Photo's

Re: Photo's - setup description

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>Here's a peice of magnolia from a friend; it spalted with some purple along the yearly growth lines and turned out kinda pretty.

This artist I know had a brilliant idea for shooting these bowls, or at least I think so. We couldn't get a hold of a graduated background, so Josh decided to use a peice of milky plexi-glass, acrylic type stuff - he built a frame and draped it over it. With the transparency of the plastic, we're able to light the bowls from underneath - this really helped with getting a good bit of light on the bowl, without hot spots. Then we've got two other lights on stands that we can move around for each peice. What do you think, John Lucas, and you other photo experts? Just about everything I know (which isn't much!) about photography I've learned here - thanks guys, and John for the offline help.

Here's the magnolia peice.

David

Re: Photo's - setup description

Mike Schwing from Maryland

>Don, interesting idea! The first picture is way too bright at the underside for my taste, which is kind of funny because my attempts are always too underlit at the base.

It is very difficult to discern where the bowl profile ends and the background begins, and doesn't do justice to your work. Your viewers shouldn't have to work to figure out what the bowl looks like but instead be drawn to its nice curves.

I don't know what to suggest as I haven't gotten there yet myself but I know what I see.

The second picture has a more pleasant, even lighting distribution - to my eyes at least.

Congrats on getting ready in time!

Re: Photo's

Richard Allen

>The photos look dead. Perhaps if light comes from one place to give a slight shadow the piece would appear a little more alive.

You can often hook digital cameras up to a TV when shooting. That can give you a BIG view finder and show the effect of moving lights or reflecting light.

In the example below the light comes from the front right. I think the bowl seams more three dimensional. The bright spot on the inside of my bowl is a little disturbing.

Re: Photo's

Fred in NC

>I have used the light fixture/milky plastic in the past. It is hard to control the intensity of the light underneath because there is not much room to move it. So I plugged it into a dimmmer . . .

Good photos and setup!

Re: Photo's

John Lucas

>The bowl looks great. The photo needs help. There isn't any 3 dimensionality. Move the camera up a little to see the back lip. This helps. There's too much light from the bottom and the light is too even. This makes it look flat. The bottom light by being too light also causes a reflection on the piece that takes away the color.

Richard's idea of using the TV as a monitor is a good one. The contrast and color will probably be off but you can get a good idea of composition and lighting. The reflection in his bowl is a little harsh and can be controlled. I like the reflection it gives shape and shows the type of finish but ideally should have a little more detail. I'll be trying to teach how to do that at the AAW symposium in 2 weeks.

Re: Photo's

Ron in Drums PA

>Nice Bowl - What type of wood is it?

Re: Photo's

Richard Allen

>Hi Ron

Spalted White Oak, a crotch piece. This was hideing in the wood pile, had it not been discovered for a few more months there wouldn't have been anything left of it. It is a modest sized bowl about 13" across and 4" deep.

Thanks for asking

Re: Photo's - setup description

John Lucas

>Dave

That is a good technique but I think the bottom light needs to be dimmer. Unfortunately if you use a light dimmer it make the light orange. I use wire screen. Several layers or even 1" wide strips can be placed across the light to make it dimmer. You can even make it fade or get darker in one area by using the screen. This is a good technique to get a faded background. It takes about 3 layers to make a significant change. It cuts easily with a pair of scissors but your wife will kill you so use wire cutters or by your own scissors.

I would make the 2 top lights different brightnesses. For example make one light dimmer than the other. You can do this by moving one light further away or aim it less directly at the piece. You can even use the screen wire for this.

The light should always look like it comes from the top or at least top and one side because that looks the most natural. Adding your bottom light helps take away the shadow but if you get it too strong the bowl looks like it floats and bottom lighting is what they always used in the horror movies.

Re: Photo's

JamieDonaldson

>David- light tables are a standard in product photography, but most often used with reflective products such as glassware. I don't find it effective for turnings due to the reduction of dimensionality-3D. Some controlled shadows are necessary to show dimension and definition, and control of those shadows is how we photographers make our living. I encourage ya'll to attend the photo demos that John Lucas and I are presenting at AAW Symposium. Photo posts are the visual language we turners use for communication on the Web, and the quality of our photos determines how well we get the point across to the viewer.

Re: Photo's

John Lucas

>Thanks Jamie your check will be in the mail. See you next week.

Re: Thank you!

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>Thanks guys for all the honest and professional responses! Wish I could make it to the AAW Symposium, but I can't - some other time hopefully.

Well, the guy came today and we actually shot all the bowls, so a little bit unfortunately, what's done is done for these peices. I think we'll end up with some clear, good photo's of the peices, but they will all have that effect of the underlighting. I though it was so cool to finially get a profesional looking shot, that I wasn't looking hard enough at the photo's. I can see what you guys mean about loosing some of the 3-D effect, but, Lord willing there will be more bowls to shoot in the future, and for now, I will have a clear record of the first peices I put up for sale. All of this info will be very helpful as I continue to learn about this photography stuff - I think I'd rather turn and finish a bowl rather than take a picture of one, it's more complicated taking the photo!

Things are winding up for the show this Saturday, so I probably will be posting results before I post anything else here.

Thanks for all the help once again; it's really invaluable guys.

David