The current 3rd place finisher, Chemical Cocktail, has what appears to be a common lighting setup. How is this done exactly? What I assume is that there's a sheet or something similar hanging behind the subject with a light aimed through the sheet from behind toward the camera. Is this correct? Being so new to photography, I'm counting on doing most of my learning through trial and error! Thanks.
Welcome to DPC jmark53, I'm fairly new here myself. This was backlit using a clamplight (60 Watt bulb) mounted to the underside of my kitchen table. The pot is sitting atop black poster board on the table. I used white poster board for the background. The table is approx. 1 foot away from the wall. I did a lot of experimenting to get it the way I wanted it. Like you said lots of trial and error.
There's another way to do backlighting that I'm exploring now myself. That is to light your subject more directly with a lightbox. These are the boxes that are used for viewing slides and stuff like x-rays. Of course, this is for studio use only.
You can either buy them...I have seen them online for about $80 for small ones (about 8x10 inch) or you can build them yourself, which I personally think is the better way to go cause it gives you more versatility in it's design. If you do do that, just make sure that the flourescent bulbs you use are balanced for daylight color (5000 degree color temperature) and that you use opalescent acrylic for the diffusing material in the front.
This quality of light will be very soft and diffuse. In addition, you could attach a translucent material to the box for use as a background without having to use seperate front lighting on it.
jeff
