retired-sofa-spud
Member
also first time with S2000 pen kit. Nice piece of she-oak burl received from Dario. (Thanks again Dario.) Fittings 24K, finish CA. Any comments welcome.
First fountain pen
- Thread starter retired-sofa-spud
- Start date
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papaturner
Member
Beautiful blank and you did an excellent job with it.
Perry
Perry
retired-sofa-spud
Member
Interestingly, while turning this pen, a large chunk flew out of the lower barrel which went all the way to the tube. I just stuffed some sawdust in the largish hole and dused with thin CA and kept going. Later I couldn't tell for sure where the damage was. My guess is that what looks like a "knot" is not a knot.
cowchaser
Member
Pen looks very nice. Now, far be it from me and my poor photo skills to say this, BUT the wood it is resting on is really distracting from the pen. Do you happen to have a photo without the wood blending in with the pen. I would like to see it.
bitshird
Member
Nice pen, I just did a 2000 a week or so back, nice kits, and looks like you did a good job on turning it, pretty wood as well, gotta watch the background and stand on those mirror shots.
Dalecamino
Local Chapter Leader
Very pretty pen Greg ! Nice save with the dust ! [8D]
karlkuehn
Banned
Sweet looking pen, Greg! Your photo skills are coming along well, too!
If you'll permit me to interject my two pennies: For me, with the mirror thing, what I try to do is get the pen far enough away from the background vertical that it blurs out on the horizontal plane. I think your prop is fine, since it's not finished and the dullness/rough cut of it makes it enough of a separate entity from the pen, but the background grain definition in the reflection is what's ultimately distracting from the picture as a whole. See towards the bottom of the picture how the depth of field causes the background to go blurry so you only see color 'splotches' without actual texture definition? That's what I like to get under the whole pen.
By dragging the pen and prop forward towards the camera, you're increasing the depth of field, but you have to figure out how to set the camera back, too, which can be a challenge in smaller workspaces. Doing that, you're also eliminating the 'joint' between the mirror and the background, which makes the pen and prop look like they're just floating in a 'wood' lake. The reflection of the pen that looks tripled is from the 3 reflections that you're getting off the face of the mirror glass, the 'underside' glass plane, and the mirror silvering below that.
Fixing your sharpness issue is just a matter of image compression. Any camera that'll do at least a megapixel or two should be able to create a 800 pixel wide image without having to stretch the image, which is what your photo looks like it went through, that's why you have the 'raggedy' edges and stuff.
Also, I know we have image size restrictions on what we can host here on IAP due to bandwidth. I'd be happy to explain how to set up your own server, hosting your own pictures (and eventually your own website) for about $5 a month on a lightening fast server. Then it's just a matter of linking to the pictures you post rather than suck up juice from the forum to display nice inline images. It's not nearly as complicated as it seems, and I plan to do a tutorial on that kind of thing eventually, but for now, working on an individual basis is fine with me. I'm no where near the photographer that Gerry is, and I've had to find some nice shortcuts with my old Nikon 3.2 Mp dinosaur. PM me if you want to hear more...there's not much I can do to help you with your camera settings except point you to Gerry's tutorial, but the software side of it I'm pretty good at, and it doesn't take much to get it set up. That goes for everyone, I guess...if you want help, I'm here. I'll do my best...perhaps that tutorial isn't such a bad idea after all...might save a little time, but I don't mind working the bugs out on an individual basis to start with.
Overall, great job, though! You're very close to stunning, both with your turning and your photos.
Keep after it, it'll be worth it, I promise! heh
If you'll permit me to interject my two pennies: For me, with the mirror thing, what I try to do is get the pen far enough away from the background vertical that it blurs out on the horizontal plane. I think your prop is fine, since it's not finished and the dullness/rough cut of it makes it enough of a separate entity from the pen, but the background grain definition in the reflection is what's ultimately distracting from the picture as a whole. See towards the bottom of the picture how the depth of field causes the background to go blurry so you only see color 'splotches' without actual texture definition? That's what I like to get under the whole pen.
By dragging the pen and prop forward towards the camera, you're increasing the depth of field, but you have to figure out how to set the camera back, too, which can be a challenge in smaller workspaces. Doing that, you're also eliminating the 'joint' between the mirror and the background, which makes the pen and prop look like they're just floating in a 'wood' lake. The reflection of the pen that looks tripled is from the 3 reflections that you're getting off the face of the mirror glass, the 'underside' glass plane, and the mirror silvering below that.
Fixing your sharpness issue is just a matter of image compression. Any camera that'll do at least a megapixel or two should be able to create a 800 pixel wide image without having to stretch the image, which is what your photo looks like it went through, that's why you have the 'raggedy' edges and stuff.
Also, I know we have image size restrictions on what we can host here on IAP due to bandwidth. I'd be happy to explain how to set up your own server, hosting your own pictures (and eventually your own website) for about $5 a month on a lightening fast server. Then it's just a matter of linking to the pictures you post rather than suck up juice from the forum to display nice inline images. It's not nearly as complicated as it seems, and I plan to do a tutorial on that kind of thing eventually, but for now, working on an individual basis is fine with me. I'm no where near the photographer that Gerry is, and I've had to find some nice shortcuts with my old Nikon 3.2 Mp dinosaur. PM me if you want to hear more...there's not much I can do to help you with your camera settings except point you to Gerry's tutorial, but the software side of it I'm pretty good at, and it doesn't take much to get it set up. That goes for everyone, I guess...if you want help, I'm here. I'll do my best...perhaps that tutorial isn't such a bad idea after all...might save a little time, but I don't mind working the bugs out on an individual basis to start with.
Overall, great job, though! You're very close to stunning, both with your turning and your photos.
Keep after it, it'll be worth it, I promise! heh
Dan_F
Member
Greg---The pen looks great, glad you didn't give up with the chunk flying off. Hope you enjoy the fountain pen experience, I don't like to use anything else now.
Looks like you got some good advice from the master on your photos.
Dan
Looks like you got some good advice from the master on your photos.
Dan
Ligget
Member
Lovely work![]
]
retired-sofa-spud
Member
Karl,
Thank you for the input and I'll try to sort through your suggestions and see how to improve the image. One thing I'm struggling with is in my small lightbox, creating something more of an infinite background. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you and I plan on PM'ing sometime after my wife and I get back from Barbados tomorrow. I tell you, they have some awesome looking tree species and burls all over the island here but I understand the paperwork and quarantine issues I'd have to deal with to get anything home make the process unbearable.
Thank you for the input and I'll try to sort through your suggestions and see how to improve the image. One thing I'm struggling with is in my small lightbox, creating something more of an infinite background. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you and I plan on PM'ing sometime after my wife and I get back from Barbados tomorrow. I tell you, they have some awesome looking tree species and burls all over the island here but I understand the paperwork and quarantine issues I'd have to deal with to get anything home make the process unbearable.
Vince_Hoffmann
Member
Nice work! That kit was also my first fountain pen and I use it regularly at my office. My only complaint is that the gold plating is starting to wear off the threads.