[Leica] Help with studio lighting: PAW 7

[dorysrus at mindspring.com (Don Dory)]

Alistair,
I do think the second one is more effective, although I like the
arrangement of the first one better.  As others have commented, a darker
background in number one would work better.  Does either your sister or
wife have a dark purple silk blouse that could be called into play?

As to lighting, what you need is much softer light.  If you have a
really large soft box, try using that from directly overhead.  If not,
then try using a white sheet and tenting the set; use a light to shoot
through the tent.  For highlights, use small mirrors or white cards to
selectively bounce some additional light to those areas you want
highlighted.  Use black cards to subtract light if necessary.

Thank your sister as shooting jewelry is one of the hardest things to do
in a studio, as you noticed, lots of shiny surfaces that cause much
difficulty.

Don
dorysrus@mindspring.com



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf
Of Alastair Firkin
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2005 3:25 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] Help with studio lighting: PAW 7

My sister asked me to display some of her pearls, with a Japanese 
flavour. Lighting pearls was harder than I had expected. Those shiny 
surfaces bounce light everywhere, focusing the digilux 1 on a string of 
pearls was a nightmare, and keeping shadows down to a minimum was 
tricky: so how should I have done it, and any suggestions for the 
"set-up".

So this week's PAW:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/Alastairs-PAW-2005/Week7

and alternative:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/Alastairs-PAW-2005/W7alt1

comments would be very helpful

Cheers

Alastair

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