Here is a little someting I did two years ago.
THE "HOW TO":
- I created a small box from foamcore stock so that I could control the light as well as reduce the amount of shadows cast by the lighting - the foam core is good and reflective without creating harsh lines.
- The light stand is a spare mic stand that I have in my studio so I put it to work. The lights are a 500wt halogen and two 60wt desk lamps place in the front and rear of the subject in order to reduce shadows and give a greater overall brightness to the pic.
- Behind the ball is some black fabric to help reduce the background light generated by the foamcore box.
- The rainbow was created by placing the ball on top of an old CD. The reflections it cast off were transmitted through the ball and gave it the light spectrum you see here.
- I did some minor adjustments in Photoshop to reduce the contrast between the bright & dark areas as well as one of my trademark steps. And because you asked, here it is:
- I duplicated the main layer, gave it a gaussian blur of 35 or so and then set it's layer mode to screen. This helps to do two things: 1) it brightens the overall look of the picture and 2) supplies it with a subtle "soft focus" effect.
- Flatten, downsample, add a border and there you have it!
Enjoy!
