I received my goody bag of pen blanks that Jeff.. had cut on different biases than normal blanks are cut: 22.5°, 45°, & 90° to the grain (cross cut)
Here's the first victim in the experiment, a 90° cross cut curly Sycamore.
Other side...trying to pick up the chatoyance in the curl :-D
And one as a photography experiment, trying a different background, same pen
I love turning this Sycamore, it turns like butter, takes a nice polish, and no matter how you cut it, it makes a sharp pen :eusa_danc :eusa_danc .
I would appreciate comments on the photography, I am trying to do better with what I have to work with
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Thanks, Dave
I take a lot of pictures of pens and used to struggle with it. When I view pictures of pens I want to see the pen nothing more.Any extraneous objects in the picture are a distracion to the viewer and in some cases cause a distraction to the viewer.
I use a neutral background either light blue or grey.You can find pieces of felt at Wally world or Hobby Lobby less than a buck.
If your camera has a micr mode use it.Find out what the optimum focal lenght is.This would be the setting that has a flower icon.
For lighting I use a conventional desk lamp with natural light blubs.Use as many lamps as necessary in different orientations to remove shadow lines.
If you can take pictures near a window with a sunny exposure even better.
Fram the pen diagonally in the viewfinder.If your camera has a video out jack to view the pictures on a T.V. you should also be able to use that feature when framing the picture.
USe a tripod but make sure you know waht distance your camera takes the best pictures at before you buy one and make sure you can raie or lower the tripod to that height.
USe the HIghest resolution setting for the picture.You will get fewer pictures but I delete my card after each set of pictures so I don't down load more than one pen at a time.
Google up Windows power toys and g down load the image resizer.
I do not resort to photo editing software otehr than the image resizer when I take pictures.If you need to do that then you are not getting a true reproduction of the picture you took.
People who try to put "ARTSY" effects in their pictures turn me off from the pen.Crop and replacing the pen on a different background loses caritl and definition.The pen will look like a "painting" of a pen not a photograph.If you want to do that then just draw a picture of a pen and take a picture of that.
If you have enough light,a good background(neutral) and frame it correctly(diagonally to get the most pen in the picture) taking the picture necaomes an automaic excercise.There is no need for photo software or extraneous "stuff"
I can take a picture save it to my XP software, resize it and post it in under 3-4 minutes.
This is an example of one I uploaded on a different site in that time.
it isn't wood but it is turned.Note it is the same style kit, a slimline but I am showing you more pen and less clutter.