My shooting setup

Question

Hi all
Well after reading through this forum it seems there is a lot of information about how many images should be shot etc. so I thought I would share my setup as I seem to be embarking on a bit of a mission. I need to be really accurate, as the images will be used in photogrammetry, so I am being as scientific as I can be. The camera is a Canon 1ds Mark II, and I have these lenses:
28mm
50mm
85mm
24-105mm
24-85mm
70-200mm
8mm fisheye
I have a small studio of approx 16ft in length.
Primes:
close-up focus distance: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
mid focus distance: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
far focus distance:  9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
Zooms:
close-up focus distance, widest zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
close-up focus distance, mid zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
close-up focus distance, tele zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
mid focus distance, widest zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
mid focus distance, mid zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
mid focus distance, tele zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
far focus distance, widest zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
far focus distance, mid zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
far focus distance, tele zoom: 9 x chart positions, 1 stop aperture increments
Now, not only do I have my work cut out for me, but I doubt I have the space needed. What I would like to know is are all the focus distances really needed? I guess giving how exact we need our profiles to be it is in fact a requirement? Also I thing getting smaller grids will be needed for some of the telephoto and close-up shots seeing as I dont have a huge amount of room?
Any thoughts will be appreciated.
Elliot

Answer 1

Hi Elliot, the first potential big timesaver is to check if the Adobe-supplied profiles work well on your system. For example, with the public Camera Raw 6.2 Release Candidate and Lightroom 3.2 Release Candidate (posted last night), Adobe has Canon lens profiles for all 50 mm lenses except the f/2.5 compact macro, both 85 mm lenses, the 24-105 zoom, and all 70-200 lenses. If these do work well for you, then that takes care of 4 of your 7 listed lenses, including two zooms (which are more time consuming to profile).
Regarding focus distance: yes, it does matter, but only if you shoot in those conditions. For example, if you never use your 28 mm at minimum focus distance, then it's not worth profiling it at that distance. Consider doing just 2, or maybe even just 1 focus distance.
When we build profiles internally at Adobe for broad distribution, we really can't assume how a lens will be used (i.e., we can't go around saying, "don't use this lens at minimum focus distance ... !"), so we need to cover the bases and build thorough profiles that will work well under a broad range of field & studio conditions. But for profiles that you're building for your own use, this is not necessarily the case.