hey a ? for any one who cares to listen to a newbie. ive been fooling around with taking high res photos of skin textures, however im kind of clueless as to what kind of lighting is good. What i want it to eliminate shadows, but keep the natural look of the skin. the shoots happen indoors with a white backdrop, im using a 5 megapixal camera with optical zoom. any suggestions would be mucho appreciated.

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I've been worried we'd get this question, considering that we promise: "From photo basics, to shooting for textures and skins, to pure photographic art, you are sure to find answers to almost any photographic question here." Not sure we have a good answer. This would make a fine tutorial if someone could take the time to figure it out! From the Poser-end there already are a couple. From what I remember about Poser, when it talks about "Texture," it uses the word somewhat differently from the way a photographer may use the word. The photographer is interested in using the light to accent surface bumpieness (smoothness, hary-ness, etc.). To do this, often a point source of light is used at an oblique angle. This causes shadows and highlights to emphasize the surface. If you use the same lighting for creating a Poser texture you will be very disapointed! In 3D rendering the shadows and highlights come from the ray tracing. If the 3D shadows and the photographic shadows dissagree, the results look strange. In poser you seem best off using as a "Texture" a photo that captures the general coloring of the model. This may include such details as warts, scars, blue surface veins, or even fine wrinkles. But you are basically recording the color. It seems this would be best photographed with very flat lighting. Perhaps a couple flourescent tubes? The real magic comes in with the bmp-map! This is the gray-scale image that actually catches the minute skin pores, fine wrinkles, creases where joints bend... This can sometimes be "faked" by using point-source, oblique lighting. I'd appreciate knowing how to do this better. High resolution is not always needed.

so flat lighting, is best for preserving the color? thanks misha883 ill play around with it to see what i come up with.

Hmmm...I've never really thought this through. I think Misha is on to something there. I have no idea if it would work, but if I was going to try and make textures I would probably start with the idea of taking at least 2 photos. The first one would have flat even lighting. For instance, 2 strobes/hot lights of equal intensity and equal distance on the left and right side of the camera (probably facing in towards the subject at 45 degrees). This would give you the color and surface details. Then maybe shoot with the light(s) feathered close to perpendicular to the camera lens, sweeping across the surface of the subjec to pick up as much surface detail as you can get. Then convert this 2nd shot to black and white and use it as the bump map. That's just a "hey, this might work" sort of thing, but I'd bet that if you started there and played with it you could probably come up with something that would work. Then again, I could be completely wrong. :) -=>Donald

Use a soft box or diffuse your flash using tissue paper or something similar to give you very even lighting across the subject - I assume you'd be working in macro mode? possible the use of a diffuse ringflash will help, but if you don't have any of the above - stick your camera onto manual and use a 150W or higher tungsten bulb (need to custom white balance on the camera) behind a white sheet, get in close camera on tripod and you should be able to pick up skin textures and colour. (colour is a moot point anyway dependent on the camera type - some digital cameras are good with skin tones others are hopeless)

Be careful about using fluorescent lights. They very a lot, and the effects can include strong colour casts, not just colour temperature effects. It's right about Poser's use of "texture". Though shadow effects can be useful, if they do match the scene lighting. But Poser (and other software) also uses a distorted mapping of the figure surface onto a plane -- it's the same general problem as putting a spherical surface on a flat map.

Drezz, are these images for use in image software, like Poser of do you just want good skin texture shots that look good but not "medical" for instance? God Bless. TomDart.