Another Maple Bowl

[Mike A. Smith]

I would like comments on both the bowl and the pictures please. I've been playing with my photo setup and I'm still not satisfied. Some of the pictures I have taken looked really good until you compared them to the actual bowl and saw they were not the same color. Playing with the photo editor after the fact still was not giving me what I wanted. The dark background I used for these instead of the white gave me the correct color for this one. I tried this background for a walnut bowl I just completed and it was awful. I won't be sending pictures of it until I get things worked out.

All of that being said, I was pretty pleased with this bowl and wanted to get some honest critique. 5.5 x 3.5, danish oil and poly, .25 thick.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking bowl Mike. That wood is really doing some talking. Nice grain.

[Dennis Peacock]

Very nice bowl Mike and your photo's have improved a lot. Nice photo's as well. Keep'em comin'. :)

[Gary Herrmann]

Very nice grain in that bowl and I really like what you did with the bottom.

[Nancy Laird]

Oooooooh. Pretty bowl--that grain is just perfect for that form.

Photos are great too!

Nancy

[Patrick Taylor]

Great bowl! I like the bottom too. It begs to be held.

As for the photo, I have a couple suggestions that I'll make since the man with the best photos in town is out of town! First, I think that a smooth backdrop (I use a roll-up window shade) is less distracting than the folds of a fabric one. The smooth ones just look like background and not like a surface that the object is sitting on. Second, using Jamie Donaldson's phrugal photo setup (search here on SMC) will eliminate your hard glare and shadows by diffusing the light. I recreated his exact setup and found an immense improvement in my photos.

Here's one I posted before I made Jamie's setup: http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=57397
And here's one after: http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=61023

I also upped the exposure on the camera quite a bit to improve the brightness with no flash. Hope that helps.... :)

[Tom Sherman]

Mike you've done an excellent job with some awsome wood.

[Ernie Nyvall]

Nice bowl Mike

[Dick Strauss]

Mike,
try a dark background with a light bowl (maple) and a light background with a dark bowl (walnut).

[Mike A. Smith]

Thanks for the suggestions Patrick. I do really like your recent photos. I agree with you on the smooth backdrop. The reason this one is cloth is it's the only thing I had on hand tonight when I wanted to change the background color. LOML does like the folds, but then she is the one with the art degree; I'm just a dumb engineer and prefer it flat.

I have read the article here on the photo setup and I've incorporated some of it. Guess I'll have to go whole hog and see how that works. My turning time is limited and I hate to use too much of it working on the pics since I'm not commercial.

As stated I think your box elder pics are great, but I have a question. What does the finish on the bowls really look like? They look satin in the pics, but I've found that diffusing the light makes everything looks satin. The glare on my pics above looks kind of amateurish and was not by design, but I have not found a happy medium between the hard glare and not being able to see the gloss finish.

Maybe I'm just being too picky. Hey, I'm not looking for high art, I just want perfect pictures that let's you guys see exactly what I'm looking at and I want it simple, cheap, and requiring little to no effort on my part. That's not too much to ask is it? :o

[Mike A. Smith]

Good suggestion Dick. I had been thinking about that too tonight and I guess to get the best result I may have to have three or four shades from gray to black and find the best match for the wood. The walnut is the first piece I've done that was all dark and it threw my normal camera settings for a loop.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Great bowl Mike! I like that form and the wood and finish are stunning!

[Patrick Taylor]

I'm just a dumb engineer and prefer it flat.
...
I've found that diffusing the light makes everything looks satin.

... I just want perfect pictures that let's you guys see exactly what I'm looking at and I want it simple, cheap, and requiring little to no effort on my part. That's not too much to ask is it? :o

My wife's the art historian and I'm the engineer too! ;) I understand about devoting turning time to photos, and it just depends on how much you care. I spend a lot of time turning a piece, and since I don't often show them in public besides here, I get satisfaction out of making the photo as good as I can. I'm sure other people don't care about the photo quality and that's fine too. One advantage to better photos is that you can get suggestions more easily because the commenter can see the piece better.

I agree about the satin look of the finish. Those BE bowls are buffed/waxed and fairly glossy bu it doesn't really show in the photo. Shane Whitlock always makes his gloss look great, without hard glare, but I also think he mentioned a grand worth of lights once... and that's beyond my level of caring! ;) His photos look awesome but I'll just never spend that much on photo equipment. The setup I made was ~$50 all together.

Your last comment about what you want is exactly how I feel, and I'm pretty happy with my solution: cheap, simple, easy to use, and effective. If you find a good solution to keeping the gloss without a hard glare, let me know so I can give it a try! :)


Thanks,
Pat

[Steve Schlumpf]

Beautiful bowl Mike! Form and finish really highlight the grain! Very nice work!