Y’know, that was just making me think that science labs that are going to have people taking pictures of stuff, ought to get a brief lecture by a studio photographer on lighting techniques for product shots (or whatever) – having consistently lit and produced images makes a gigantic difference. One important trick is to standardize your lighting, which usually equates to something like “always light everything from this angle using a strip softbox with that LED head over there” I know a typical lab can’t afford the space for a sweep but a little pop-up fiberglass and nylon light stage (basically, a little tent about 2′ by 2′) can work wonders. The photograph above certainly doesn’t need help, but I’ve seen a lot that do and I wonder if good photography has a measurable impact on publication success. It sure has a big impact on product sales – I used to know a guy whose thing was buying stuff on ebay cheap, spraying it with a shot of PAM and putting it under good lighting, and re-selling it for twice as much. He and his wife also used to go to antique stores and buy stuff that they knew would clean up well, and resell it for lots more. They were a retired couple (former IT people) and it was their family’s saturday and sunday hobby. (I bought an awesome bookbinder’s press from them, which they home-delivered! And I’m sure I paid more than it was worth.)
That is stunning. So beautiful. And what a fun experiment – I’ll be doing that one as soon as I get some delicious strawberries.
Fascinating, and yes I might try it myself…or just eat the delicious strawberries.
That _is_ a lovely photograph!
Y’know, that was just making me think that science labs that are going to have people taking pictures of stuff, ought to get a brief lecture by a studio photographer on lighting techniques for product shots (or whatever) – having consistently lit and produced images makes a gigantic difference. One important trick is to standardize your lighting, which usually equates to something like “always light everything from this angle using a strip softbox with that LED head over there” I know a typical lab can’t afford the space for a sweep but a little pop-up fiberglass and nylon light stage (basically, a little tent about 2′ by 2′) can work wonders. The photograph above certainly doesn’t need help, but I’ve seen a lot that do and I wonder if good photography has a measurable impact on publication success. It sure has a big impact on product sales – I used to know a guy whose thing was buying stuff on ebay cheap, spraying it with a shot of PAM and putting it under good lighting, and re-selling it for twice as much. He and his wife also used to go to antique stores and buy stuff that they knew would clean up well, and resell it for lots more. They were a retired couple (former IT people) and it was their family’s saturday and sunday hobby. (I bought an awesome bookbinder’s press from them, which they home-delivered! And I’m sure I paid more than it was worth.)
My daughter (8yro) did this experiment with the StemBox http://www.mystembox.com/DNA
She loved it.
I LOVE this experiment!
I wish somebody had told me about this when I was in school.