Glass Mushroom

[Sabarika]

I thought this was too adorable to not buy.. and the price was right, too. Paid $5 for what the store wanted $50+ for.. ridiculous markup but it pays to be friends with an employee. :D Sadly this will end up locked away with all my other glass pieces for lord knows how long until I buy a nice display case. :/

I really need to build or buy a nice lightbox and get some flash, I used my art lamp, a black hoodie, and a wooden box as my setup. Also used my broken 50mm f/1.8 lens.. my boyfriend sat on it and it went from being a prime to a ghetto zoom.. clean break and even still auto focuses but it's just not as sharp as before. :( Thankfully it's the cheapest lens I own! Sorry if these are huge, they look fine on my 2 laptops but HUMONGOUS on the 19" CRT I use to process/upload.

http://www.spiralingdreams.com/albums/misc/mushroom00.jpg

http://www.spiralingdreams.com/albums/misc/mushroom01.jpg

http://www.spiralingdreams.com/albums/misc/mushroom02.jpg

http://www.spiralingdreams.com/albums/misc/mushroom03.jpg

Any critiques or feedback is more than welcome! Some are oversaturated and the background really overpowers the top portion of the pipe, you can't really make out the cute little red dots.

[mightycrystu]

The last one is my favorite. You're right about the oversaturation, but it makes sense if you can't make out the red portions. Love the lighting.

[canonloader]

I like the piece, but I have some suggestions. :)

Wash that thing down, polish it with a microfiber cloth you can buy online or from a good photography shop. Handle it with the cloth or get some document gloves, those thin cotton things, to prevent prints and finger oil from getting on the glass.

I bought a light tent. They are really great for controlling the light, and totally not needed. Mine now sits folded up and in it's bag. I bought several 2x3 foot sheets of foam core board for like $3 each. I duct taped two along the long edge to work as a book hinge. I can set it up and fold it away in less than a minute. I bought several sheets of 2x3 foot white poster board to act as sweeps, 97 cents each. All from Walmart.

Lights are very important, and stands are very handy to hold them. In this post, you can see the stands, lights and hoods (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=9323549&postcount=36) from my light tent. The lights are Daylight rated compact florescents, and you can buy them separately for about $11 each, and you can put them into clamp on construction light reflectors that you can buy at any Menards or Home Depot for maybe $7.

You will need some Black Velvet material, also sold at Walmart or any fabric store, to act as a black sweep. You might want to get a piece of white also.

Now you have virtually everything you need to take excellent "lightbox" images with complete control over the light. :)

[deathcake]

Looks awesome, I can see why you couldn't resist buying it =)

I like shot #2 best.

[Z FOTOTECHNIKA]

Dude isn't that a pipe?

[CafeRacer808]

Dude isn't that a pipe?

My thoughts exactly!

[Sabarika]

Dude isn't that a pipe?
It is! Do I need to tag it with NWS or something? It's clean and unused.

Thanks so much for the light tent advice. I have a compact fluorescent Daylight art lamp I used on this but I will totally look into some posterboard and velvet.. way cheaper than those eBay "SUPER DUPER LIGHT BOX PRO KIT ONLY $499". Googling also helped me find neat DIY designs for lighting so when I get some $ I am off to the hardware store.

[canonloader]

Well, the whole idea of a light tent or light box, is to diffuse the light coming off the bulb. Once the bulb is mounted in a socket, switch and a reflector, diffusing the light is easy. I use a single sheet of papet towel over the opening of the reflector cone and get the same dffused light as in the tent, without the tent. :)

[Sabarika]

I don't even own a flash unit right now so I've been trying to find ways to use ambient light as my source but it can be harsh (like tipping over a halogen floor lamp so it's directed at my subject). I'd love a light box so I can eliminate background junk and to give me a nice clean setting--something I don't always have at home since I have no studio or anything. Sometimes I use tissues or printer paper held in front of my on-board flash to diffuse it but that still doesn't give me good results but it is still better than the harsh direct flash. Since I'm limited with space and budget I think the suggestions to buy myself some regular lights and use those rather than a fancy lighting setup are just what I need to do. :)

[canonloader]

If you want to shop for a few things, especially the bulbs, here is where I got mine (http://www.cowboystudio.com/). It's right down near you too, although, they ship USPS and it only took 2 days to get to me. :)

The other stuff, you can get at Wally, or a hardware store. :)

[NeoDSLR]

Wonderful photos... very well taken indeed!