Continue the research
Aug. 15th, 2011 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stephbgToday I cobbled together the faster and nastier version of the DIY light box, just to see what sort of improvements were to be had. All I did was line a clear square plastic bucket with cheap white sketch paper, and shine a desk lamp into it which was running a 60W natural daylight halogen globe. Here are the results:
I'll save you the fascinating prospect of gazing at the results of early lighting tests, but here's an attempt which was at least bright enoughto see:
Bright enough but distinctly yellow. And then I discovered the right in camera white balance setting for halogen lighting:
Maybe a tad blue still, but the following is the additional improvement I get using the 1 click colour correction option in Microsoft Office Picture Manager (yes, that is the only graphic software package I currently have available to me, stop laughing):
Even better. I'll get there one day, and learn to tinker with colour balance manually. This is particularly exciting for the calcite pictures (insofar as calcite pictures can be exciting) because I've some quite subtly different colours that I feared would not come out well. Green seems to be an issue.
I also was interested in diffusing the light to deal with reflections off shiny rocks. The reflections (a) made it impossible to see the rock underneath, and (b) sometimes included distracting images of the camera lens, my fingers, sometimes my face, and occasionally the sky, trees, and clouds. One of the worst offenders for large reflections was the black quartz, as seen here:
But in the light box the reflections were much more consistent, which is fine for flat planes:
Over the weekend I successfully bid on a circular polarizing camera filter from ebay, which should reduce the most troublesome reflections on curved surfaces, as seen here:
...so it should be possible to see something other than white light on the surface.
You'll have to wait a few days at least for the After shot. There's no way to attach the filter to my faithful point-and-shoot, so I'll just devise some sort of frame to hold it up in front of the lens. It will need to be mobile, for I'll have to set and hold my focus, then move the filter into place and take the shot. I might need to tinker with exposure settings before I get that process quite right.
Also made progress on the vexed issue of dust and cat fur. Tried a proper dusting implement today which removed most of the dust and which did not leave behind tiny bits of paper residue. I was also not shooting behind some very dusty curtains. The mop thing did shed one fibre so the cat fur was represented in spirit at least. The duster is fine for big robust things like quartz, but I shall have to devise something more gentle on a paintbrush scale for delicate things. I have a variety of paintbrushes on hand so I should be able to find the right combination for most of the collection.
The next phase is to cable the camera into the laptop so I can view shots immediately at a scale that would let me detect and respond to stray motes of dust immediately.
I'd love to post a picture of my mini studio when it's complete, but I'd need to borrow another camera to do so!
I'll save you the fascinating prospect of gazing at the results of early lighting tests, but here's an attempt which was at least bright enoughto see:
Bright enough but distinctly yellow. And then I discovered the right in camera white balance setting for halogen lighting:
Maybe a tad blue still, but the following is the additional improvement I get using the 1 click colour correction option in Microsoft Office Picture Manager (yes, that is the only graphic software package I currently have available to me, stop laughing):
Even better. I'll get there one day, and learn to tinker with colour balance manually. This is particularly exciting for the calcite pictures (insofar as calcite pictures can be exciting) because I've some quite subtly different colours that I feared would not come out well. Green seems to be an issue.
I also was interested in diffusing the light to deal with reflections off shiny rocks. The reflections (a) made it impossible to see the rock underneath, and (b) sometimes included distracting images of the camera lens, my fingers, sometimes my face, and occasionally the sky, trees, and clouds. One of the worst offenders for large reflections was the black quartz, as seen here:
But in the light box the reflections were much more consistent, which is fine for flat planes:
Over the weekend I successfully bid on a circular polarizing camera filter from ebay, which should reduce the most troublesome reflections on curved surfaces, as seen here:
...so it should be possible to see something other than white light on the surface.
You'll have to wait a few days at least for the After shot. There's no way to attach the filter to my faithful point-and-shoot, so I'll just devise some sort of frame to hold it up in front of the lens. It will need to be mobile, for I'll have to set and hold my focus, then move the filter into place and take the shot. I might need to tinker with exposure settings before I get that process quite right.
Also made progress on the vexed issue of dust and cat fur. Tried a proper dusting implement today which removed most of the dust and which did not leave behind tiny bits of paper residue. I was also not shooting behind some very dusty curtains. The mop thing did shed one fibre so the cat fur was represented in spirit at least. The duster is fine for big robust things like quartz, but I shall have to devise something more gentle on a paintbrush scale for delicate things. I have a variety of paintbrushes on hand so I should be able to find the right combination for most of the collection.
The next phase is to cable the camera into the laptop so I can view shots immediately at a scale that would let me detect and respond to stray motes of dust immediately.
I'd love to post a picture of my mini studio when it's complete, but I'd need to borrow another camera to do so!
