more crystal experiments...

Hi all,
now that I finally have my 5D back, I'm playing with taking pictures of my wifes crystal. Here was an attempt made today (took about 11 attempts to get it to this stage, and I'm not real happy with it yet, looking for comments, ideas and /or suggestions.

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Tony, I too have experimented with crystal, the best results I had were when I lit the subject from below. Try different color combos till you find one you like. hope this helps.

Hmm, interesting - good suggestion, I didn't think of that. I've got tons of clear acrylic around so it wouldn't be hard for me to come up with a light table per say that I could even stick a flash underneath and then use the colored paper under the bear as my color source.

I was thinking of painting with a flash light, but as I was using my flashlight to focus the camera, I noticed that I was getting too much of a disco ball effect on the back wall, so I think painting atm until I can find a better way will be out. This would probably be much easier if the item was an internally engraved crystal block rather then a crystal figurine with tons of facets to reflect light in very inconvenient ways

-Tony

Tancor wrote:
Hmm, interesting - good suggestion, I didn't think of that. I've got tons of clear acrylic around so it wouldn't be hard for me to come up with a light table per say that I could even stick a flash underneath and then use the colored paper under the bear as my color source.

I was thinking of painting with a flash light, but as I was using my flashlight to focus the camera, I noticed that I was getting too much of a disco ball effect on the back wall, so I think painting atm until I can find a better way will be out. This would probably be much easier if the item was an internally engraved crystal block rather then a crystal figurine with tons of facets to reflect light in very inconvenient ways

-Tony

Thats exactly the problem I ran into. Too many facets reflecting light. Lighting it from the inside still allows for good lighting without the disco ball effect. let me know how it works for you.

Here was another experiment. This one was done with a single flash that I held above the diffuser tunnel...

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Since my computer that runs my laser engraver/cutter has temporarily donated its memory to another computer I probably won't be able to make my table until after christmas, but on the positive side, it'll give me time to figure out just how big and tall I want to make it, as well as what other features I might want to build in, like if i want to ultimately use it in the future with my light tunnel method, I could cut grooves into the acrylic to hold the paper in place...

Hmmm...

-Tony

I like the second a lot better, here is one of my experiments in Crystal. this one is colored crystal, using existing light, let me know what you think of it.

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Ooo, I like that. How big is the whole piece? luckily there aren't too many facets on the face of the dragon to catch / reflect light - I can only see one spot where the highlight might have been blown - I have to wonder if there is any way out of blowing a highlight.

I really like the background with it tho, the green leaves give an interesting feeling of depth to the whole image.

-Tony

Thanks Tony. There is actually a sad story behind this one. It was originally a very expensive Dragon Figurine. My wife found it at a fantastic price. It sat proudly on a display case. well, one of our friends had a 2 yr old daughter that liked it a little too well, they turned their heads for a second and she turned the head of the Dragon. It is now in several pieces. originally it was 16 inches long. I'm very glad you like it, I posted another shot, were I just slightly turned it and it gave off a whole different light, let me know if you like that one as well.