I hope you are all as busy as I am right now. I admire the inventor
of the cloud dome as we all should for a great way to take pretty
good pics. I also agree with most of us that it is more than I want
to spend for a plastic salad bowl. I have found a pretty simple
substitute and it cost me $5. I can get the brand name from it
tomorrow but it is a “Cake carrier” that I bought at Big Lots. With
the standard ceiling light in my shop, (florescent) I get pretty
good results. I made a web page with pictures of the a few of my
latest custom jobs. I shoot with a Olympus C-3000 Zoom digital camera
and a macro lenses. Check it out if ya want at the link below.
For my money, the Cloud Dome is a deal. It works well, the people at
the company are helpful with what ever problems you have, even with
the digital processing in Photoshop afterwards. I’d rather spend my
time making jewelry than shopping for a makeshift dome and then
making a holder for the camera, etc, etc. We are all different, and
if saving a few bucks is better financially than making one piece of
jewelry and selling it to pay for a good tool, have at it. To repeat,
the Cloud Dome is a good purpose built tool, the right color, no
extra holes, can be left set up with camera attached to get pix of
all I make.
Not associated with Cloud Dome, just a satisfied customer.
I agree with Judy that the Cloud Dome is really worth the money. I
have the complete outfit, and am completely satisfied. I am a total
novice when it comes to photography, and need simplicity of set-up
and arrangement. I have excellent results with the Cloud Dome and my
Digital Camera. I needed a simple time saving set-up, so that all I
would have to do was to concentrate on an good shot of my jewelry
and to click away I do quite a bit of cloisonne enameling, and
getting the correct colors, and avoiding hot spots is essential.
I am sure others have had good success improvising milk jugs, and
plastic bowls, and I compliment them on their ability to come up
with a cost saving substitute, but it would not be worth the time
and effort for me. As Judy points out, we are all different, and my
talents don’t seem to lie in the realm of trying to construct
substitute lighting arrangements. Usually I am very happy to
improvise and to save money by coming up with creative substitutions,
but when it comes to getting professional results with my
photography, we have entered a whole different arena. A friend let
me try her plastic jug set up but I found it quite unsatisfactory
for my purposes. It was a bit unsteady, so that my camera tended to
wobble, and was -too small for me to make any good arrangements of my
jewelry, and my pictures were not satisfactory,
I decided that I didn’t have enough time to run around trying to
find a plastic bowl of the correct size and color. For me the Cloud
Dome has been a worthwhile investment that has already paid for
itself in the qual ity of the photos I have taken, and in the time I
have saved which I have put to good use in making more jewelry. I
leave the Cloud dome on a small ta ble with my camera firmly attached
to the bracket, so it is ready for me to photography a piece of
jewelry the moment it is finished.
Usual disclaimers. I am not affiliated with Cloud Dome—just a
happy customer.
A couple of weeks ago I posted that this set up looked interesting:
Patterson
Price: $ 79.95
Light Pod “Cocoon"Style Medium Shooting Tent - 17 x 20 x 27” http://www.bhphotovideo.com
click on Lighting and Studio, then Studio Equipment, then Shooting
Tents and Domes, go to page 2.
Well, I bought it and did my first test shots. I went with this one
because it has a choice of three openings through which to place
your camera, allowing you more possible views than just head on.
I put the cocoon on my copy stand. (What is a copy stand? See one
at the link below.)
Mine is a little different from the one in the photo, but basically
it’s a stand with lights attached and you can attach your camera for
a straight on picture. Which is lousy for jewelry, very harsh, but
perfect for taking pictures of books.
So I put the cocoon on the copy stand, put photographic background
paper inside and shot some test pictures.
I agree with another person who posted that they have this light
cocoon and it’s a pain to set up. It’s an incredible pain to
assemble. It’s advertised as if you would take it apart, put it
back in the bag and put it in your closet.
It was such a pain to assemble, that I’ll probably leave it up all
the time.
The additional openings for camera insertion did not cause any
shadows for me, but if they did, I would just cover the openings
with parchment paper.
The resulting photos are quite good; good color, nice diffused
lighting. These aren’t jury photos, but for quick, easy documentary
photos by folks who aren’t photographers, I’m pleased with it, and I
think I’ve found a solution that will work for me.
This is a quicker set up than my other photography lighting set up,
described here before. I plan to leave the whole shebang set up all
the time, so when I need a quick photo, I can just take one.
I agree with Alma about the Cloud Dome. If I were not in business to
make a living from jewelry and had time to make my own tools I still
would probably get the Cloud Dome. It has the clamp for the camera,
which means you don’t need a tripod. I did make my own light tents
for a long time but never had the ease of operation and simplicity
in my camera set up that the Cloud Dome offered. If sheets are used
or in my case I used tissue paper tents I had allot of trouble
getting the tissue papers supports out of the shot. And the angle ,
from the front of the item being shot, was counter to gravity so
supporting the item became a time consuming issue. All the
photography for my website was shot under a Cloud Dome in my studio,
check it out, www.patanias.com.
Greetings from snowy Colorado, I’ve been getting emails and calls
from “Domers”, people that use the Cloud Dome, about the posting on
Orchid.
Before I came up with the Cloud Dome, I use Tupperware bowls and
milk jugs, but they weren’t the right tool for the job. The
Tupperware bowl caused a yellow caste and was too shallow; I cut my
self cutting the bottom of the milk carton and my camera looked silly
held on by duct tape. I had to come up with a solution that provide
even pure white light and stabilized my camera. The Plexiglas we
have specially blended for us and have to buy 5,000 pounds at a time;
the Plexiglas is high impact, non-yellowing, and last forever. If
milk companies used my Plexiglas for their jugs, milk would be $50.00
a gallon.
The bracket on top of the Cloud Dome stabilizes the camera and acts
at a tripod. We also offer extension collar to add height and take
pictures at an angle; we are always adding new accessories and items
to allow people to take great photographs fast and affordable.
Most of us started jewelry making with a shoe box of cheap tools;
the more interested we became and as our skill level improved we
bought better and better tools. Jewelry making went from a hobby, to
away of making a living, and then the expense of setting up our
professional studio. We took classes, read books, drooled over the
Rio Grande catalog, attended tradeshows, and joined forums and
organizations for ideas and tips. The better quality of tools,
knowledge, and creativity of the operator, has a direct effect on the
finished product.
“Jury-rigged” photography studios are good if you want to just take
pictures for inventory control and your own personal portfolio. If
you want quality photographs you either go to a professional
photographer and/or set up your own photography studio. The right
tools for your photography studio are; a good digital camera, a Cloud
Dome or Cloud Cube, Photoshop Elements 3.0, a computer, a printer,
and a couple hours of practice.
