[Jewelry making - Article 00322] - Re: [Orchid] Cloud dome lighting options

[Jon Holm]

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Hi Kathy,

>     Lately I have been driving myself nuts trying to use my Cloud Dome
>     to get some photos for a website. I bought the daylight Ott lamps,
>     two, and use the Cloud Dome in indirect sunlight while moving the
>     lamps around to fill in light where I need it...... When I got the
>     photos back today some are green tinted, some have a jet-black
>     background, some the silver is strikingly bright and very few are
>     useable.....

    My guess is that the greenish tint is due to bad labwork. Some labs
    try to squeese the developer to the last "drop", and if your film is
    in that last batch, green tint is one of the results. If you insist
    on using film for Cloud Dome, you should know that colour temperature
    is measured in Kelvin. So called "daylight" can be anywhere between
    4800 Kelvin and 6000 Kelvin, while incandecent light-bulbs are about
    3400 Kelvin. A daylight film is always 5500 Kelvin, so if your
    "Ott-lamps" are deviating seriously from that, this could give you
    colour problems. I don't think direct sunlight is a good light source
    for anything. Strikingly bright silver indicates incorrect exposure.
    Try faster shutterspeed or smaller aperture. Using 400 film has
    nothing to do with your problem, unless the film is way to old. The
    only way for you to achieve satisfactory results, is trial and error.
    Write down all details about your exposure for each shot, and learn
    from them. You are going to use a lot of film before you can make
    your mastershots. Maybe you should consider to go digital. That will
    save you a lot of time and cost. 

    I bought my Cloude Dome this summer, and I have taken only few shots
    since. The result is as good as I had expected. Although I have SLR
    cameras for film, I decided to buy a digital camera just for jewelry
    and Cloude Dome. I recommend the following criteria, if you feel
    tempted: 

    1) quality lens with macro. 
    2) manual control of aperture and shutterspeed. 
    3) easy access to white balance control, and
    4) a minimum of 2 million pixels.  

    I was lucky to find "last years" model of Nikon Coolpix 5400, for a
    reduced price. It has all the above and more. You might find one
    second hand, but if you buy it new, you'll get the Photoshop
    Elements free in the package. It's much better than letting film and
    lab cost eat up your budget. I shall be happy to guide you where I
    can. 

    Yours

Jon Holm, Bornholm
Denmark

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