Photography discussion

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Sam

Yip, your dead right about the reflection thing. My first practice plate that I ever posted on the internet drove me nuts. It had been a long time since I’d picked up a camera for more than anything other than “happy Snappyâ€￾ holiday photos. I knew nothing of diffused light and reflection so I took all my photos outside.

Late in the day I took a whole bunch of photos and they all turned out with a reddish colour in them. The next day same thing again except they all had a greenish tinge to them. By this stage I was nearly pulling my hair out, which in my case is not a clever idea as I have precious little of it as it is!!!!

Anyway, it took a little while for me to figure it out. The first lot of photos I was wearing a red shirt and the second lot were taken under a green umbrella to shade the direct sun.

It was after that I decided to read the camera instruction manual and tracked down the light tent idea.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[ron p. nott]

hi sam . well thanks for that info i didnt even begin to think some thing like that would work i will give that a try on the same bolster .. thanks ron p.

 

[FANCYGUN]

I've been building a new light stand for a set of lights and just fooling around with a light box to shot pieces in...not totally finished yet but took these hand held shots just to see how it is shaping up.
Marty

 

[Andy]

Those are beautiful Marty. I love your scroll style. Would it be possible to get a close up of the scenes?
Thanks....Andy

 

[FANCYGUN]

here's a cropped shot of the action Andy. It's not all that clear as I hand held the camera.

 

[Joe Mason]

I think it is shaping up real nice. I really like the engraving also. Nice work. Thanks for showing it...

Joe

 

[sam]

Marty: Your new setup's working great! Those are excellent shots. The engraving is really nice too! / Sam

 

[FANCYGUN]

Need more lights......and better reflector boards on the inside.........piece of cake when done

Thanks

 

[sam]

One of the good things about the Chimera soft box is that they have an internal baffle that distributes the light evenly without any hotspots. I use a single 500 watt photoflood bulb.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hey Marty

That's not fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even your "camera shake" engraving looks fantastic as usual.

I have to say that even the very best photos I've seen don't compare to the real thing. At Reno I saw a lot of work that had been posted either in the forums or printed in a magazine. All fantastic photos. If it looks great in a photo, then the real thing looks WOW!!!!

Cheers
Andrew

 

[FANCYGUN]

I still need tweeking on the set up..I used a borrowed jewelry set up a neighbor had bought from an online catalog. It was actually pretty slick the way it folded up onto itself like a small portfolio. The lighting actually stunk as i found out. Way too dark so I made myself a set up like Jim Cooper showed with plastic pipe and clamp on lights. Not bad but i want to go to 4 lights instead of two so I can arrange them better. I also plan on building a box that would reflect the light better with white board of some sort. It's about time I made a decent break down for storage set up rather than wait for a bright cloudy day outside. The camera I am using is a small pocket size Fuji 550 6.6 megapixels.

 

[Tom Curran]

Someone mentioned a tripod earlier. It's essential for digital cameras to be still when shooting. The autofocus is always searching for focus, even when the camera is moving very slightly. You can't get a good clear shot if the camera is looking for focus.

I will eventually get a remote trigger for my camera, but in the meantime, I set the timer for two seconds so I don't have to touch the trip button, causing the camera to move, causing the camera to go into auto focus.

 

[FANCYGUN]

Here's another hand held shot I played with. You can see why I want more reflective light bouncing around in the box. I posted a sketch of my animal scene a while back before heading to Reno.
Marty

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Marty

A good material to make your light box from is corflute. Not sure what it's called in the USA but it's about 4-5mm thick and is a corrogated white plastic that is used a lot for cheap Real estate signs. You can cut it with a knife and it's light weight and has good rigidity. If you went to a local sign shop they should be able to sell it to you or even just give you scraps of the stuff.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Andy]

I'm really surprised more people aren't using studio strobes. They are available fairly cheap on Ebay. You can shoot handheld and never worry about shake. The color of the light is far more consistant than hot lights. It is easier to set a white balance for flash than the tungstan or halogen lights. I use a single studio strobe and shoot through a tent that has two layers of white ripstop nylon that are seperated by about 6 inches. The first layer acts as a baffle to distribute the light more evenly. I never get hot spots. The only potential problem is whether your camera has a PC outlet to fire the strobe. If your camera has a hot shoe there are adaptors which will fit it and send the signal to the flash unit. I have been using flash since the days of my old nikon 990 which I have long since retired in favor of a Canon SLR.

This image was shot using the setup I described. Of course I also did a little rearranging in Photoshop
Having a little knowledge in Photoshop helps but is not essential.

 

[sam]

Absolutely stunning work!

 

[FANCYGUN]

Great looking knife Andy. Do you have a photo of your lighting set up?

 

[FANCYGUN]

Here's another picture I took using natural light coming in from a large window and a few bounce cards as reflectors. This was a restoration engraving job on one of my own "toys".

 

[Andy]

Very nice photo. Natural light is great when it's available. I will take a photo of my setup as soon as possible.
Andy

 

[smays]

This is all fine and dandy explaining it.... Andy would you mind taking a picture of your set up. I'm pretty much a visual person!


Shawn