I got this nice Ballpoint Pen from MontBlanc called „Starwalker – Cool Blue“.
The Surface of this Pen has somekind of a wave Pattern which is barely visible when there is not enough Light to reflect from the Surface.
So, to make this visible, a lot of Light is needed and the Lens to work with is a Macro Lens 105mm 2.8 Micro Nikkor. The Reason why is because of the Image Scale of 1:1.
I mounted the Pen with a Thread on a Stick and hang the Stick just that high, so the Ballpoint Pen just touched the Surface of the Ground in an Angle, similar to that, as if you would use the Pen when writing.
It is a 2-Lighting Setup, 1 Stripbox from the Left with an additional Diffusor Panel in front of it to create a more softer Light with a Gradient. A second Softbox, hitting the Pen from behind and slightly above, also with an additional Diffusor Panel attached.
From the Right Side, a little Reflector, in this case a little Peace of Translum Plastic helped a lot, and from the front (beneath the Camera Position) a white Cardboard was positioned to highlight the Front with the Light from the Softbox behind the Pen.
Because I used a Macro Lens, and the Object was very huge, there is no chance to have the hole Pen in Focus. Even if the Aperture was closed, no chance to have the whole Pen in complete Focus.
Besides, especially when shooting with a Macro Lens, it is very important for the Sharpness of the Picture to find the „Sweet Spot“ of the Lens. When closing the Aperture too much, you will get some kind of a Blur in the Picture.
With the Micro Nikkor, f8 should not be topped. So, the only possible Solution is called Focus Stacking. With Focus Stacking a Series of Pictures are taken and each Picture has a different Position of Focus. In this Case I focused the Top of the Pen, took a Picture, then focused 1 cm lower, took a Picture and so on, until the whole Pen was in Focus, every time about 1-2 cm. In my Case there are 6 Pictures of the Pen.
You need a Software to combine these Pictures to one Image. A great Software to do that is Helicon Focus, but even Photoshop has the Ability to do that. The Problem with Photoshop, it is very slow when calculating these Pictures to one Image. This can really take some while, Helicon Focus is MUCH faster.
But anyway, to get the whole Pen in Focus, this is what has to be done.
Now, Starwalker – Cool Blue, immediately I thought of Stars, Light and Trails, so wouldn’t it be cool, to write with Light?
The „Cool blue“ Light was a Christmas-Tree LED Lightchain, which was moved with the Hands towards the Camera, while the Shutterspeed was set to about 2 or 3 Seconds. That is how you get nice Trails of Light.
And due to the Pattern of the Surface of the Pen, this wave Pattern, I combined the Pen, writing with a cool blue Light on a Wave of Stars…yeah, ok…maybe to much Idea? I don’t know, I pretty much like it. What do you think?
