My Dragon

camjam · Feb 6, 2012

I have been watching all the dinosaur photos so, I raided my wife's china cabinet and borrowed a dragon. I was afraid to enter my son's room and look for a dinosaur. I put together the cardboard box from the Strobist website tonight and took a few test pictures. I need a couple better lights from my wood shop. I still have shadows around the bottom of the dragon's head and I am not sure what to do about the felt on the bottom of the dragon. I think I have some white balance issues or the poster board I used is not a white as I thought. Ended up using the back side of a poster board that has a grid on the front side. (it's what I had).

cgipson1 · Feb 6, 2012

Good subject for practice! Where did you focus? The eye looks soft, and even though this is not a real critter, it does have eyes! Focus there.. get it sharp. Better to have the entire head in focus.. and let the body get soft. If you made your own homemade light box, get the lights lower on the sides... that will help with the shadows under the head and all. Maybe turn it clockwise just a bit so we can see both eyes.... more interest that way, maybe!

camjam · Feb 7, 2012

I left 3 inches along the edges of the openings, so I will need to remove some more material to get the lights lower. You are correct, my focus point was not the dragons head. The dragon is hand painted, so that also did not help with the soft look. I was amazed at the amount of time it took to set everything up. Not including making box. It was fun exercise and I will try again.