Taking photos for textures ?

[Javadevil]

Hi I was just wondering what is the best way to take pictures of large pieces of timber ?
Or just generally large objects ?
what type of lighting, Indoors or outdoors, ? what sort of lens ?

[Pixelcon]

Although I have never taken photos of objects to create textures I think the following should apply:

- Try to use a longer focal length to avoid distortion.
- Perhaps look up a review of your lens to see at which aperture your lens performs at its best in regards to sharpness, colour fringing, vignetting and distortion. More often than not, lenses have issues wide open (lowest aperture number) so if you can't find technical data, go for f8 as a safe guess.
- Use a tripod if possible to get the sharpest image possible straight out of the camera
- try to keep your camera with a level horizon and your object as centered on the frame as possible to avoid perspective distortion... (this would be difficult for buildings and trees ect but having a level horizon and using a longer focal length for smaller objects should ensure straight verticals)
- I would think overcast or open shadows would be the best lighting situation. The biggest thing to avoid is direct sunlight on your textures or even worse, shadows casting on or across your object. An indoor shoot could make it tricky to avoid bad lighting situations unless you were very careful about it.

Feel free to correct any misinformation i may have provided, anyone!

[3DMK]

Although I have never taken photos of objects to create textures I think the following should apply:

Feel free to correct any misinformation i may have provided, anyone!

ALL correct! - Well done for someone who has never done it before....lol

[Javadevil]

Thanks Pixelcon,

That sounds like good info.