This may seem simple on the outside, but is actually a difficult process. First off is that the glaze used on pottery is generally made of silica, or in other words glass. At cone 6, the temperature in the kiln is around 2,200 F. The silica melts in the firing process and adheres to the clay body. What is left is pretty much colored glass coating a piece of clay.
So how to photograph a shiny surface can be daunting, especially when one is working on a budget. I wanted to stick this stuff out on Etsy, but I didn't want huge, glaring light reflections.
I was amazed at the people who told me to turn my flash off. I'm sorry... I may seem like I just fell off a turnip truck, but honestly, I'm not that stupid. I tried different lighting situations; inside lights dimmed, outside shade, outside sunlight, outside..... grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Nothing seemed to work. What was so annoying to me is that my forte in the photography realm is still life. I had never run into a problem like this before!
That is when I decided it was time to invest in a light box. However, I did not want to BUY a light box. So what could be the cheapo way to make a light box? The internet is rife with information on DIY building a light box, and I opted for one in particular because it seemed fairly simple.
Materials:
1. One 10 x 10 inch or 12 x 12 inch box. I order a lot of stuff from Amazon.com because I'm a prime member, and because my daughter and I are planning on selling on Etsy, I do not get rid of boxes.
2. One or two white garbage bags. This is used for the differed lighting. I thought about using tissue paper, but figured the garbage bags would hold up to several shootings better.
3. Duct tape. I made the mistake of buying white duct tape. It wasn't uber expensive, but I could have just used the regular, old, every day duct tape.
4. Scissors and box cutter. I rifled through my husband's tool box to find the box cutter.
5. One piece of white cardboard (this can be switched out for colored fabric, or whatever floats your boat.
6. Light source. This is where any real expense will come in. If you have some lamps sitting around the house, try using those. I recommend three hand held, clamp on shop lights with LED lighting. The reason for the LED lights as opposed to incandescent is that they do not get hot. I use 60 watt bulbs. The clamp light runs around $10 at Home Depot, and the LED bulbs run around $4 to $8 depending on where you buy them.
How to do it:
On my 10 x 10 box, I measured off on three sides one inch in from the side of the box all the way around square, and cut a window on three sides of the box with the box cutter. I considered cutting off the flaps of the box, but decided to see how the photography went before I made that cut.
Cover the three windows with a double layer of white, plastic garbage bags using the duct tape to tape the edges to the box.
Cut a piece of
These are pretty cut and dry pics of the final outcome.
Inside of the box. Note that I cut out a piece of white cardboard and taped it to the inside, leaving a slope so that my background would appear seamless.
Outside of the box
I used two lights for my box. One is a regular light bulb in the lamp. The other bulb was an LED light I used in a shop light. With the light shining down from the top, my bottom shadow is greatly reduced.
You'll note in this photo, I'm only using two lights. This is because I only had two lights. I plan on purchasing two more hand held, clamp on lights. However, when you start to play with your light box, you may find that one or two lights creates different effects. Try moving your lights around, further away or closer to the box.
I've come to the conclusion that all light bulbs are not the same. I started with one LED bulb on the top window, which turned my subject and background a funky yellow. Just changing out one LED light for another made a huge difference. While I don't want to spend a ton of money, I think investing in more blue toned LED light bulbs will greatly influence the outcome. The cost would be around $8, and LED lights last forever - - - well in relation to incandescents. In the meantime. I'm still editing my photos in Adobe Lightroom, but I'm achieving a much better photo without reflective light.
Here are the photos of my weird masked lady. How I ended up with her is a story for another time.
No comments:
Post a Comment