lighting with a copy stand

Could someone please provide some advice for this rather specialized need? I

am planning to replace a very old, homemade setup in a forensic type lab with

a copy stand for photographing specimens (mostly fresh surgical specimens).

Our old stand was a big box table with a glass top. In the bottom of the box

we had velvet material and for particularly dark specimens we would slide in

lighter poster boards. With the proposed copy stand I would like to use

interchangealbe colored plexiglass over the baseboard (for ease of cleaning).

With such reflective surfaces, how might I best light the copy stand

(Tungsten, Halogen) and will I need diffuser panels or something as well? As

you can see I am really out of my element in this arena...just would like to

provide a workable solution.

Thanks for any input

Al

Instead of using color plexiglass as a surface try using color formica. You can buy formica in matte colors which are easier to clean than plexi and are not nearly as shiny.

You will need some diffusion on your lights unless you want hard-edged shadows. Rather than one light w/diffusion on each side of the subject you might try one light w/diffusion on one side and a fill card on the other so you can show some modeling and shape in your subject and have only one shadow rather than two.

Alan,

Let me start off by saying that I've never done what you're proposing, my answer is based on general rather than specific experience.

It seems to me that your best approach might be a sheet of glass rather than plexiglass - the surface will be flatter and harder, easier to clean and more resistant to scratches. Coloured plexiglass could go beneath the glass to provide coloured backgrounds where required and could also be underlit. Or you could use a second sheet of glass, overlaid with a lighting gel. Diffusion will be needed if these plexiglass or gelled panels are underlit.

As for lighting, personally I would avoid tungsten - tungsten lamps have a very short life and darken with age, they also shift colour with age and I would have thought colour accuracy to be important. You would need to replace all lamps at the same time. Halogen lighting will work fine, provided that the (physical) temperature doesn't damage your specimens. If heat is a problem, use flash.

I think that reflections are unlikely to be a problem. I imagine you will want to use 4 lights, each angled at 45 deg. Physics will come to your aid here, because the angle of reflectance will equal the angle of incidence, therefore the reflections created will be well outside your angle of view.

Hope this helps