Polished wood picture

I struggled through many tries to try and get a decent picture of that simple polished wood statuette I brought back from Africa - The reflections from various lamps and reflectors all but drove me crazy.
I finally resorted to my light box, with additional tricks to avoid hideous white patches.
This is the best I could do until now.
Curious to know the opinion of knowledgeable people here.
Thanks for looking.

nice, i like the tones in it

I think you did a nice job. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to photograph my wood and stone - turnings and carvings. I never did find a softbox or umbrella that worked very well so I finally purchased a pop up photo box. It works great, really reduced the annoying hot spots. Not sure why since it's the same translucent material as the softbox and umbrella. I use daylight balanced florescents in 8" reflectors as the light source. My 580 ex2 flash also worked well.

I like it. Well done.

DanThoman wrote in post #13878008
I think you did a nice job. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to photograph my wood and stone - turnings and carvings. I never did find a softbox or umbrella that worked very well so I finally purchased a pop up photo box. It works great, really reduced the annoying hot spots. Not sure why since it's the same translucent material as the softbox and umbrella. I use daylight balanced florescents in 8" reflectors as the light source. My 580 ex2 flash also worked well.

Thank you Dan.
It's also a "pop up" photo box, with two halogen lights on the side and one overhead. I had to play a lot with the orientation of the lights to minimize the white reflections - basically, no direct lighting toward the subject. Even though, I had to dodge several hot spots to soften them - most notably the top of the head, but not only...
Also used makeshift cardboard "gobos" to avoid light spilling onto the black background.

annubis wrote in post #13879291
I like it. Well done.

Thank you.