LaPala

Wow, love them all. The scale on the blue one looks particularly 3D, that the one with 2005 new paint?. PS: better keep them under locks & chains

I knew there must be some pros amongst us in this foto thingy Thanks for your input dvowel. One day when I think my lure is up to standards, I'd like to send them to you for a photo session Maybe you'd have one of those 645 sets too PS: I'd go with the macro lens too if I have those beast that you have but I've only got a compact so the macro capabilities aren't that desirable and the accurate focusing a macro requires is just not worth fiddling with by eyeballing it on the lousy LCD resolution after switching to manual focusing.

Well guys, I thought this would generate some discussion on how to get a better photo. Anyway glad this is of some value to u guys. Cheers.

Here's just something I compiled of the way I took lure pictures. A long winded one so bare with me or just skip it Setting up the "Studio" As illustrated in Diagram attached, the background(backdrop) I used a piece of white signage acrylic. The bend should not be a 90 degree bend but a very gradual curve to avoid it showing as a line in picture. The suface is wet-sanded with 240 grit to make it matte. It's improtant to have the surface matted to avoid glares in the background. You can substitute with big piece of white drawing paper as well or in any other color but I like white as it doesn't distract/subtlely affect the color of the lure. In addition, it will reflect light from below to illuminate the bottom half of lures as well. I have placed a lamp behind the backdrop as well. As the acrylic can let the light thru, the background is kept very "white" & the slightly extra light from behind & below creates a subdued shadow & lights up the bottom part of the lure. Next, cut out a matte black color board to cover the lights from your camera except where the backdrop & lure is. If light reaches your camera it'll create flares or confuse the auto exposure. Best if you can have the whole light stuff enclosed in a box with just the opening for the backdrop. Now, the lamps. I use 4 Osram 6500K PLC lamps 26 watt each (cheapest alternative to expensive true spectrum studio light) which is equivalent to 150 watt of fluorescent light. The key is to use all lamps with the same color tempreture. 6500K is daylight spectrum which I prefer. The light is shielded with a piece of fine white nylon which I got from my friends photo studio, but u can substituted with any fine white cloth/nylon, white acrylic signage board or anything you can come up with that can diffuse the light. This is so the lights will NOT produce spot lighting but a soft diffused light. The lights are arranged, one exactly on top and slightly to the front of the lure; the other 2 right and left. Adjust the height/distance of the right & left light so one is slightly stronger(closer) this gives a more 3D look to the lure. You can opt for a 4th light below & behind the backdrop. Omitting this will just give u a slightly darker bottom part of the lure but the reflected light from board should still be enough to keep the bottom part of lure well illuminated (if u use a white backdrop). It's just an overkill on my part. Play a bit with the light positions so it illuminates the whole lure and the shadows are to your liking. Taking The (Digital) Photo Use the custom white balance in your digital camera to shot with all lights on & check the results, the background should be white, else adjust to match. Now if you're using Photoshop CS (8.0), shot in RAW mode of your camera so when you convert you can fine tune the color tempreture to make sure the background color is true to life. (Note: If your digicam is a more basic model and don't have these functions, just disregard this.) Next place a Black/18% Gray/White card on the board & take a sample shot to help you during curves adjustment in Photoshop. This is so u can use the eyedropper in the Photoshop curves dialogue & just click on the sample card & apply that correction to all subsequent lure photo. Use a curves adjustment layer to do this so later you can just use this sample shot & click-drag the adjustment layer to ur lure shot. (Note: again if u do not plan to edit in Phostoshop just disregard this, or if this explanation doesn't make sense to u then you are not familiar enough with Photoshop , I can't help u here since I do not intend to digress into a detail explanation on Photoshop techniques) Now, lets get on to the actual shooting itself. Camera must be on tripod & I prefer to use tele & zoom in on the lure. Use timer or cable release/remote if u have one. Just shoot a couple of test shot to get the right exposure. DO NOT USE THE FLASH ON THE CAMERA, we worked so hard till now setting up the lighting!!! You do not want to spoil it now by having your camera emit a harsh flash here. If u can control the exposure on your digicam, opt for longer shutter speed rather than opening up the f/stop to get the correct exposure as smaller aperture will give u better depth of field. But do not worry too much about depth of field in a digital camera as it's usually enough to cover the whole lure. (Note: for more basic digicams, an easy way to tell the camera to go for longer exposure is to switch it to "night scene" mode or whatever ur camera wants to call it.) If you have a histogram function (see this article: Understanding Histogram if u don't know what a histogram function in digital camera really means on your camera), check it after the test shot and adjust the exposure and "shot to the right"; meaning have the histogram slightly biased toward the right hand side by adjusting the speed & f/stop (here's why I recommend this: Expose "Right" ). Just to be sure, focus on the eyes of the lure, if eyes are blur, it gives the impression of the whole photo being out of focus, if the eyes are crystal clear it doesn't matter if other parts are slightly out of focus. But I doubt you have a long enough tele lens to get that, it'll have to be like at least a 500mm lens to get that effect for a lure shot with digital (unless u're the lucky bast$%# who owns a full frame DSLR, but then you won't be reading this anyway since I assume you would know ur photography to be buying such a beast ). That's about it. I've omitted in explaining a lot of details, just giving u the low-down. Just catch me in TU Chat or Yahoo Messenger if u have any questions. There are other ways of getting a good lure photo; this is just one method to make it consistant instead of relying on natural lighting which can be finicky at times. There are still other ways to do it but this is a DIY al cheapo style which u can rig up in an evening. But if you know your photography, you can surely come up with more innovative ways of getting that perfect shot. Hope this helps a bit for those who are trying to get that perfect shot for their creations. Please correct me if you find any inaccuracy in this information or wish to share with us ur method of getting a perfect lure photo.

Thanks for all the Hard work done to improve the site Jerry. If you guys haven't checked out the Photo Gallery do so NOW!!!! I'm blown out of my seat, I'm speechless. WOW is all I can say. This site ROCKS!!

Very nice baits. I particularly like the finishing on it. (However I suspect there might be some torn lingerie, brassieres around the house to create those nice pattern :grin: ) and Welcome aboard. Hope to see more of your beautiful furnishings.

way cool Jerry And the New Chat Room is awesome too, we'll try & pack it & see if we can get it to stall :-D :grin:

Great Info Mojo. Thanks. I was copying the info into a table format so I discovered some discrepencies in the teaspoon figures. I've attached a chart with the corrected figures.

Those are the soundest advice you're getting from the old pros there Brock. However contrary to what you want to do in designing new lures, my advice is for u to copy a fish catching lure that you know how to fish it in and out. By learning this way, you set yourself a target as to what that lure is suppose to do; if your lure doesn't cut it you'll be able to study the original lure & thus learn why your lure doesn't tick. After you've got that one lure and the variations (change lip angle/shape, vary body profile/width, taper the tail etc etc) studied to death, you'll find making/designing you own lures then comes naturally. PS: When Jed (Riverman) comes visiting, make sure you get a place ready for him to sleep over and then drain his brain as much as you can. You've got a great teacher there so used him thoroughly man

Good info, thanks Rodney. A little article on patent in New Scientist came to my attention, you can read it here: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7213 . Interesting "grey" area mentioned there.

Wow, Kiln drying wood to me is like sticking ur head into a hornet's nest. It's a science and so many things can go wrong, not to mention if ur wood is already treated it might realease toxic fumes in the "kiln" u mentioned. Check this link out for info: http://www.laymar-crafts.co.uk/linkr.htm If you search the web there's tons of info on home base kiln drying wood. Good luck.

That's touching Blades. He'll get my prayers. Hang in there, he'll be fishing again.

Well for one source of "income" for the TU site there's this "Paypal Donate" we can click on at the right hand corner & do our little bit to contribute towards the running of this site. Or maybe we can all donate a lure each to be sold off toward the upgrading of the site. With the present membership of 1833 if only 30% donated we can still offset that license purchase easy. (I'm working on each lure's worth at a buck each, I'm sure the lures TU members produce are worth much more than that). Well at least those who vote to have a store in TU can donate one or two. OR maybe we restart the Battle of Baits (BOB), all lures submitted will be auctione off toward the benefit of this site we all so treasure

Fantastic Job Vy. You blow moi away. What printer u use for printing those decals? (colors are real vibrant!!) And u used transparent or white decal paper? Keep em coming man.

You must have been knifed by now Quick recovery, so ya can get nuts again making lures.

Just as a coincidence, I fished a homemade lure today with just the white primer on & NO eyes as yet. I got the best hour of fishing ever on that home strecth of water with a total of 4 fish with one lunker. (Now why I bother painting my lures ??) My take is, fish strike at something that moves (enticingly to them). Action speak louder than "eyes". Some predetors will strike at their prey to paralyse/immobilise them first; so it's this first strike that we count on when fishing on lures. They may come back then & see where the eyes are to swallow it head first so as not to choke but this doesn't concern us anymore. Even on days when fish are striking short & light, we usually get them on the tail hook. They are taking cursive strike at their prey, whatever that passed in front of them will callup their instinct to strike, maybe not to eat but just to chase it away? And like MagicBob points out, most SP grubs, worms etc got no eyes!!! to start with, yet they are effective lures.

I have a question guys. What is the easier/better software to use to draw those 3D shapes for CNCing. Still lookinng for a solution to this end as drawing then optimising the tool path and the conversion to g-code been my biggest headache.

This difference btw design & utility patent clears some cloud over the patent/originnal-ideas/infringment issues. Thks crittercraw.

Rockhopper: Just for the sake of clarification on patent laws. Lets say I'm a real cheapskate & would not want to pay for your wiggle rig but appreciates it's property so I go out & jury rig up one with rubber-bands I got off the postman for free. The properties of rubber-bands might not work as well as spectraelastic but hey it sort of works too. What's my status then in this case? Am I infringing and ripping you off? And does it become worse if I tell my buddies about this cheapskate rig & they start using it too? From what I see is some inventions are just so easy to do it in "another" way when someone has done the hard work of working it out & inventing the technique/equipment. So in this case how do you protect your own interest?

hmmm, those lead could be radioactive Check weathher in glows in the dark.

85?F, that's hotter than my climate here Jed Your volcano should be expanding air from the wood itself. So ya I'd say it's your bait not at the same tempreture as your room. I'm not familiar with Etex, but base on Devcon which cure a bit faster, I manage to eliminate most "micro bubbles" whatever that's left by stuffing my lure (hung when it's still tacky but not really flowing anymore) into a pressure chamber (home rigged from my old scuba tank) to 1500psi. Pressure will compress the bubbles, 1500psi is roughly (1500/14.7) 100 times atmspheric pressure so that really shrink/force most of the bubbles back into solution. (anyone complaining of bubbles in lure after this must be examining it under a microscope ) If u wanna rig one up I'd be happy to show u some diagrams on how to do it. But I have a disclaimer, play with it at your own risk, if structural integrity of your contraption is breached, it's a potential bomb. That's why I kept mine to 1500psi which is half the rated pressure for a scuba cylinder.

Man, that is bad. Name the name & let the criminal be out in the open!!!! But like Red said, the only way to prevent it is to put a transperent watermark right across your pic with your company name across it. Spoils the pic a bit, but if it's faint enough but still discernable, it wouldn't spoil the pic too much and should prevent people from stealing it.

Welcome aboard Rock. The mention of $$$ in the title sure made me take attention. Jokes apart, an expert opinion is highly welcomed. Someone with your experience & willingness to help others is a treasure. I'm sure I'd be bugging you in future.

I use a pair of homemade pair made from a cheap China longnose plier costing me US1.20. I grind off 5mm of one tip, file a small V-groove on the other tip & hammer it to a 90? bend. Grind the bend end to a taper & it's done. Works like a charm.

Kingcarl, tried the 1mm PVC before & found 1mm thick actually makes a difference. For very clear outline, you'll have to spray pretty straight on else line blurs. Thin material is better for me.