John Hesselberth on fri 12 feb 99
Chris Schafale wrote:
>Hey Vince,
>
>Sorry to sound clueless, but what's a soft-box??
>
>Chris
Chris,
A softbox is a large, usually pyramid-shaped, box with a white,
translucent bottom face. It softens and spreads the light so you don't
get so much glare. You can buy one for $50-$200 or you can make one from
foam core board, duct tape and white translucent plastic for less than
$20. There are instructions for this in the articles I wrote for Clay
Times last year. These articles are also posted on my web site. Go to:
http://www.frogpondpottery.com/articles/photopot1.html
By the way, most of the recent posts have been on using flood lights. I
have had excellent success using a single $35 studio electronic flash
inside a soft box. Then you can use daylight film. I also tell you how
to do this in the same articles and I go into what, I believe, is a
minimum essential setup for taking professional quality photos of pots.
John Hesselberth
Frog Pond Pottery
P.O. Box 88
Pocopson, PA 19366 USA
EMail: john@frogpondpottery.com web site: http://www.frogpondpottery.com
"It is time for potters to claim their proper field. Pottery in its pure
form relies neither on sculptural additions nor on pictorial decorations.
but on the counterpoint of form, design, colour, texture and the quality
of the material, all directed to a function." Michael Cardew in "Pioneer
Pottery"
Roger Korn on sun 14 feb 99
We built John's light box, covered it with frosted drafting mylar and
used it with a Vivitar 283 (an old standard electronic flash) and got
really good results. See http://www.europa.com/~rkorn/pottery.html.
We bought a new Nikon Coolpix 900S digital camera and replaced the
electronic flash with a 300W Halogen fixture($9.95 at the electric
supply store) and set the "White Balance" to Incandescent and again
achieved great results. I use everything from reflectors to flashlites
for highlights and it all seems to work just great. The secret is in
that great big diffuse light as the main lighting for the photo. Thanks
to John for publishing a really great idea.
Roger Korn
McKay Creek Ceramics
Box 436
North Plains, OR 97133
rkorn@europa.com
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