Badgermania! (Photos)

EveningStar

EveningStar

Mage Scribe
Staff member
Knight of the Noble Order
Royal Guard
Alrighty dighty. As part of my work I'm a semi-pro photographer, and rather than having to do portraits of folks day in and day out I get the unusual assignments. Make an antique pot look like it's sitting out in the sun on a front porch when it's really in the studio, freeze a tiny insect on a branch or do a close-up portrait of an endangered Tennessee crayfish.

As I get interesting photos I'll post them here.

Today's assignment...to hand-construct a "Lighting Tent" for diffuse lighting small objects. No I am not crazy about a still life of my desk clock and car keys, but I needed something to use for a test shot. As you can see, it gets that glamour photograph look using three muslin cloths, a drop sheet and two light sources. This style is called an "infinity board". Later I'll post a photo of the device itself.

lightbox.jpg
 
This assignment was harder than it looks! I did this for TDL's Lady Badger (my dear Lynne Riday) and it's half of a Mizpah coin that's the size of a nickel. It sure doesn't LOOK that small in this photograph taken through a Nikon bellows with a special Spiratone Macro Lens.

mizpah.jpg
 
This photo was taken of me in 1967. Thing is, it was taken in black and white. The colour was added by yours truly using the same process used to colourize B/W films.

1967xmas.jpg
 
Being a bit of an amateur photographer myself, I am impressed. Oftentimes shots that look like they'd be effortless actually are the most difficult to execute.

Your use of light, I think, is my favorite aspect of the two shots I've seen. That and you recognize that everyday objects have stories to tell. I could write a oneshot about either of those photos.
 
Last fall I used a fisheye lens to capture my office building from an insect perspective. Notice how large the oak leaf is! The nice balance in the image was not lost on the Deputy Commissioner who has a full sized print of it hanging in his office.

fisheye.jpg
 
I'm particularly struck by the perspective in the fisheye shot. That and the angle make it interesting. See the leaf in comparison to the building itself...
 
BLACK ON BLACK is not a walk in the park. To sell these extension tubes on eBay I wanted to emphasize they were in mint condition with a photograph of their perfect unblemished finish. To get black on black required two off-camera flashes triggered through an infrared relay unit.

kenko.jpg
 
Wow, nice work, John. I have a little tent at home for shooting my husband's art, which is hand-made wooden ink pens. I have not gotten the floating-in-air quality you got with your clock and car keys, though. I have two small lights that sit outside the tent; maybe I just don't have the placement down yet. But you can see the pen is lying on felt ...
 

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The felt is the problem, dear. Royal blue velvet is better, coloured poster board better still, and blue plastic backdrop the best. If you want something floating in air, you don't want it to be furry air, you want smooth air. That's also why you avoid shooting top-down.

My light box has the white paper HANGING DOWN in the back, smoothly curving into a FLAT FLOOR with no folds or seams. Use a wider aperture (smaller F-stop number) to reduce depth of field and thereby keep from seeing any remaining detail on the backdrop.

I will post pictures of my lightbox when I get home. I don't have FTP access to byrononwells.org from here.

John
 
I was about to say the same thing about the felt. I am not the photographer in my family (at least not the best one). My sisters and my mother are far better than I at it. But then too, one of my sisters is already a professional photographer and the other wants to be. I do love your pictures ES. My sister wants a Nikon but has a Cannon EOS Rebel (digital) right now. My younger sister has a Cannon too but is perfectly happy with it. I suppose that my pictures would be better if I had a good camera but since I am not intending to make photography my career, I am low man on the totem pole.
 
EveningStar said:
My light box has the white paper HANGING DOWN in the back, smoothly curving into a FLAT FLOOR with no folds or seams. Use a wider aperture (smaller F-stop number) to reduce depth of field and thereby keep from seeing any remaining detail on the backdrop.
Click to expand...

They do that at picture studios like at Wal-Mart or Sears, I wish I had more things like that, I would have so much fun :D

These are all really lovely pictures ES, a joy to look at
 
EveningStar said:
The felt is the problem, dear. Royal blue velvet is better, coloured poster board better still, and blue plastic backdrop the best. If you want something floating in air, you don't want it to be furry air, you want smooth air. That's also why you avoid shooting top-down.

My light box has the white paper HANGING DOWN in the back, smoothly curving into a FLAT FLOOR with no folds or seams. Use a wider aperture (smaller F-stop number) to reduce depth of field and thereby keep from seeing any remaining detail on the backdrop.

I will post pictures of my lightbox when I get home. I don't have FTP access to byrononwells.org from here.

John
Click to expand...

Thanks, John. Mine also has a sheet that hangs down from the back to the floor of the tent -- light box -- but I think the fabric is black. I am still not getting the effect you do. You can see the pen is sitting on fabric. So I should get something white?
 

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Now me, I like the fill lighting I managed on this little image.

badger2.jpg
Shot with a Canon EOS Rebel at an ISO 400 setting, I think I managed a nice balance between color saturation and contrast. Of course, I didn't have much time to set up the shot, but considering the circumstances I thought it turned out rather well.
 
Egads! What an ugly -- I mean, what a charming animal. Cute as a button really. You've captured the expression very nicely.
 
I think I can see the resemblence, eyes, mouth, nose... But that isn't a very cute button ;)
 
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