dkCambridgeshire Posted September 22, 2013 Share #1 Posted September 22, 2013 Advertisement (gone after registration) Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Leica X-Vario on copy stand 70mm f11 1/13sec. ISO 400 AWB I'm experimenting with shells as photographic subjects. This specimen was illuminated with back and front lighting using 3 x £10 Ikea LED swan neck lamps. The Nautilus Shell specimen was balanced/supported on the end of a thin cane (using Blu Tac) above the copy stand baseboard's black background. Two Ikea lamps with home made cardboard snoots provided the 45º transillumination to each side of the shell; the third lamp with a narrower snoot provided the central front lighting. The central shell chambers are not as translucent as the outer buoyancy chambers - so they do not respond to back lighting. The shell section measures 6 inches in width. My avatar shows a similar shell which was photographed with film many years ago. Nowadays it is not so easy to source large size nautilus shell sections. The shell dealers tend to cut the original shells into three sections - the central slice being a skeletal section with the two outer slices devoid of the buoyancy chamber tubes. Thus the genuine half sections complete with the tubes command a premium price. Best wishes dunk Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Leica X-Vario on copy stand 70mm f11 1/13sec. ISO 400 AWB I'm experimenting with shells as photographic subjects. This specimen was illuminated with back and front lighting using 3 x £10 Ikea LED swan neck lamps. The Nautilus Shell specimen was balanced/supported on the end of a thin cane (using Blu Tac) above the copy stand baseboard's black background. Two Ikea lamps with home made cardboard snoots provided the 45º transillumination to each side of the shell; the third lamp with a narrower snoot provided the central front lighting. The central shell chambers are not as translucent as the outer buoyancy chambers - so they do not respond to back lighting. The shell section measures 6 inches in width. My avatar shows a similar shell which was photographed with film many years ago. Nowadays it is not so easy to source large size nautilus shell sections. The shell dealers tend to cut the original shells into three sections - the central slice being a skeletal section with the two outer slices devoid of the buoyancy chamber tubes. Thus the genuine half sections complete with the tubes command a premium price. Best wishes dunk ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/213290-nautilus-shell-section/?do=findComment&comment=2426440'>More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted September 22, 2013 Posted September 22, 2013 Hi dkCambridgeshire, Take a look here Nautilus Shell Section. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
tmldds Posted September 22, 2013 Share #2 Posted September 22, 2013 Gorgeous photo and thank you for the instructions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl G Posted September 22, 2013 Share #3 Posted September 22, 2013 Absolutely gorgeous camera and natural art. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauledell Posted September 23, 2013 Share #4 Posted September 23, 2013 Dunk, A wonderful picture with the gorgeous colors, sharpness, fine details and patterns. You gave very interesting narrative about your process of picturing it. Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
platypus Posted September 23, 2013 Share #5 Posted September 23, 2013 A stunningly beautiful shot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted September 23, 2013 Author Share #6 Posted September 23, 2013 Thank you to everyone for your complimentary comments. Best wishes dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted November 6, 2013 Author Share #7 Posted November 6, 2013 Advertisement (gone after registration) Nautilus shell experiments continue and this is a different slightly larger specimen. I'm still not happy with the result but learning a bit more with each attempt. This image was made using a new 'dark box' lined with 100% cotton black velvet. Another attempt will be made soon to give a different rendition. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! This image was made with a Leica XV at the 70mm setting ... f11 0.5 sec. ISO 400 −0.3 EV Best wishes dunk Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! This image was made with a Leica XV at the 70mm setting ... f11 0.5 sec. ISO 400 −0.3 EV Best wishes dunk ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/213290-nautilus-shell-section/?do=findComment&comment=2459290'>More sharing options...
fotografr Posted November 6, 2013 Share #8 Posted November 6, 2013 Your experiment worked splendidly. Beautiful image with excellent lighting. I'd even go so far as to suggest this as your new avatar. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted November 6, 2013 Author Share #9 Posted November 6, 2013 Your experiment worked splendidly. Beautiful image with excellent lighting. I'd even go so far as to suggest this as your new avatar. Thank you - but I'm not so happy with the colours as they are too vivid. I'm colour blind and the original experiment was conducted using AWB - which has exaggerated the colour even to my colour blind eyes. Yesterday after conducting tests at various ºK settings with light from the Ikea Jansjo lamps reflected from a piece of white polystyrene, the best shade of white obtained was with the camera WB set to 2200ºK. Thus the following image was taken with the white balance 2200ºK setting. Although not so vivid it is a more accurate colour. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Comments about this image compared to the previous would be appreciated. Best wishes dunk Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Comments about this image compared to the previous would be appreciated. Best wishes dunk ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/213290-nautilus-shell-section/?do=findComment&comment=2459490'>More sharing options...
Karl G Posted November 6, 2013 Share #10 Posted November 6, 2013 Nature loves a Fibonacci sequence, very nice picture. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iduna Posted November 6, 2013 Share #11 Posted November 6, 2013 Dunk, what a delightful experiment and so interesting. The Nautilus is such a delicate object and your light setting worked quite well. I cannot even tell which temperature the colors should have. Each results has its own value. Please continue with your work, so that we might have the chance to see more. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeinzX Posted November 7, 2013 Share #12 Posted November 7, 2013 Simply excellent pictures -very impressing. Thank you for sharing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgk Posted November 8, 2013 Share #13 Posted November 8, 2013 Comments about this image compared to the previous would be appreciated. I think that I can see where you are going with this. The last shot is to my mind by far the best but still shows unevenness of colour (the centre seems to have a colour shift on my screen with a pink colouration, which has lost much of the yellow, in the centre of the spiral) as well as some unevenness of lighting which some darkening due to awkward shadowing. Are you still using the led lights? If so I wonder if they are somewhat deficient in some areas of colour which is leading to the unevenness and central shift? As for the overall illumination I wonder if it worth adding some diffuse lighting from above to try to reduce the impact of the central shadowing (tricky subject though - I do realise, and its easy to comment when not seeing the original subject directly)? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted November 8, 2013 Author Share #14 Posted November 8, 2013 I think that I can see where you are going with this. The last shot is to my mind by far the best but still shows unevenness of colour (the centre seems to have a colour shift on my screen with a pink colouration, which has lost much of the yellow, in the centre of the spiral) as well as some unevenness of lighting which some darkening due to awkward shadowing. Are you still using the led lights? If so I wonder if they are somewhat deficient in some areas of colour which is leading to the unevenness and central shift? As for the overall illumination I wonder if it worth adding some diffuse lighting from above to try to reduce the impact of the central shadowing (tricky subject though - I do realise, and its easy to comment when not seeing the original subject directly)? Paul, I appreciate and note your comments - especially as you are familiar with sea life specimens. The problem is that the centre of the nautilus section is not translucent - whereas the outer chambers are translucent. The centre is illuminated via a snooted LED lamp (incident lighting) to provide a miniature spotlight and thus renders as reflected light - whereas the outer chambers are illuminated purely with transmitted/transilluminated light from 45º behind the subject. Any shadows apparent in the outer chambers are not shadows - they are areas of the shell which have less translucency and where the transmitted light is passing through two thicknesses of shell. For the latest picture I did measure and set the white balance using white polystyrene as a target/test surface. I have taken a number of nautilus shell photos over the years and the opaque centre always causes lighting problems - and my colour blindness does not help. Whatever colour light is aimed at the centre seems to be reflected from it as a different colour - and this can be distracting . Additional incident light illumination of the outer chambers would probably tone down and dull the required translucency - but the whole object of dark field lighting is to enhance the translucency. It's a difficult subject and experiments will continue . I used 2200ºK LED lamps because the lighting set-up was primarily for a club demonstration - to show how three cheap £10 Ikea lamps can be used for illuminating close-up subject matter . I'm also planning to try the experiment again with 3200ºK fibre optic lighting using two Schott KL 1500 fibre optic projectors; these have more controllable light output which can be focused and filtered and dimmed. Two fibre optic branches directed at the centre (one to each side) should eliminate shadows. With the 3x LED lighting I could only use one to illuminate the centre - with inevitable shadowing even though the lamp is semi co-axial to the lens. I'm not yet happy with the result but will persevere and try and improve until attain what is in my mind's eye. Best wishes dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgk Posted November 8, 2013 Share #15 Posted November 8, 2013 I used 2200ºK LED lamps because the lighting set-up was primarily for a club demonstration - to show how three cheap £10 Ikea lamps can be used for illuminating close-up subject matter. Thanks dunk. I just wonder if the LEDs are in fact exacerbating any centre colour problems due to their spectral output being visually acceptable, but actually not as continuous throughout the spectrum as they might be? It will be interesting to see the results of the Scott fibre optic system (oddly enough I have one by Scott too) which, if like mine, will use an intense incandescent light source. But I do take on board the difficulty of photographing a translucent subject of varying thickness, translucency and with opaque areas too - it will keep you busy I would say. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted November 8, 2013 Author Share #16 Posted November 8, 2013 Thanks dunk. I just wonder if the LEDs are in fact exacerbating any centre colour problems due to their spectral output being visually acceptable, but actually not as continuous throughout the spectrum as they might be? It will be interesting to see the results of the Scott fibre optic system (oddly enough I have one by Scott too) which, if like mine, will use an intense incandescent light source. But I do take on board the difficulty of photographing a translucent subject of varying thickness, translucency and with opaque areas too - it will keep you busy I would say. These particular cheapo LEDs are probably not ideal for this type of illumination. Older Schott projectors providing broader spectrum illumination can be bought secondhand these days very £reasonably via Ebay. They are so useful for mini studio set-ups but require accessory or home made snoots ... &/or the Schott focusing lenses to direct the light. Best wishes dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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