JanuWednesfest - gregj1763

[gregj1763]

Evening all,
Here are a few photo's to show how I set up my studio and my awesome lighting rig.












Working on some edits of last night image. Will post later on.
Cheers, Greg

[AB26]

I drink whiskey straight Cheers, Greg

Gee, am I glad about that one, at least you don't mess up water by adding Whiskey to it!

Must say the A99 is doing a darn good job.

[gregj1763]

Thanks Andre, Learning more about it every time I pick it up

[Mike Buckley]

That black tent will always work like a charm for you...until you need a white one to bounce the light around.

[gregj1763]

That black tent will always work like a charm for you...until you need a white one to bounce the light around.

Hmmm? Think I might make a light-box

[gregj1763]

A crop as per Mike's suggestion with a B&W conversion.





Cheers, Greg

[gregj1763]

No booze or ciggie's this time, all healthy stuff.
Made myself a light box over the weekend and had a bit of a play with it.
The photo's nothing special but I can see how you can control your lighting a lot better so it should be good for product photo's.

Thanks for all the comments and advice over the last month. Really enjoyed it and learnt a lot.
Cheers, Greg

[Mike Buckley]

I somehow missed your revisions to last week's photo. I like the cropped version a lot better. The color version still makes it for me.

Your very nice photo to conclude your Fest series reminds me that I'll never tire of seeing or making photos using a light tent or a setup that produces a similar style. Let us know the details of yours.

[Bobobird]

Yes, good start with the box. Can we see a setup shot and some specs?

[gregj1763]

Thanks Mike and Bobo.
Here is the light box in all it's splendour. I had the led light set up as is and hand held another so it lit from above.
The shear curtain material you see in the image didn't diffuse the light enough so I wound up using a couple of white t-shirts which worked a lot better.
This weekend I'm going to make a sturdier box out of 3 ply timber so it will be a works in progress type of thing now I can see the potential for producing good photo's.
Also I did a sepia version of my gambling photo which I entered in a mini comp and is polling ok.
I wanted to try to get the old western feel to the image. Think I will play around a bit more with it in photoshop to try and make it look older? (Any tips)
Cheers, Greg

[Bobobird]

Cool.

I have looked around quite a bit and for a long time for a good diy design. Though there are millions around, this one caught my attention most. Best off the guy makes sense when he discusses lighting. Shiny moving insects make the most difficult of subject. Even more so than the shiny objects we have been playing with. If he can get nice diffused lighting on subjects with indeterminate highlight areas then the box should work great with static defined highlight areas.

http://www.naturescapes.net/articles...acro-subjects/

One other thing which I found in my exercise was the placement of the ambient lights. They interfere for sure. For the last one with Uncle Goofy, I used just a heavily diffused off camera flash in a completely dark room.

[Mike Buckley]

Greg,

I seem to remember that you already have a large, circular diffuser. Instead of being limited to a light box, you can use that diffuser, your background material and some white reflectors to accomplish the same look. Now that I have that stuff, I gave my light tent to my sister-in-law.

[Plumcrak]

Oh my, the wheels in my head are really turning now.

I really like the sepia tone to your "Gambler" shot. You got the "Old Western" feel.

Cheers

[gregj1763]

Thanks Jon thats what I was after but I can't help thinking it can be improved.
If I can work out how to I will post it to see what you think.
I want it to have that aged look.

[Plumcrak]

Maybe less contrast to give it a more faded look?? Or you can do what I do...just play around until you get lucky

[Bobobird]

Retro styles might work.

[gregj1763]

Maybe less contrast to give it a more faded look?? Or you can do what I do...just play around until you get lucky

You and I Jon, seem to have the same approach to post processing.
Cock about until it looks good.
We will never be experts, but WE will have fun trying
Cheers, Greg