light box

G'day William,

Earlier today I finished preparing the newsletter for the group I am with. I use a Canon G3 digital and photograph with the in camera flash at a high resolution.

I don't seem to have a problem obtaining good results, though I have started to experiment at home to establish a better setup should anyone want better photographs of their work.

I'll send you some examples of what I end up with. Perhpas you are striving for something better.

I saw one of your countrymen demonstrating at Woodturn 2004 in October.

Safe turn>I remember seeing a neat light box for photographing turnings, I would

A couple of years ago, John Jordan put together a web site to show us how he photographs his turnings:

Is this something like what you have in mind?

Turnings are no different than other objects to be photographed. All the suggestions I've seen have been the same as you'll find as "tents" in photography texts. Can be as elaborate as what Michael gave you or as simple as a cheesecloth drape to break the light at midday. One thing you do want to do is get a vanishing background of some sort. I take a piece of artist board of the proper color and curve it up from the piece, making it both my short foreground and vanishing back.

Use the white backs of your other background boards for fill-in reflectors.

Hi Michael ,

Thanks very much - I had seen this page before and, yes, this is what I had in mind. But I will also study your exposition, and thanks very much to all the other replies, much appreciated!

William

Hi Alan,

who was that? Terry Scott?

william

I think it was Sorin Berger(?) the scoop and thin hat man!

I tried to drop you an e-mail at the amended address below and it bounced back. Maybe you have a good spam filter in place.

I use a digital (Canon G3) with its inbuilt flash and this seems to be suitable for the newsletter I prepare. I have been toying with the prospect of organising a more elaborate setup for very intricate works. For the show and tell table, I would not have time to do them all any way other than that currently in use.

You can get me on chnews at(use the symbol) iinet dot net dot au if you want to establish contact directly. I edit the newsletter for a Sydney regional group.

Safe turn>>

My general setup for this is two lengths of 1mm fibreglass kite spar (a very useful material) and a length of white ripstop nylon. Sew it all together to make a "stretcher". Sew three short lengths of spar into cross-wise pockets (you might want to make them removable from one end) Then use two lengths of matching silicone hose to bends the spar ends together into circles and fasten it all together.

You now have a circular drum of translucent diffusing fabric, with a big gap at the front. Set it up on your table, place the object inside, the camera tripod facing the gap and arrange lights around the outsides of the diffuser until you're happy. Cheap Ikea halogen desklamps are useful for this. If it's glass or silver, place a single small light inside the diffuser to produce highlights.

Use a digital camera and a laptop, because rapid feedback of large-size images is an important part of the light adjusting process.