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The Dark Room -- Photo Editing and Picture Taking. Advice, tutorials, questions on all things photoshop, photo editing, and taking pictures of beads or glass.

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  #1  
Old 2013-10-08, 8:09pm
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Mitosis Glass Mitosis Glass is offline
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Default Doug Baldwin photography lights!

I wrote a post on Hayley's excellent thread, and Doug was wondering if I'd post another thread as well, and of course I am delighted to do so! The more threads and comments about his lighting system, the more people will realize this is what they need for their bead and glass photography.

My AMAZING Doug Baldwin lights arrived in the mail late this afternoon, so I stopped everything to take a quick and dirty snap of one of my ocean beads. This pic was taken with no grey scale balance, or adjustment to the depth of field, no exposure adjustment or F-stop changes, no photo editing other than cropping, just a set-up-the-lights-and-shoot session. The camera is a Canon EOS-5D and the photographer is my 12-year-old son.

Not only are the lights the answer to a prayer, but the customer service that Doug gives is top-notch. Do yourself a favour and buy these lights! What a great investment. I look forward to getting all the camera settings and such correct, then we'll really be rocking!

Here is his site, if you haven't seen it already: http://www.dougbaldwinphoto.com/

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  #2  
Old 2013-10-08, 8:35pm
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Great googly moogly, these lights make silver glass sing!! This is taken with my point-and-shoot, with no adjustments other than cropping.

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  #3  
Old 2013-10-10, 8:26am
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Well I sucked it up and ordered yesterday. After reading for weeks and weeks and seeing everyone's beautiful pictures, I could not take it anymore! haha

great beads and pics!
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  #4  
Old 2013-10-10, 3:10pm
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Fantastic, Jacqueline! You will not regret it. Not like your photography needs any help, but hey, you'll love them anyway.
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  #5  
Old 2013-10-10, 4:32pm
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I am hoping to get rid of those annoying hot spots. Can't wait for it to get here but Canadian customs will probably play with it for awhile first, grrrrr. Items always get to the border quickly and then sit , and sit and sit.
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  #6  
Old 2013-10-10, 9:34pm
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Gorgeous beads and photos...I love my lights too.
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  #7  
Old 2013-11-15, 12:54pm
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These are straight from the camera. The first one is using Doug's lighttents without any reimaging. The second one if in my little light tent with no revisions. I am so excited!!

Thanks Doug!! I may now be able to put something in my Etsy shop.
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  #8  
Old 2013-11-25, 7:43pm
Doug Baldwin Doug Baldwin is offline
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Pat, your results right out of the box are great! Glad to see the lights are performing up to par. Please post more photos when you have them.
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  #9  
Old 2013-11-28, 11:36pm
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Thanks Doug. I hope to have more time after this week. I also bought a big fat book on using Elements 10. I am determined to learn more and be better with it all!
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  #10  
Old 2013-11-30, 3:24pm
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I would like to stand my beads upright to photograph. With no visible means of support. Anyone have a good suggestion how to do this?
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  #11  
Old 2013-11-30, 4:21pm
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I used a thin stringer of clear glass. I purchased some Styrofoam and put it under the paper I am using. I poked a hole through the paper and pushed the stringer through the paper and into the Styrofoam. The bead sits on the stringer. Does that make sense?
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  #12  
Old 2013-12-01, 10:44am
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I used to do this same thing to stand my bead upright. Only, I used a needle stuck in styrofoam. My problem is I am now using a nice vinyl backdrop and don't wanna poke a hole in it.

Sometimes I also use a glass surface as a photo base. Museum wax can usually be seen around the edges and leaves a little residue on the bead. So everytime I rotate it, I have to wipe off the smudge. I like to take a shot of all sides. Maybe I'm too picky? HA!
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  #13  
Old 2016-01-02, 1:37am
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So I went to the site. So, these lights come as separate units? No white box to set your bead into? Just want to make sure and also ask, do any of you have a hard time finding a surface or location in your home to place your bead on? I would think that a box would eliminate the need to find a surface and would also eliminate unwanted background clutter. Hope this makes sense. Sell me on this!
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  #14  
Old 2016-01-02, 7:58am
Angie09 Angie09 is offline
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Patti ... yes, the lights come individually and there is no box to set the bead in. It takes (at least for me and I've had them for a couple of years) a lot of trial and error to figure out the best all around shooting surface and angle. I use a 6 foot table (the lights are big) and a piece of glass mounted on about 1-1/2" legs. Personally, I'd love them if the actual light umbrella was smaller so it would be easier to adjust according to what I'm shooting but .... and I've tried them all ... it's the best system out there that I've found.
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  #15  
Old 2016-04-07, 6:55pm
Doug Baldwin Doug Baldwin is offline
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Hello Patti, the reason there isn't a light tent or box to set the beads into is that it severely restricts the ability of the artist to light and shoot the bead in more than one way which means the box's back wall is always in the photo. By having two separate light boxes on either side of the bead, you can use a variety of surfaces to shoot on and have any number of types of background, such as all white, gradient, shades of gray, black or even reflective. There's far more versatility with my system than with a tent with fixed walls. Please check out my photo website: dougbaldwinphoto.com and the new dedicated website for the light boxes for a range of examples of photography you can shoot with these light boxes: photolightboxes.com. The photos below show both gradient and reflective backgrounds.

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Last edited by Doug Baldwin; 2016-04-08 at 11:49am.
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  #16  
Old 2016-08-11, 10:14pm
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Default First shots out of the box

Well, I finally bit the bullet and got the lightboxes. I'm still going to have to figure out the best way to get the most out of my pics but I think we're 80% of the way there just with the shades!! Tweaked for size. Hopefully will figure this out soon......







Thanks Doug
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Old 2016-08-13, 5:55pm
Doug Baldwin Doug Baldwin is offline
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Thanks Yeepers for the mention and glad you're already getting 80% of where you want to be after a couple of days with the light boxes. Question: Are the jewelry pieces in the middle that lightly colored? The overall photos look close to a good exposure, but maybe a little bright. Hopefully you're using manual exposure and you can darken the shot by raising the shutter speed a click or two. Don't darken by using the aperture as that would affect the depth-of-field. Any automatic exposure method relies on the camera to make the exposure decisions and the cameras aren't that smart, so the resulting exposures will be all over the place and you'll be chasing them in Photoshop trying to make them right. Better to use manual exposure and dial it in at the camera.
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  #18  
Old 2016-08-14, 10:17pm
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Thanks Doug! It's pretty close. I'm still working with playing around with the settings. I really need to take a good course to learn how to use my camera to its full potential. Still tweaking the settings. Hoping to get it figured out soon!
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  #19  
Old 2016-08-15, 10:04pm
Doug Baldwin Doug Baldwin is offline
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You should take one of my Photography classes, it will explain how to set the camera, use the lights in different ways to make each object look great and get good consistent photos every time. The schedule is here: DougBaldwinPhoto.com/classes.html.
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Old 2016-08-16, 11:34am
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I wish I woulda known the dates you are teaching at Tucson. Unfortunately I'm already signed up for classes on all those days
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Old 2016-08-23, 5:45pm
Doug Baldwin Doug Baldwin is offline
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Which dates are you talking about for teaching in Tucson? The August 20 & 21 dates at Sonoran Glass this last weekend were cancelled. Or are you referring to the Tucson Bead Show in Feb 2017?
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Old 2016-08-25, 11:35pm
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Yeah...Will be in Tucson Jan 30-Feb 5th but committed to other classes.
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Old 2017-12-26, 9:46am
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You are so talented! Tell me, have you used Photoshop? Maybe you will also like these ideas http://highendbeautyretouching.com/b...etouching.html
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Old 2024-06-05, 12:36pm
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Default Thanks for sharing your skills and techniques.

Well described post. Thanks for sharing this useful information. As always awesome content, I love reading your articles, much appreciated!

www.prophotoshopexpert.com

Thank you!
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