Stained glass Lamps

[Curly W]

I am new to the site and am trying to take a photograph of a stained glass lamp with a digital camera. I am by NO MEANS a phtographer but am looking for tips on how to do this. I must take a photograph for submission to an arts council.

Thanks

[whalebone]

Curly,
I'm not sure I can offer any help, but am quite interested in what comes out of this discussion, and your end results.

I'm typing as I think here, but I'm wondering if there is a way you could light the lamp with natural light. ie instead of using the actual lamp to show the stained glass, how about positioning it next to a window with some direct side light. It may offer an alternative than just lighting it from the centre.

You could also try different bulbs - the energy efficient bulbs give a cooler light than the incandecent.

[teaking]

Well the problem you will have is capturing the whole range of light if I understand what your meaning, If the lamps on and your shooting the picture you can expose for the lamp and the stained glass but the back ground will not be seen as that will not be exposed for.

Which isnt a problem if its the lamp your after photo graphing.

The other alternative is to try HDR which merges multiple exposure into one so you can in theory retain more shadows and highlights because your blending them from different pictures.

There is some free software: Picturenaut Overview that will help you blend the exposures. For more information on taking multiple exposures search the forums here theres a great depth of knowledge around here

[Stella_Bella]

Aside from the technial aspects, try thinking of different perspectives to shoot from so it's not just a picture of a lamp. I'm sure there are all sorts of possibilities to make your shot different and unique. I'd love to see it when you're finished!