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  #1  
Old 04-24-2009, 07:57 PM
lpspurgeon lpspurgeon is offline
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Yes its newbish but it is photo questions

So me and my uncle were getting set to build the 75 dollar setup in the next month or two and I looked around to see what was within my current means,looking at the materials on hand I was hoping I could make this work. The Box/cube is well.. a lighty used BUT NOW super clean CLEAN kitty privacy thinger ma jig. Dont know and aint going to ask the wife. It was covered in a blue canvas but it is now trash can bound. I have 3 100 w lights above it.
..

Does it matter that only the top of the box and back side are "diffused" I think that is the point of the trash bags..

I guess im not completly complaining about the quality because you can see it is a knife.. it has handels and maybe a bit too shiny.



I have not messed with anything in photoshop with these. Is this why they still look terrible or is the bigger picture the poor setup ?

This is a photo with the back ground cutout. I made one in photoshop I think looks pretty good just worried it may be too distracting



Again your humble student and my apologies if the photos are too big or my questions are misplaced.

J


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  #2  
Old 04-25-2009, 02:16 PM
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RBSlaughter RBSlaughter is offline
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Hi, I'll try to address the specific question you asked.. Having diffusion material on top and in back, and NOT on the sides is OK if you only intend to do lighting "from the back". Having all the lights in the back, or top area works fine for most shots. Just make sure you don't have any ambient light, or reflections, "creeping" in from the side area's.. Sooner or later, you are going to want to experiment with side, or front lighting, and in those cases you'll probably want to diffuse those lights too or they could overpower the other sources.. In the case of front lighting, it needs to be placed farther away than diffused sources... Best of luck.. Richard Slaughter
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  #3  
Old 05-04-2009, 10:58 PM
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Buddy Thomason Buddy Thomason is offline
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Rich has given you good advice above. You're off to a good start and your sense of humor will serve you well as you work out the various problems associated with photographing very shiny things.
Two additional things to think about:
See how everything is tinted yellow? That tells you your camera is not compensating for the kind of lights you're using. Your camera undoubtedly allows you to set the "white balance" so that regardless of the lighting the colors remain natural. If you don't correct for the lighting then all of your other efforts will be compromised.
Second, think of the blade (any shiny reflective metal object) as a mirror that is reflecting everything it can "see." Pretend you're the blade and imagine what angle the lights and camera need to be at so that the only thing that's reflected by the blade/guard and other surfaces is the diffusion material with evenly dispersed light filtering through it.
Personally, I like digitized backgrounds but they're easy to over-do and not universally accepted in the knife world. Regardless, keep experimenting and offering your images for feedback. It's a great way to learn share in some of the good discussions on this forum.


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Old 05-05-2009, 05:48 PM
Barbara Turner Barbara Turner is offline
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I agree with what Rich and Buddy have already said. My answer to your question about the top and back being the only areas diffused. In my experience having the sides diffused can help by reflecting light back into the box, plus gives the added benefit of reducing unwanted reflections from objects in the room. In the pictures you have posted I can see where the frame of the box is visible in the knife pictures. I would try to cover those areas with white. When you are set up to photograph the knife, look at the knife from the same angle as would be seen from the camera lens and you can see what reflections, hot spots and uneven lighting will appear. This gives you a chance to reposition the lights, camera or knife or all of the above. Little changes in angle can make a big difference. Hope that helps.


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