At the 2013 ISGB conference, the Gathering, in Rochester, New York, presenter/instructor Doug Baldwin had his light boxes set up in the classroom area for students to use. Many took advantage of this opportunity to snap pictures of their work from class and post on social media such as Facebook. I saw first hand how compact Doug's system was and it didn't take long for me to purchase two light boxes.
For those of you who are familiar with my work know the challenges I face. All the bling and clear encasement create reflections and hot spots.
I was very pleased with this image until I photographed the same bead again with Doug's system.
This was taken from the top shooting down just like the above image. The daylight bulbs help bring out the actual bead colors better than the tungsten ones I used before. With less glare, you can actually see the depth allowing the dichroic to show through as deeply encased in the core of the piece.
This one was photographed from the front allowing the light behind the bead to show through. The result is a more true-to-life representation of the bead.
I struggled continually with hot spots on photographing my heavily encased work. As you can see from this image how distracting they are.
With Doug's system, again the colors are more true to life and there is no glare!
Update 1: Just wanted to add another image - taken with my iPhone 4s with Doug's system. It's not as nice as the above images but considering it's from a phone, it's actually not too bad!
Update 2: Still playing with this new system - learning how to capture the iridescence in my photography. I think this is definitely an improvement!
7 comments:
Beautiful shots, Hayley! How many watts are these lights?
Patty
Great shots, Hayley (and beautiful beads). How many watts are those lights?
Thanks for the nice comments Hayley. The bulbs used in the lightboxes are 100 watt, daylight balanced fluorescents. Temperature wise they run cool and use electricity very efficiently, unlike the tungsten bulbs Hayley mentioned in her post. You can read more about the lightboxes at my website where they're sold: dougbaldwinphoto.com/lightboxes.html
Thank you, Patty!
Doug answered your question. :)
Here is a link to the bulb:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/23-Watt-100W-Daylight-CFL-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-E-ES5M8234RS50K/202913023?N=bmatZ1z0xeui#.UgQmG463B04
Ok I have to ask, was the only change the bulb? The difference is a lot! If it's tutorial related info can you post a link to the tut for sale? I'd love to try this I encase almost everything and the difference is noticeable.
Nic - it's not just bulbs. It's the entire system - bulbs in soft boxes that diffuse the light evenly over your subject. Click on Doug's site to see picture of the system.
http://www.dougbaldwinphoto.com/lightboxes.html
Post a Comment