A new setup in my light tent

[DaveT]

I am experimenting with a new setup in my light tent for my pen photos.

I am looking for comments and critiques please.

[Marsilius]

Great view. Can you keep same clarity and bring nib into total focus, too? Without losing it somewhere else?

[alexander_k]

Lovely; it brings out the pen texture. The nib would be great too if it were more to the centre, I suppose.

[DaveT]

Thank you both. I will have to work on making sure that the nib is always in focus.

Here is another one with the same setup.

[Chrissy]

It looks good. Photos in my light tent usually come out looking darker than they should, bearing in mind I use the white background cloth.

Maybe my lights aren't bright enough?

[Marsilius]

Kinda wow.

[DaveT]

It looks good. Photos in my light tent usually come out looking darker than they should, bearing in mind I use the white background cloth.

Maybe my lights aren't bright enough?

Kinda wow.

Thank you both.

I did use photoshop to brighten it a bit.

I am cheating a bit on the lighting. Any guesses as to what I am doing in the setup of the photos?

[franzdimson]

Awesome shots DaveT! I love the clarity. What did you use under the pen? There's a reflection which makes me think it's a clear glass but it's a faint reflection though.


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[franzdimson]

It looks good. Photos in my light tent usually come out looking darker than they should, bearing in mind I use the white background cloth.

Maybe my lights aren't bright enough?

Hi Chrissy,
What camera and what kind of exposure mode did you use?

Having a white background and a camera on auto will definitely make it darker without compensating the exposure. It's always my issue with my iPhone camera.


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[Jon Szanto]

Man, this is all so much harder when you live with cats.

[Chrissy]

It looks good. Photos in my light tent usually come out looking darker than they should, bearing in mind I use the white background cloth.

Maybe my lights aren't bright enough?

Hi Chrissy,
What camera and what kind of exposure mode did you use?

Having a white background and a camera on auto will definitely make it darker without compensating the exposure. It's always my issue with my iPhone camera.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I have a Canon EOS 1D Mk3, but when I'm taking a few pics of a pen or bottle of ink at home, I tend to use my little Canon G10. I always use a tripod when I take photos in there. Despite this the white background never seems to be white on my images. I have to adjust them with a curves layer in Photoshop. My light tent isn't near to the window, and it's in a north facing room, so it rarely gets sunlight in there. That's why I choose to keep most of my inks in that room.

[DaveT]

franzdimson, You are mostly correct, there is glass involved. If you look there are no shadows either.

Anyone want to venture a guess as to what is under the pen?

[Chrissy]

franzdimson, You are mostly correct, there is glass involved. If you look there are no shadows either.

Anyone want to venture a guess as to what is under the pen?

Blue tac?

[DaveT]

It looks good. Photos in my light tent usually come out looking darker than they should, bearing in mind I use the white background cloth.

Maybe my lights aren't bright enough?

Hi Chrissy,
What camera and what kind of exposure mode did you use?

Having a white background and a camera on auto will definitely make it darker without compensating the exposure. It's always my issue with my iPhone camera.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I have a Canon EOS 1D Mk3, but when I'm taking a few pics of a pen or bottle of ink at home, I tend to use my little Canon G10. I always use a tripod when I take photos in there. Despite this the white background never seems to be white on my images. I have to adjust them with a curves layer in Photoshop. My light tent isn't near to the window, and it's in a north facing room, so it rarely gets sunlight in there. That's why I choose to keep most of my inks in that room.

Chrissy, I started using digicamcontrol . It is a free software that allows me to hook my camera up to my PC and control the camera from the PC. I can trigger the shutter from the PC and I get an instant preview of my pictures on the screen. And in manual mode I can change the exposure setting from the PC as well. I also bought an AC adapter for my camera so that it does not burn up the battery charge so quickly.

The software is buggy and does crash often. I can put up with that since I like the convenience of not having to change the memory cards, load onto PC, then realize I don't like the shot and have to reload the card into the camera and retake the shot. I am not affiliated with them, use at your own risk.

[stonerman33]

franzdimson, You are mostly correct, there is glass involved. If you look there are no shadows either.

Anyone want to venture a guess as to what is under the pen?

X-ray lamp?


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[DaveT]

I have a poor man's light tent.

A shelving unit with 4ft shop lights hung from the bottom of one of the shelves. A piece of white fabric suspended under the lights to diffuse it. I placed a piece of white poster board on the shelf below the lights to serve as the bottom and it curls up to form the back.

For this shot I simply placed the pen on my tablet while using an app called white screen. I only used one of the 4ft shop lights for this photo.

Here is a re-creation shot of what I did. I had to use my cell phone for the photo.



I made some quick adjustments in Light Room. All total I spent less than 5 minutes on the whole process.

[roguez]

Very Creative! And inexpensive! Thank you!!

[Chrissy]

It looks good. Photos in my light tent usually come out looking darker than they should, bearing in mind I use the white background cloth.

Maybe my lights aren't bright enough?

Hi Chrissy,
What camera and what kind of exposure mode did you use?

Having a white background and a camera on auto will definitely make it darker without compensating the exposure. It's always my issue with my iPhone camera.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I have a Canon EOS 1D Mk3, but when I'm taking a few pics of a pen or bottle of ink at home, I tend to use my little Canon G10. I always use a tripod when I take photos in there. Despite this the white background never seems to be white on my images. I have to adjust them with a curves layer in Photoshop. My light tent isn't near to the window, and it's in a north facing room, so it rarely gets sunlight in there. That's why I choose to keep most of my inks in that room.

Chrissy, I started using digicamcontrol . It is a free software that allows me to hook my camera up to my PC and control the camera from the PC. I can trigger the shutter from the PC and I get an instant preview of my pictures on the screen. And in manual mode I can change the exposure setting from the PC as well. I also bought an AC adapter for my camera so that it does not burn up the battery charge so quickly.

The software is buggy and does crash often. I can put up with that since I like the convenience of not having to change the memory cards, load onto PC, then realize I don't like the shot and have to reload the card into the camera and retake the shot. I am not affiliated with them, use at your own risk.

I checked out digicamcontrol and it appears to be a Windows only based software. There are others that I could consider that work on Mac though. Thanks for the idea.

[PaulS]

great pix Dave. Diffusing the light is essential, as you say - nothing worse that mega glare bouncing everywhere. I have a Panasonic DMC-TZ3 with a Leica lens - an old and simple model now - and it's a pre-owned camera which came from ebay and not at all like some of the large complex cameras - but for the money it takes very good pix.
Couldn't now be without my Picasa editing - does wonders for idiots like me. But the reason for posting was simply to say that my 'surface' on which the pens lay is 3 mm white opaque Perspex. This allows for diffused underside lighting, if that were needed (mostly not), and in combination with strip lighting in an angle poise lamp is simple yet effective.
Unfortunately, I've not yet managed to avoid some light bounce from the nib - and the curved surface compounds the problem. I can snap the nib at higher magnification by shooting through loupes or lenses of varying power, and have even snapped down a microscope tube - provided you don't mind seeing the black circle round the image - and all without a tripod - but you do have to hold your breath.