Hard to Photograph Emperor

[Larry in Harrow]

The non-wood saga continues. This one is a Junior Emperor in Mother of Pearl Gemstone. Fairly easy to turn, hard to capture in a photograph.

Photo 1: The complete pen, all very white.

Photo 2: The pen showing the end cap and the kit bling.

Photo 3: A little creative use of lighting and at least some of the pearlescense shows up.

Now you see more of the beauty in this material. BTW I got the blank from William Wood-Write. This is actually the second set of blanks I turned for this pen. When I was at the final sanding stage of the first set a small dark brown inclusion appeared. The piece of coloured acrylic (I think) didn't disappear during the sanding stages. I contacted Bill at WWW and he graciously volunteered to replace the blank at no cost. Excellent service.
Thanks for looking.

ps: John if your out there, I can hardly wait to try them new bushings. This factory set left a little to be desired.

 

[Jim15]

Beautiful pen, I love the white and gold combination. It makes a elegant pen.

 

[maxman400]

Great Looking PEN! Super Photos.

 

[johnnycnc]

Larry, that is a very nice combination!

p.s...they are on the way.

 

[randyrls]

The non-wood saga continues.

Nice work and excellent photos!

Is that symbol on the photos "The artist formerly known as Larry..." ? :biggrin::biggrin:

Excellent photography!!

 

[Larry in Harrow]

Is that symbol on the photos "The artist formerly known as Larry..." ? :biggrin::biggrin:quote]


Soitenly, nyuk, nyuk

Thanks Randy.

 

[rjwolfe3]

Beautiful!

 

[WildcatHollow]

A pearlescent finish is very difficult to capture with flash. Generally, when shooting pearlescent or opalescent surfaces I use flash+rear curtain and the light from a 4x15 LED flashlight (you can buy them at WalMart for around $30.) Effectively, it's a time exposure, so you'll need to be sure your camera is on a tripod and you use an analog or digital cable release, depending on your brand and model of camera.

 

[Larry in Harrow]

Thanks Toby. I never use flash, camera on AP setting so I control depth of field. Generally I find 6500K CF lights x4 spaced strategically gives me decent colour with very little correction required. No tent but I do use a tripod all the time, mostly long exposures. The third shot was shot with one backlight only and (great minds think alike) an LED flashlight.

A pearlescent finish is very difficult to capture with flash. Generally, when shooting pearlescent or opalescent surfaces I use flash+rear curtain and the light from a 4x15 LED flashlight (you can buy them at WalMart for around $30.) Effectively, it's a time exposure, so you'll need to be sure your camera is on a tripod and you use an analog or digital cable release, depending on your brand and model of camera.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Except for the color cast, excellent photography.
And, very nice work on the pen.
I suggest you use either a neutral gray or black background to get a true [truer] white rendition. Of course, you need proper color lights to achieve that.
Those small photo tent set ups come up for sale quite often. They originally retailed for about $75.00 to $99.00 but I bought mine for $7.95 online someplace. It is permanently set up and very handy for pens and things not much larger.

 

[Larry in Harrow]

Thanks Frank. I use a neutral grey backdrop often and do a white balance adjustment on the camera always. I shot this set with the grey background and with this blue stuff. After loading on to the computer I prefered the cooler look of the blue background with the white pen. Maybe it's my moniter, I didn't bother printing a copy to check. On my moniter the pearl white is still white. Is this not the case on yours?

Except for the color cast, excellent photography.
And, very nice work on the pen.
I suggest you use either a neutral gray or black background to get a true [truer] white rendition. Of course, you need proper color lights to achieve that.
Those small photo tent set ups come up for sale quite often. They originally retailed for about $75.00 to $99.00 but I bought mine for $7.95 online someplace. It is permanently set up and very handy for pens and things not much larger.

 

[areaman]

Im no photo expert, so it looks great to me.

 

[Len Shreck]

As a newbie I would like to ask what is the material that you have it on for the photos? I have only taken 2 pics of the one pen I made and I cant get the depth of the pens to show up so I am looking for different backgrounds to put pens on to photograph them. Thanks Len

 

[Rifleman1776]

As a newbie I would like to ask what is the material that you have it on for the photos? I have only taken 2 pics of the one pen I made and I cant get the depth of the pens to show up so I am looking for different backgrounds to put pens on to photograph them. Thanks Len

You can go to Wal-Mart and, in the crafts/fabric department, buy one foot squares of different colored felt at about 50 cents each. They make great backgrounds for pens or other small objects.

 

[Larry in Harrow]

Hi Len,
The blue material is just blue printer paper back lit. I use a standard aluminum shaded shop light inverted with a sheet of glass and paper on top to back light. Gets rid of most of the shadows.

As a newbie I would like to ask what is the material that you have it on for the photos? I have only taken 2 pics of the one pen I made and I cant get the depth of the pens to show up so I am looking for different backgrounds to put pens on to photograph them. Thanks Len

 

[Len Shreck]

It dont look like paper. I have to get a better camera before I worry about setting up a photo booth, although it would make it a lot easier if I try and sell any of my pens or anything online. Thanks for the info. Len

 

[fitzman163]

Very nice both pen and photo.

 

[artme]

That is just the right combination of kit and blank!! Beautiful!!