(left) Strobist - How to: DIY £10 macro studioEarlier this week I happened upon a really good explanation for how to create the ideal lighting set-up (see left) for photographing small objects - for next to nothing.
So, first of all, thanks to Carol Marine's hubby for finding the item and then to Carol for highlighting it on her blog post last month where she is describing how she photographs her work.
The blog and post which reveals all is Strobist and How to: DIY £10 macro studio. It seems to me to be an excellent explanation - and is very similar to one I saw a few years back in a book which I have been trying to find again ever since!
The Strobist blog post also allows you to e-mail the article to a friend (or yourself) - but you lose the pics and the formatting.
Strobist then goes on to provide an explanation of how to isolate an object using a black non-reflective surface and have reflections from the shiny surface that it sits on.
So go take a look, but don't forget to
- comment there if you find it useful (98 people already have done just that!) and
- comment here if you've got anything to add about how you light a still life or other websites with good information which might help other readers of this blog.
PS If you build a lighbox and then show if off on your blog please remember to give proper accreditation to Strobist and that blog post and come back and post a link here as well so we can all see the product of your labours.
Katherine, thanks for the link to this light box! It is so cool and inexpensive too. I think I'm going to try it. I've wanted to play with warm and cool light. So I'm going to replace the white tissue with orange or blue translucent paper and see what kind of effects I can get. (You can buy the paper in the scrapbooking section of a craft store.) I'll let you know how my experiment goes!
ReplyDeleteThankyou for your message Katherine. I know the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh,have read many books about his work and love the fritillary drawing. Your site looks great and I will visit soon to read more. Eileen
ReplyDeletewhat an interesting site - thanks for the link :)
ReplyDeleteps I've done a post on Scottish artists today - I've left Blackadder for you :)
Hi Katherine! I just wanted to let you know that I built my light box and played around with it some. It was so easy to make! I posted my results on my blog here...
ReplyDeletehttp://stopanddrawtheroses.blogspot.com/2007/07/interesting-reads.html
with links back to your post and the original Strobist post.
I also linked to your Imagekind information in the same post.
I've struggled and struggled with lighting still life and flowers. This is a really interesting way of going about it. I like strong shadows and strong light effects though, and I've always thought light boxes removed the shadows. But maybe it just softens them a bit?
ReplyDeleteI think the thing to do is have a go and see what sort of range of effects you can get.
ReplyDelete...it also occurs to me that when you can get soft and controllable shadows you might find them rather seductive - I know I do!