Need photography advice!

[Irish]

Mike got me a nice little light box set up for the Holidays and I am just trying it out. It has three screened sides and a back drop plus two lights that go outside the screens to provide the light source.

So I am trying it out this morning and really loved that I didn't get that glaring shine of the light bulb or flash on the polyurethane finish ... but the photo seems awful dark???? I can lighten it in a graphics program (the second phot) but now it looks washed out.

Any ideas? Do I need other lights on in the room or all the room lights out???

Thanks, Susan

Oh - Is it OK to iron the blue back drop cloth ... it has a wrinkle or five?

[BobD]

Can you adjust your F-stop? In our studio, I start at F-19 and move up or down as needed. With the studio lights like that, it's difficult to use the auto exposure.

Move up on the F-stops if the photo is blown out, down if the photo is too dark

You also might try moving the light box closer to the piece...

Do you have a "Dimmer" on the light box...sometimes you can increase the output there as well...

Bob

[Kenny_S]

Ok, I will sound dumb, F-stops? Enlighten me BobD!

Susan, I like both pictures. both showed the detail great. I don't know if it was spirit or a walking stick, but looked great either way. I like it.

[BobD]

F-stops relate to the apature of the camera lens...how much light you allow through the camera that affects the image. Without getting too detailed, there are two ways to adjust the lightness and darkness of an image using just the camera...apature (F-stops) and shutter speed. Apature is safer because if you slow down the shutter speed (essentially leaving the shutter open longer so more light comes in), and anything at all moves, your photo will be blurry.

In most cases, you'll have to set your camera to the Manual setting (or at least Apature priority setting (A on the dial)

Bob

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Back in the days of "film" there were many rules you had to follow to really get good photos. Now, with digital cameras, you can pretty well toss out the problems associated with film and concentrate on the ones of the actual lighting.

1. Rule one...Get your piece far away from the background, at least 3 or more feet. I can detect background texture in those two photos. Ideally,it should be completely blurred out. Opening the lens up to it's widest f-stop will do this also but most simple digital camers won't allow you to do this.

2. Lights. You need three. One on each side facing at an angle into the piece and another behind the piece to backlight it.

3. Diffusers. In looking at your two photos 'shine' caused by reflection from the lights is evident. A simple cloth diffuser will end that problem and balance your light across the surface.

4. Build you a little jig to suspend your piece so it appears in the middle of the background. I use a circular platform mounted to a 1" dowel painted flat black. Once the photo is taken you can just clone it out on the computer and your piece is "floating" in space.

It takes a little experimentation to arrive at just the right setup for the three lights and each individual piece but after a while it's easy to do. Once you get the photo taken a little adjustment on the computer will give you just what you're looking for.

[BobD]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm envisioning a softbox that the carvings go inside of...not a traditional soft box that you position to light a carving.

Is that right?

Bob

[Kenny_S]

Thanks Bob and Lynn.
My photo I upload aren't of the quailty of you guys but better than when I first started taking pictures. At least not as blurry as they were.
My camera is a little Olympus FE-170 so definitely not a professional camera.

[Lynn O. Doughty]

I forgot another important rule....

5. Use a Tripod!

[Irish]

Bob, Kenny, Lynn ... Thank you all!

Bob, there's no adjustable F-Stop on the appature. It's a Kodak 10X Zoom - 50 megs digital that I just love. And, of course, it's suppose to be idjit proof but they didn't consider that I would be one of the idjits.

Lynn, thanks for the ideas. I did not have any other light sources but the two small spotlights that came with the set. The set up is a four sided box ... one side is the floor, two sides are the light screens and the fourth, back side, is the solid blue/gray matte.

It's about 14"-16" deep. So I have to be somewhere within a 14" square inside the box to use the screen areas to avoid the high glosses.

I did have to use a prop under the carving to move it above the joint area of the back and the floor ...

And it does have a nice little (6" tall) tripod that I used. My digital is too fast with the shutter to hold it. And I used the delay option which gives me 10 seconds.

I'll try the back lighting, sounds like an excellent idea. Plus I think I will try another light somewhere behind me but far enough away that it doesn't add shadows.

Thanks all of you!!!

Susan

[Irish]

I'll set it up later or in the morning and take a photo of the shadow/screen box. That might help explain what it looks like.

Susan