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 It is
important to use "tungsten" type film with these
lights. Normal daylight film won't give you accurate colours.
It is also important to remove any lens filters such as
UV or Daylight filters which are often on lenses to protect
them from scratches. Filters can give a pinkish cast to
your slides. I use Kodak Ektachrome 160T(tungsten) EPT 135-36.
I have rigged a white-painted piece of light plyboard over
my setup to reflect the quartz light down on the piece (as
pictured). This is on rails and can be tilted and raised
to get the best effect. The paper loop runs from high on
the wall behind the setup area down over a work table and
drapes down the front of the table giving a graded seemless
surface. The lights are aimed up at the reflective plyboard
to give a nice general diffuse light that leaves no "hot
spots" or reflections. Be careful with the lights.
They are very hot and can cause burns or start a fire if
left too close to anything flammable. Be sure that all other
light sources in the room are turned off and that there
is little or no sunlight penetrating the room. My setup
is in a cellar room. Before I had a dedicated room for this
I did my shooting after dark in the studio so I wouldn't
have to deal with blocking off the light from windows.
Shooting. Once you are set up and the camera is ready,
you want shots that show your work to its best advantage.
(That means keep the cracks and glaze flaws turned away
from the camera). It also means focus and framing are important
as well as a simple, undistracting background. Don't leave
too much space around the piece but enough so it doesn't
crowd the edges of the slide. It is generally a good rule
of thumb to adjust the f-stop (look it up or ask a friend)
on the lens to its mid-range. I like 11 to 16. This gives
good depth-of-field without sacrificing definition.
Bracketing:
Once you have composed your shot and are happy with the
lighting, you need to be sure that the lens is focussed
(choose a spot midway between the front of the piece and
the furthest part visible toward the back of the piece to
focus on). Now adjust your lens speed to give you a normal
exposure at the f-stop you've selected.
What you want to do at this point is shoot several exposures
in "half-stops" above and below what the meter
wants you to do, as well as "on-meter". I generally
find I get my best shots 1/2 to 1 full stop below what the
meter calls for. Many electronic cameras have a meter over-ride
that allows you to adjust the exposure in 1/2 stops without
actually changing the speed manually, but don't worry, if
your camera doesn't have that feature just adjust the shutter
speed or the apperature to over and under expose your shots.
As you get to know your setup and film you can narrow down
the range of your bracketing, to start with it's better
to have the range wide to be sure that you get good exposures.
I also use the timing device on the camera to trigger the
shutter to avoid jiggling the camera when pushing the shutter.
This also pre-releases the mirror in the camera so it doesn't
add any vibration during the exposure.
In-Camera Dupes:
I take several extra exposures at the settings I think
will be right to make "in-camera dupes". That
means when my slides come back from the processor I have
a set of duplicates all ready to use. Aside from being cheaper
than getting slides duplicated they are also sharper and
have better colour balance. They are, in fact, originals.
That means they will be suitable for reproduction in magazines
and will be better representatives of your work than duplicates.
Conclusion:
Good slides are an essential for pretty well all competitions,
grant applications and publications. It may be an aggravation
to have to deal with them, but my take is that since it
can't be avoided it might as well be done well and as easily
and cheaply as possible. It took me years to figure this
out, I just wish I had gotten down to it sooner than I did.
It really isn't as hard as it might seem. If you have a
group of friends or a guild, it might be worth looking into
setting up a "photo coop" so that you can all
use the same pooled euipment and shared know-how to deal
with this effectively and cheaply.
see WORKSHOPS
© Peter Powning
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