buddyclark

I did get a reply this week from someone who said he has seen information on these Mortensen lights. I'm waiting to see if he comes up with a copy of an old ad he has somewhere.

I highly recommend acquiring a used copy of "Light Science and Magic", for hair loss prevention's sake, to all fellow product photographers.

You could also look up Amazon's lighting patent.

Further elements of product photography are placing stuff for assembly line shots and maybe arranging / preparing / styling it or product specific QC. Less hassle if you aren't shooting food or fabrics.

Maybe product photography is more macro related than the subject distances hint? - Macro lenses seem popular workhorses in that field.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been shooting several nights a week for the last 8 years for things to put on eBay etc. Since I already enjoyed photography I took it as a challenge to see what I could learn. I'm cheap so I got along with home made lighting and things for quite a while before I upgraded last year.

 

Maybe the subject itself is not glamorous enough for a book of it's own or a class but it might be interesting to see the response. Or maybe a group just for the subject to share experiences and ask questions. I know lots of people just use a smart phone for eBay and such but I can't take a good picture with one to save my soul and I don't plan on improving on that one.

One of the first lights I owned was a "Kennet" soft light. A 4ft diameter white dish taking a single 1Kw GES bulb with removable beauty-dish style secondary reflector/lamp cover.

 

Parts of that got finger-burning hot after just a few minutes use, and it had about 25 times the area of that Mortensen light.

 

I'd put no more than a 275 Watt photoflood in a tiny reflector like that. Exploding bulbs aren't fun!

maybe exploding lights is how he got some of those expressions in his photos

I hate to think how hot that tiny reflector would get with a 1Kw bulb in it. No wonder the sticker is on the stand.

We've come a long way. Ever had the pleasure of posing for home movies with a bar light holding 4 500Watt floods? That'll warm you up

I've been looking for a "friendly" copy in ebook form just to look. I think that is looking like my best bet so far.

It has your basic tilt-swivel.

I wish it had a patent applied for date. I may have to spend some time searching patents to see if I can get lucky. Then again, I've seen patent applied for on items that never seem to have been applied for.

 

I've done a lot of probing about Mortensen, but I have never seen any reference to his 'branding' equipment. He did write a lot of books other than Monsters & Madonnas, however, and whatever one may think of his grotesques, he was a master of a certain kind of portraiture including lighting.

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Ad in ancestor to Modern Photography 1941-10

Yes, I'm finding the same, but it's an interesting coincidence. This came from an estate that had an odd collection of unique items

Check Test post in lighting - used the same process. Are you downsising to around 1000 long side?

Ok....My "small" photo was not really so small. Resized and posted thumbnail. I guess that is the trick here.

Thank you very much for your assistance!

Check Test post in lighting - used the same process. Are you downsising to around 1000 long side?

Yes, I've tried thumbnail and a small photo as well. I've posted to many discussion groups but this one seems to have it's own unique ways

Hello,

Is there a place to find discussions on things like Product Photography? Thinks like techniques for taking photos of products for posting to websites etc? While I consider some of that to be Macro it seems to me like that is just part of the equation.

 

Thanks

Buddy C

Ok... that works in this forum but I get the spam/inappropriate error in the Lighting forum. Forum membership required or something??

Same here. What's the trick to putting a photo in a post?

Hello,

New here. I hope this is the best forum for this question.

 

I came across what I thought was a nice old industrial light. After I cleaned the layers of grime off I found Mortensen Basic Light. There is an abundance of information on Wm. Mortensen and his lighting techniques, but I can find nothing about any lights or equipment with his name on them. The label indicates it should be a photography lamp. It has a 9" reflector. Information I have found said that Mortensen liked 7". This has two parts that extend very high.

 

Whatever it may be I really like the light but I'm curious if it can be attributed to Wm Mortensen. Any information would be greatly appreciated

 

I've tried to add photos but my post keeps getting flagged as inappropriate

 

Kindest Regards

 

Buddy C