Cameo

[Marmalade]

Here is a shot of a cameo my husband gave me for x-mas.

My only light is from underneath (hoping for a glow-like effect) I used one of those head laps for hiking - very ghetto lighting.

My question is: Should I have taken more of a direct "straight on" shot? Should I use a larger light source?

I like the shot as is, I just wonder what I could do to make it better.

Also the only post process work done was to straighting it, no crop, no color enhance, etc.




thanks for the time

[clockdoc]

Hi. Nice shot and congratulations for thinking outside the box on lighting sources.! Can you describe your process in a little more detail. For example, is the cameo sitting directly on the light source? Or is it on a piece of dark material with a hole cut out for the light? What are the side bits at 9 and 3 o'clock? Did you also try side lighting alone and also a mix between the two to show texture? Also consider changing the color temperature setting in the camera if you can, to see what happens. I see this was set at Day-white flourescent when I suspect the buld may have been in a warmer range (unless it was the LED variety). May want to try a smaller aperture for better depth of field as well.

[Marmalade]

the cameo is sitting on tissue paper on a white piece of 1/4" plastic it might be 1/8" plastic (kind of hard to describe). The light is right under the plastic. The bits at 12, 3, 9, and 6 are small rubies set in the side of the casing around the cameo. I did try other lighting but did not like the look. The head lamp is an led light. It actually does not give off that much light unless you have no other light source. I don't think that I changed the aperture on this piece. I think I will try that later tonight, if I get the time to shoot at all. Thanks for the help.

[Marmalade]

Here is a photo of the set up I had.

[clockdoc]

Interesting setup. Was the area around the broach masked with dark paper or material or did the heavy plastic act as a bit of a mask to prevent spill light from shining into the lens. Another technique you may want to try is to close down the lens a few stops to lengthen your exposure time to several seconds. Then, during the time exposure, gently move the light in a small circular pattern and see what results. This may be hard to do with the way the light is sitting right under the plastic. May have to elevate the plastic a bit. Be sure that the plane of the broach is parallel to the focal plane of the camera sensor as depth of field will be minimal.

[Marmalade]

thanks I'll try that. thanks for all the help

[jiminyClickit]

Marmalade,

Going to portrait orientation would give slightly more detail (and size), less background, robbing pixels. Good shot.