Back lighting

[gketell]

Ok, I just posted this in a casting thread but thought some folks might find it useful here too. If you have a really cool blank or pen that is semi transparent you can show it off really well by backlighting the blank.

Get a small fluorescent light and put a good diffuser over it. I used the diffuser from a kitchen fluorescent light. You can get them at Home Depot, Lowes, TAP Plastics, etc.

Now put a piece of black construction paper over the diffuser and cut a 1/4" or 3/8" wide by "blank long" slit in the construction paper.

Set your blank/pen onto the slit and start shooting. For me, I have to get the lighting by trial and error. Balancing the amount of flash with the amount of back light.

Here are two photos of the same blank with varying amounts of flash added to the backlight.

Happy shooting!
GK

 

[gerryr]

Nice idea. Do you have a photo of a finished pen shot this way?

Since some of the light is coming from "below" and some from above, how do you set the white balance? That may seem like a facetious question, but not for those who don't have an Expo Disc.

 

[gketell]

No, I don't have a finished pen yet. I just thunk this up last night when I was trying to show off that blank.

White balance would be exactly the same because you don't want to change "the outside world" when showing the inner glow. If the white balance is set properly to shoot the outside of the pen then what shows through the pen will be accurate too. So I would set the white balance the same way I do for normal shots: set this up, put my external lights around it, lean my grey card over the blank and set white balance based on the grey card, remove the grey card and shoot.

Light-metering off the grey card would be a great place to start too. Then just adjust your shutter speed up or down to add/remove more "glow" through your blank.

GK