Tricky Photo

So sometimes I get an idea that comes with an unexpected problem. I had one of those this week with a new sculpted tin that I made and needed to photograph. I decided to make a deep sea themed mini-tin (covered an altoid smalls tin) with bioluminescent squid and jellyfish. That part was easy, I have some glow in the dark polymer clay that I mixed with translucent clay and a little bit of blue. I also layered some pure glow int eh dark clay under the transluscent mix so it would glow even more intensely. It all worked beautifully and I absolutely love hoe the tin turned out.

This is where the problem then turned up. How do I photograph something that glows in the dark? I first took the regular lighting photos then turned off the lights and started experimenting with different exposure times after making sure the clay was glowing as strongly as possible. I was able to pick up the glow okay but with the glowing pieces floating in blackness it didn't quite look right. I needed just a little bit of light to make the whole tin visible but being a long exposure (5 seconds) it had to be a really small amount of light or the image was going to be lighted too much.

My eventual solution was a small LED headlamp that I have placed on the far edge of my desk pointing at a 90 degree angle from the light tent. This tiny amount of light was just enough to make the edges of the tin and blue backdrop visible.

Bubble Gem Cephalopod Jewelry Sale

I've decided to stop making my bubble gem cephalopod jewelry and to clear out my inventory of them to make room for new projects. To help do that I've lowered the price, you can now snap them up for $10 a piece, down from $25. Bubble Gem Cephalopod Jewelry

I've been a Busy Squid

I have an ever growing number of Squidoo sculpting tutorial lenses. Here's the current list, I hope you find them useful.

Polymer Clay Sculpting Tips and Techniques
Techniques for Curing Polymer Clay
Painting Polymer Clay Sculpture
Building Armatures for Polymer Clay Sculpture
Using Liquid Polymer Clay
Polymer Clay Sculpting Tools

And here are some miscellaneous lenses built to be useful for artists.

Taking Successful Photos of your Artwork
Resources for Figure Artists
Resources for Animal Artists

I've also been named a Squidoo Giant Squid which has really motivated me to want to create even more resources for sculptors and artists. So keep a look out here or on Squidoo for them.