Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Cameras, Lighting, & Backgrounds!

Along with a new blog I have been working on getting set up shoot better pictures of my pots.

Background:
I just received a "Varitone" background today in the mail, which fades from jet black to pure white in foreground, a perfect neutral background for pottery!
I did quite a bit of shopping around to find the best price on this quite expensive background paper* and found the best price at Tallyns.com

* it is not actually paper, but a heavy gauge plastic with a gray scale printed on it. Others made it seem like a thin Mylar type material, but I found that it is much thicker and seems to be very durable. Definitely worth the money spent!

Lighting:
I have just about finished building a overhead softbox using John Glick's excellent blog on photographing pots - "Fresh Plums". He has designed a softbox using 1/2" foam core, silicone, lighting components, and ordinary hardware. I built my box using black foam core, with mitered corners to eliminate any light leaks and used spray advesive to glue reflective aluminum foil on the inside of the box. I found a great lighting fixture at Home Depot which is intened for use on the bottom of a ceiling fan, which already had three light sockets evenly spaced. All in all, I spent about $50-80 on materials for this box (including floresecent lightblubs), compared to purchasing one for $800 at a photographic supply company.

Pictures of the box to come, as well as some example shots taken with my new equipment!

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