photographing candy and candy molds

[buglady]

I spend a lot of time photographing insects and mites through my microscope for my business and have that down pat but one of my hobbies is collecting vintage candy mold and making the candy. I am trying to photograph my collection of 230 molds. I have a light tent but the images of the molds look so blaaaaa. Can anyone give me a better way to photograph the molds? and candy? I am building a website to show the molds and the candy. I also have an exhibit next year at a museum of my mold collection and some large photos of the candy to accompany the molds would be nice.

Below are what the molds and candy look like.

Any ideas ?
thanks!
Buglady

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[manaheim]

buglady... hahah... awesome name.

Hi and welcome to the forums.

I suspect what you really need to do is build a lightbox for this. Search the forums for it and you'll turn up a ton of examples and howtos.

[buglady]

What is the difference between light box and light tent? I have a light tent (big cube) I have with the lights that shine into it. That's what I used to take the photo of the bunnie mold.

The candy, I was wondering if I put it on a clear surface and shine the light from underneath, if that would look good.

[RyanLilly]

If you dont like the sterile look of using a light tent, I would setup a clean looking background of cooking, or kitchen things, something that does not look too cluttered, then shoot with a very narrow DOF, so the background items blur, and light you mold or candy to "pop" from the background a bit.

I'm thinking maybe some copper flour and sugar tins, wooden spoons, something classic looking.

[manaheim]

Your light tent may need a bit of work then... the bunny mold one looks like the light is pretty uneven, and I usually see the bottom of a light box as a white surface. You may also want to setup the molds on an angle and not have the camera pointing directly down on top of them.

These are just some ideas... I have very little experience in this particular space. Others can offer more aid than I can.

[Flash Harry]

Your light in the tent looks pretty uneven and harsh, you need to balance the lighting, also moving them to the same distance placed as close to the tent as possible will soften the effect and diminish shadows, I'd also change the background material, use white perspex or black velvet. A more evenly lit subject should give a better overall effect, lessening the falloff of light effect you're getting at present which in turn is giving you hotspots at top right of subject, the pure black of velvet or the white perspex will give you something to calibrate the color better whilst also emphasizing the subject matter.

The perspex can then be used to light the translucent candy from beneath, similar to the way glass is lit, you'll have to experiment though for the best effects. H

[hipslap]

you can always use natural light.

Setup at dawn or dusk outside.

Make sure to expose for the subject and not the black/white background or you will end up with a grey background and an under/overexposed subject.

[PatrickHMS]

I like those little "Portable Studio in a box" setups you see for online auctions.

Am sure that American Recorder and Quantaray make them, as well as maybe others.

Sets I have seen have a little break-down box, 2 decent lights and stands, maybe a couple of backdrops, a table-top tripod, and a carry case.

I sell on eBay and Craigslist, and for me, has more than paid for itself. Better pics translate into faster sales at better prices, fewer reli$t fees since more people bid and buy the first listing because of the much better pics.

They used to sell for $100.00 or more, but recently I have seen then for $50.00 - $75.00.