gurlinator

ParallaxView · November 11, 2004

Hey gang,

i was experimenting with a homemade lightbox.
this is shot with Canon EOS Ti (film) and scanned off the negative.
no photoshop other than size reduction.

Give me you comments......Thanks!!

Rudy

ParallaxView · November 11, 2004

Gurlinator (Cont......)
Here is another from the Gurlinator shoot....
Opinions?

Thanks

Rudy

pathfinder · November 11, 2004

ParallaxView wrote:

Here is another from the Gurlinator shoot....
Opinions?

Thanks

Rudy

The light box seems to create a nice soft lighting effect, but your images are not sharp - out of focus? Try a much smaller aperature for more depth of field as these subjects will not object to holding still for you. A tripod may also be useful.

mercphoto · November 11, 2004

Opinion

ParallaxView wrote:

Hey gang,

i was experimenting with a homemade lightbox.
this is shot with Canon EOS Ti (film) and scanned off the negative.no photoshop other than size reduction.

The light box seems to be doing its job. I agree that the depth of field is too shallow. I like your first one much better than the second one, because I like the second action figure being behind and blurry. But the front action figure is not all in focus. Both hands are out of focus. The face is good, but not all of the body is good. You should try a smaller aperture, or orient the figure more parallel to the film plane. Otherwise I like it.

ParallaxView · November 11, 2004

Gurlinator
Thanks for the comments guys....

the focus is intentional....i have an 80mm lens and i zoomed in as close as i could and then moved my camera as close as i could without going completely out of focus. I tried to set it so that only the face and chest of the girl robot were in focus in both shots.
(i was trying to get a McFairland look)
I used a camera tripod, a single halogen work light and a white poster board for fill. The background is a black posterboard curved upwards.
(going to Hobby Lobby this weekend and getting some black felt material)

The one thing i found myself needing was a remote shutter release button...i have 10 more pictures in this batch and they suffer from camera shake...and that stubborn girl robot kept falling down

Rudy

ParallaxView · November 11, 2004

a side note
hey guys...
i had a comment about my light box...
It works great i love playing with lighting and my kids toys make good subjects. (everyone should try shooting with one)
I made mine out of PVC and it's basically a box frame. I hang my backround on the back support and i drape a white sheet over the whole box when i want soft lighting. (about $7.00 including PVC,posterboards and white sheet)
The major drawback of using PVC is the heat from the shoplights makes the PVC soft and it warps. I had my light suspended from one of the legs of the softbox. By the time i finished my shoot the leg was all bent out of shape.

Rudy

mercphoto · November 11, 2004

Lighting
Interesting light box. Nice price. I won't describe the light box I have, nor the price I paid for it.

If your PVC is getting soft due to heat from the lights, I have a few suggestons:

1) Put the lights farther away (will also help soften them).
2) Use daylight balanced flourescents instead
3) Use less watts

Any of those solutions will make less over-all light and require longer shutters. When I photographed some blown glass jewelry I sometimes had shutters of 1-4 seconds. With tri-pod, not a problem.

As per your not having a remote shutter, use the 10-second delay instead. Hit the shutter, and by the time the delay is up the camera has stopped shaking on the tri-pod.

ParallaxView · November 11, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

Interesting light box. Nice price. I won't describe the light box I have, nor the price I paid for it.

If your PVC is getting soft due to heat from the lights, I have a few suggestons:

1) Put the lights farther away (will also help soften them).
2) Use daylight balanced flourescents instead
3) Use less watts

Any of those solutions will make less over-all light and require longer shutters. When I photographed some blown glass jewelry I sometimes had shutters of 1-4 seconds. With tri-pod, not a problem.

As per your not having a remote shutter, use the 10-second delay instead. Hit the shutter, and by the time the delay is up the camera has stopped shaking on the tri-pod.

Thanks for the advice...i'll try using the delay on my shutter.

Are the daylight balanced flourescents something i can buy at Home Depot or is that a special photo light. In my part of texas there are no photo supply stores and i'm leery about buying bulbs mail-order.

mercphoto · November 11, 2004

daylight light bulbs

ParallaxView wrote:

Are the daylight balanced flourescents something i can buy at Home Depot or is that a special photo light. In my part of texas there are no photo supply stores and i'm leery about buying bulbs mail-order.

Home Depot and Lowes carries them. Or, if you use a grey card and a custom white balance, the color temp is not an issue.

ParallaxView · November 11, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

Home Depot and Lowes carries them. Or, if you use a grey card and a custom white balance, the color temp is not an issue.

thanks again!!......i'll go check out Home Depot tonight...
I dont have a digital camera...i shoot good old fashioned film. hence the amber hue in my gurlinator pics...(although i'll call that an artistic choice)
i'm going to start shooting a white card at the beginning of the role and having the photo place color correct to that.

PerezDesignGroup · November 11, 2004

ParallaxView wrote:

Hey gang,

i was experimenting with a homemade lightbox.
this is shot with Canon EOS Ti (film) and scanned off the negative.
no photoshop other than size reduction.

Give me you comments......Thanks!!

Rudy

I'm curious...what equipment are you using to scan the negative?

ParallaxView · November 11, 2004

PerezDesignGroup wrote:

I'm curious...what equipment are you using to scan the negative?

well in this particular case....the place that develops my film also scans the negatives and burns them onto a cd for me. (about $2 extra) But i do have an HP ScanJet with an adapter that lets me scan slides and negatives.
I've used it to scan old slides and negatives and create DVD photo albums for people. I've had very good success with it and allows me some extra pocket money to fool with my photography. (saving up for a D20)

gurlinator

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