Digital Light Kits

[Heidi Maiers]

Thanks for your input Mike, Michele, and Marvin.
Yes, that is it exactly Marvin. Seems like it will produce similar results as the umbrella system. Of the large and small setups offered, I purchased the smaller one which hopefully won't flatten the objects.

I don't plan on using if for unfinished works, but I had planned on using it for the resource photos of the subjects. I'll have to remember to set it back far enough so as not to blind or overheat them or I will end up with squinting sculptures.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Originally Posted by Heidi Maiers

I purchased the smaller one which hopefully won't flatten the objects.

I like a soft box better than an umbrella. The smaller the lightsource the more modeling that it reveals. The larger the lightsource the flatter the result. Good luck.

[Garth Herrick]

Heidi,

Congratulations on taking the plunge!

You are going to have so much fun exploring your sculptures with your light kit. While you may hit upon a good general lighting setup, as Mike said, each photo session will offer a new inspiration and insight into further possibilities. I had a blast of creativity photographing my sculpture with a 500W Tota-Lite and translucent umbrella. In truth I shot over 600 images the one evening, and each conveyed a distinctly individual expressive message about the sculpture.

Have fun!

Garth

[Heidi Maiers]

Originally Posted by Garth Herrick

In truth I shot over 600 images the one evening, and each conveyed a distinctly individual expressive message about the sculpture.

Good gracious Garth,

I admire your attention to detail and quest for perfectionism, but isn't that overkill? I have a hard enough time with just a couple of dozen deciding which ones to use as my display photos. Do you actually download and keep all of those (on a zip drive or CD), or do you just look through them and keep a handful? Storing those on your drive would would eat up your available space in no time.

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Heidi Maiers

Good gracious Garth,
Storing those on your drive would would eat up your available space in no time.

Well Heidi, yes, I have almost managed to eat up my available hard drive space in no time, and will need another hard drive soooon! I have added 200 gigs to my existing 200gigs, and need 200 more.

Garth

[Mike McCarty]

Moderators note:

The discussion regarding the management of photos has been split into it's own thread and can be found under:

Photography General Discussion, Photo Management - organizing your images:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...32692post32692

[Heidi Maiers]

I am finally getting around to experimenting with my light kit since I just have a finished piece back from the foundry. This is the photoflex soft box and has a filtering screen across the 500 watt bulb. Seems no matter where I place it, there is still quite a dark shadow cast behind the piece. Is it best to try to place the light directly overhead?

Anyway, I found these great background supports and paper at B&H Photo . The background support plus three rolls of paper (white, suede, and brown) were under $100 total.