1. Stage and frame your item.
2. cover, adjust lighting and expose!
It's easy! Perfect photo - no glare and no hotspots!
| Concho Cameras |
The Igloominator!
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1. Stage and frame your item.
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2. cover, adjust lighting and expose!
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It's easy! Perfect photo - no glare and no hotspots!
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The Igloominator is a little gadget I build which can help create spectacular photos
of jewelry, coins and other small items. In the days of film, this type of photography
was known as Macro-Photography - the art of showing a small object at
it's actual size. These days with mega upon mega-pixels available to us, it is more descriptive to say Micro-Photography since it is very easy and quite common to create an image which is many times the actual size of an object. Example: this photo is just as it came from the camera. It has not been enlarged or enhanced (although a good portion of the original 2592 X 1944 pixel image was discarded by cropping) Can you guess what it is? |
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The Igloominator is a take-off on the 'milk-jug' trick you will often see mentioned
on the photo help boards. I located a supplier for some commercial plastic serving
bowls. The heavy nature of these bowls make them more durable than a carved up plastic
jug, but the main advantage is their near perfect light dispersion quality. The thick
plastic does a great job of diffusing and conducting light. Available light is so well
scattered that you can even use the camera's built-in flash without creating hot spots. The photo above shows the Igloominator illuminated only by a tiny blue LED spot light. (normally used to add sparkles to gemstones) You can see how evenly the light is conducted and diffused over the entire surface of the sphere. |
Shown above - just a 2 watt LED makes the whole sphere glow in normal room light!
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Use your imagination!The Igloominator comes as two halves with lens openings cut as shown. The pieces can be used together as a complete sphere to surround your item with light or use either half alone as a top and side diffuser only!The circular opening is ~2½ inches and the oblong about 2" X 3½". If the fit between the lens and the circular opening is good, the Igloominator can serve as a support for the camera as shown. You can use the remote or timer feature of the camera and completely avoid any movment during the exposure (no blur) Use this half by itself on a table top for straight-down shots of flat items like coins or commemorative pins. The clips hold the diffuser about ¼ in. from the table and leave room to manuever your object along with it's background for perfect framing. If you use both parts as an igloo, you will want to locate the item being photographed near the interior center of the sphere. One simple way is with a stack of styrofoam bowls from the grocery. Add or remove from the stack to get just the elevation needed. Add to your 'imagination' toolkit with anything which will bring color or texture onto your produtc stage. Florist foam provides a convenient backing for scraps of paper, cloth or rubber. A plastic cup or bowl can be used to allow light to come from beneath. Small mirrors or glass plates from the craft store may be handy. Crumpled foil is perfect when you need to introduce some reflection for a difficult object such as silverware. |
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The Igloominator is available as shown above for $50 postpaid by Priority Mail. To order special cuts, bare bowls or for shipping where Priority Mail is not available, please contact us |
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