Ironwoods Pen Journey

Well it seems like a good idea to have a thread to put my Pen photos in.
No doubt I will put other stuff in here too

Here's some starters.
Its a Rodium plated Rollerball, with Poly Resin, called "Pearl Opal".
I just finished it this afternoon.

The photos are taken in my lightbox/tent, using my D3100 with an AF 55mm Micro Nikkor, I have to manually focus with this lens.
For better or worse, I have set the aperture at f32, to try and get as much of the pen in focus as possible. 100 iso, and camera set on aperture priority.
All constructive criticism, good or bad, will be appreciated.

I have included 2 series of photos, 1st is with a lighter background.



2nd is with a darker background.



Edit;; My Wife says I need to use more props, to give a bit more interest in the photos.
I am not sure, as They are to show the pen, I think the more props used may take the focus off the pen.
What do you think ?

Marilynne said:

So does this mean you're going to turn 365 pens?

My personal choice is the lighter set of photos. I agree with your wife, you need to use something small, like the tagua nut in the first pic. Using the pen cap was a good choice also.

Marilynne

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I probably will turn 365 pens Marilynne, just maybe not all by January.
The prop I used in 2 of the photos is a smooth rock I found in the creek that runs through my property.
I have always just used the cap, when the pen has one.
My Wife is thinking along the lines of a small notebook, or something similar.

Ironwood said:

I probably will turn 365 pens Marilynne, just maybe not all by January.
The prop I used in 2 of the photos is a smooth rock I found in the creek that runs through my property.
I have always just used the cap, when the pen has one.
My Wife is thinking along the lines of a small notebook, or something similar.

Click to expand...

A notebook, checkbook or even a bill with a fresh signature.

All of this shows the pen in "action" so to speak.

BWTHDIK?

Shoot it on black glass so you can show the reflection of the pen too?

Carolina Photo Guy said:

A notebook, checkbook or even a bill with a fresh signature.

All of this shows the pen in "action" so to speak.

BWTHDIK?

Click to expand...

Some things to try, thanks.

RickSawThat said:

Shoot it on black glass so you can show the reflection of the pen too?

Click to expand...

If I can find some black glass I will give that a try.

A couple for today.

The first one is a full size Rollerball, the timber is Cooktown Ironwood and Spalted Northern Tamarind, there is a brass strip between the segments.
I tried an address book for a background in the 1st pic, lots of room for improvement, and the pen kept rolling off the page.
I think this pen would look good on the black glass ( if only I had some ).



The next one is a closed end Rollerball, dressed in Mangrove Cedar.

This is the lightbox/tent that I built to photograph my pens in.
Since these photos, I have changed the light bulbs to halogen/tungsten. The CFL's were giving me flat looking photos.
I still need to make some more improvements, I might try a more transparent material for the tent, and try moving the lights a bit, to try to lessen the shadows.

Try a neutral density filter and cheesecloth...

Eye-level said:

Try a neutral density filter and cheesecloth...

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I had to google Neutral Density filter to find out what it is.
From what I found, ND filters restrict the amount of light entering the lens, won't that just slow down my shutter speed ? Or am I missing something else ?

Here is something a bit different to pens. This little creek runs through my property, not far from my house.

All taken with the 18-55mm kit lens.

The cheesecloth is going to be more transparent and will likely diffuse the light better than what you are using now and yes the filter is going to restrict the light by a stop or two or three depending on what ND filter you are using but it will not effect the color response of the sensor in your camera. Shoot at f16 and see what you come up with then.

Eye-level said:

The cheesecloth is going to be more transparent and yes the filter is going to restrict the light by a stop or two or three depending on what ND filter you are using but it will not effect the color response of the sensor in your camera. Shoot at f16 and see what you come up with then.

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Thanks for the tips Jeff, when I get the gear together, I will give it a try.

A bit of experimenting today. I changed to some more transparent material on the tent. I still havent got any cheesecloth to try yet.

The first 2 are using the new cloth, the 3rd is no tent, just direct lighting.




Another pics of a pen I posted previously, no tent.



This Rollerball is made out of a stave from a Jack Daniels Barrel. No tent.



I am not real happy with the shadows, might need some changes to the light positions, or maybe some reflectors at the front.

I think your original setup was good except the "f32" thing. Anything passed f16 creates diffraction that actually decreases the sharpness of your shots. You also might work with bracketing when using a white background. Remember that that the camera meter tries to bring everything to grey, so when shooting on a white background you should overexpose by about 1-1.5 stops.

Really nice pens!

Enjoy your Nikon!

You might try a polarizer also to reduce eliminate reflections such as in the first 4 shots

I also agree with Marcel, diffraction will limit detail after about f11 on the D3100.

Try white plastic trash sacks and put the top light towards the front (opening) and see what that will do.

Marcel said:

I think your original setup was good except the "f32" thing. Anything passed f16 creates diffraction that actually decreases the sharpness of your shots. You also might work with bracketing when using a white background. Remember that that the camera meter tries to bring everything to grey, so when shooting on a white background you should overexpose by about 1-1.5 stops.

Really nice pens!

Enjoy your Nikon!

Click to expand...

So I should try and keep the aperture at f16 or lower.
The only trouble is my 55mm Nikkor Micro seems to be out of whack with my camera,( I think my lens has seen better days ) the lens is rated at f2.8 - f32, but the camera display can have anything from f2.8 - f5.3 at maximum adjustment ( it changes with a bump to the camera ) and at minimum F32 - f57.
Actually, playing with it just then, I am thinking maybe the contacts on the lens may be dirty, as giving the lens a bit of a wriggle seemed to make it change.

Quite often with this lens, my pics are underexposed, so I usually do take a couple of different exposures with each set-up, and pick the one I think looks the best.

cnyram said:

You might try a polarizer also to reduce eliminate reflections such as in the first 4 shots

Click to expand...

I have got a box of Cokin filters, there is a circular polariser in there, but I dont have a holder.
I will try and rig something up to give it a try.

cnyram said:

I also agree with Marcel, diffraction will limit detail after about f11 on the D3100.

Click to expand...

Noted as above. The only thing that concerns me is the depth of field seems to be so shallow at that large of an aperture. To get all of the pen in focus will mean having the pen at 90 degrees to the lens, or pretty close to it.

Eye-level said:

Try white plastic trash sacks and put the top light towards the front (opening) and see what that will do.

Click to expand...

I think I have some of those white bags in the kitchen cupboard, I will have a look.

Have you tried your kit lens yet? It should do just as well as the macro for this type of work.