, mostly broken stuff. No art attempted, strictly visual verification of failures.

 

[tolusina]

....... hiding scratches is super hard, the light seems to catch them and really show up in photos.....

Some irony here. You want to hide the scratches, for me, the scratches often tell the story, without the scratches I don't get paid.............

 

[IMG_0001]

Nice images, keep them coming!

Personally, I also like it when my images show some wear and tear (or gunk)... Although this images from my daily job are not very strong artistically.

 

[mrsfotografie]

Here's two that I took for practical reasons, but turned out to pretty good photography, too

 

[IMG_0001]

Here's two that I took for practical reasons, but turned out to pretty good photography, too

Now thats funny, creating this thread I was thinking that I should try some macro of my bike wheel hubs, of some chain links and possibly of the cleats mechanism... you've beaten me to that.

 

[Logan]

Nice images, keep them coming!

Personally, I also like it when my images show some wear and tear (or gunk)... Although this images from my daily job are not very strong artistically.

those are really neat, what kind of magnification? is that fibreglass or carbon and you analyze the failure points? i know a little bit of metalurgy, enough to know why something is broken, and i find the microscopic level of failure analysis fascinating, although its not really necessary for me to know.

the aluminum scratches experience came from trying to get a clean product shot of some industrial nozzle boxes, i wanted them to look nice to sell, but the reality is they are going in the back of service trucks and we dont bother to keep them pristine. i tried cloning them out but between the grain of the brushed aluminum and the variation in colour from the reflections i made zero progress. i'll see if i can track down an example. (cant find i think its on the work computer)

first a shot i kind of like and keep trying to improve upon, have to get in and get out before the camera gets coolant all over it, the shop is annoyingly dark too. i like this one because i managed to get a wisp of smoke and some motion blur at the same time. shutter speed was a hair too slow because i have camera shake too, but at least theres somewhere for improvement!

second shot is a brass bushing, really fun to take pictures of, the brass just glows under the right light.

 

[mrsfotografie]

Here's two that I took for practical reasons, but turned out to pretty good photography, too

Now thats funny, creating this thread I was thinking that I should try some macro of my bike wheel hubs, of some chain links and possibly of the cleats mechanism... you've beaten me to that.

...by 6 years

These were actually not shot with a macro, but with a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 on a 40D. That was an excellent lens with good close focusing ability. Too bad my copy started giving wrong focal lengths in the exif, and poor AF speed most likely due to exposure to humidity on a trip in Africa.

If you're interested, the pics show a venture into 'half step gearing' - a temporary solution I used to modify my roadbike for riding the 'Marmotte' bike ride in the French Alps. It is normally set up for riding in the Netherlands (flat country), but by combining the 9 speed 11-32 cassette from my mountainbike with a 39t and 42t plus an old Suntour front derailleur that can handle the small step size of the front gears, I ended up having 17 gears of different step size which, despite a complicated shifting pattern, worked like a charm. See http://sheldonbrown.com/gear-theory.html and look for 'Half-Step Gearing'.

 

[IMG_0001]

Nice images, keep them coming!

Personally, I also like it when my images show some wear and tear (or gunk)... Although this images from my daily job are not very strong artistically.

those are really neat, what kind of magnification? is that fibreglass or carbon and you analyze the failure points? i know a little bit of metalurgy, enough to know why something is broken, and i find the microscopic level of failure analysis fascinating, although its not really necessary for me to know.

the aluminum scratches experience came from trying to get a clean product shot of some industrial nozzle boxes, i wanted them to look nice to sell, but the reality is they are going in the back of service trucks and we dont bother to keep them pristine. i tried cloning them out but between the grain of the brushed aluminum and the variation in colour from the reflections i made zero progress. i'll see if i can track down an example. (cant find i think its on the work computer)

first a shot i kind of like and keep trying to improve upon, have to get in and get out before the camera gets coolant all over it, the shop is annoyingly dark too. i like this one because i managed to get a wisp of smoke and some motion blur at the same time. shutter speed was a hair too slow because i have camera shake too, but at least theres somewhere for improvement!

second shot is a brass bushing, really fun to take pictures of, the brass just glows under the right light.

It is fibreglass. The first one is about 1:1 and the micrograph is only about 35x taken on a scanning electron microscope. I have some of up to 5000x, but not with me right now. I do material durability testing and those images are for analyzing failure modes.

I understand that for commercial shots, scratches and gunk are not strong selling points. I guess one really needs to start from a brand new part or rebuff it.

I like your image from the lathe turning the threaded bar and the brass does look good indeed.

 

[IMG_0001]

Here's two that I took for practical reasons, but turned out to pretty good photography, too

Now thats funny, creating this thread I was thinking that I should try some macro of my bike wheel hubs, of some chain links and possibly of the cleats mechanism... you've beaten me to that.

...by 6 years

These were actually not shot with a macro, but with a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 on a 40D. That was an excellent lens with good close focusing ability. Too bad my copy started giving wrong focal lengths in the exif, and poor AF speed most likely due to exposure to humidity on a trip in Africa.

If you're interested, the pics show a venture into 'half step gearing' - a temporary solution I used to modify my roadbike for riding the 'Marmotte' bike ride in the French Alps. It is normally set up for riding in the Netherlands (flat country), but by combining the 9 speed 11-32 cassette from my mountainbike with a 39t and 42t plus an old Suntour front derailleur that can handle the small step size of the front gears, I ended up having 17 gears of different step size which, despite a complicated shifting pattern, worked like a charm. See http://sheldonbrown.com/gear-theory.html and look for 'Half-Step Gearing'.

Intersting story, I'll check the link for sure. That Sheldon Brown site is a bible for cyclist isn't it. Personally I've been riding a fixed gearfor a few years as I mainly ride around the city and park in crowded bike racks where I've had my derailers bent a few time. Fixies are so much more reliable and give so much feedback when riden with cleats.

I've spent several months in NL in 2011 and it is flat indeed, although the wind can be quite strong along the Ijsselmeer. Needless to say that my Canadian home town now feels so unfriendly to bikers since I've been in NL though.

 

[mrsfotografie]

Intersting story, I'll check the link for sure. That Sheldon Brown site is a bible for cyclist isn't it. Personally I've been riding a fixed gearfor a few years as I mainly ride around the city and park in crowded bike racks where I've had my derailers bent a few time. Fixies are so much more reliable and give so much feedback when riden with cleats.

I've built a commuter bike based on a single speed mountainbike frame that addresses that by using an 8-speed internally geared hub. The first photo shows the hub when the bike was new (april 2004). At that time the bike looked like a proper mountainbike with nobby tires and without fenders. The photo was taken with my first digital camera - a Canon PowerShot A20.

The second photo shows the current state of affairs after 10 yrs, the bike has evolved into even more of a city bike with fenders, narrow slick tires and such. Still with the same hub though which now has more than 15000 km on the clock. This photo was taken with a Canon Powershot S90 that I now use for such 'practical' pictures.

I've spent several months in NL in 2011 and it is flat indeed, although the wind can be quite strong along the Ijsselmeer. Needless to say that my Canadian home town now feels so unfriendly to bikers since I've been in NL though.

Yes sometimes I say the wind is our hills. Sometimes the wind feels like a mountain too :-\ NL is a very bicycle minded country, but for mountain biking and the spectacular nature I think I'd prefer to be in Canada

 

[Roo]

Thanks for the inspiration all. I now need to go and find those Prost F1 gears and spark plug I have stored