OverDome light diffusing enclosures target DIY 360 degree jewelry and product photography

PUTNAM, Conn. - Aug. 4, 2014 - PRLog -- Viewpoint Laboratories today announced some new additions to its line of OverDome Light Diffusing Photography Enclosures, namely domes with a "Mid-angle" aperture that provide a camera view for 360 degree photography.

"Our OverDome products are targeted at customers, particularly amateur photographers, who need a handy solution for professional-quality uniform illumination for jewelry and product photography, even under uncontrolled conditions like a workshop or outdoors," said a spokesperson for the company. "Our first OverDome products, translucent white acrylic hemispheres, provided an aperture at the top for an overhead view. This geometry provides a single view minimizing unwanted shadows, reflections and glare. However, we quickly recognized the opportunity to enhance the functionality to facilitate the burgeoning field of 360 degree photography, which is especially sensitive to uniform illumination. With 360 spins, shadows and glare that change with the rotation angle can be distracting, adding visual clutter to the final result. These unwanted photographic artifacts can be difficult or even impossible to remove with software post-processing, so it's critical that the illumination be optimal from the start."

The Mid-angle 12-inch diameter OverDome products are designed to be compatible with the 9 inch turntable available from Arqspin. "The Arqspin 360 spin system, including their software and turntable, provides a great platform to work with," said the spokesperson. "Obviously we needed to provide a dome-aperture view at an angle, since the overhead view wouldn't show the object from all sides. On the other hand, in many cases it's important that the camera avoids the 'horizon' of the turntable, so we figured out the optimal angle that strikes this compromise. As it turns out the "Mid-angle" products work great with ring finger display stands, providing both a forward view of the gemstone at one rotational position and a profile view, down the 'barrel' of the display stand, at the 180-degree opposite rotational position."

"We believe this will be an enabling technology for the web-entrepreneur and for online auction sites like eBay, providing an important differentiator for showcasing products. Besides jewelry photography, the OverDome is useful for small products, mineral and gemstone specimens and collectors' items, as well as vision-based inspection like printed circuit boards, etc. Both the Overhead and Mid-angle apertures are great for simple still photography, but the Mid-angle aperture is needed for 360 spins. All our 12-inch diameter domes have two different size apertures available, a larger aperture for conventional camera lenses and a smaller aperture for smartphone and tablet cameras."

Please visit the OverDome page at www.viewpointlaboratories.com for more information and for Viewpoint Laboratories' e-commerce site. OverDome products are also available on Amazon.

Arqspin is a trademark of Arqball LLC.