Nicholas,

Thanks for the response and suggestions. You are correct that I am
using flash. Unfortuantely I do not have access to lots of lighting
equipment nor does my budget office (the wife) allow me to purchase a
lot of stuff.... ;^D

I did just pick up some black velvet cloth and will see what I can
kludge together in lighting to try again. Sorry to be clueless but
what is a Snoot and Barn Door? Seems like it's time for a trip to the
office supply and hardware store!

As far as the floresent lights, do you mean that I should do this
inside a light tent or try it first without the tent and just the
black velvet background (keeping it some distance away from it)?

I am getting hooked on this photography stuff. It's quite
interesting trying to solve this problem. Thanks again to all of you
for your help!

Bill Slater

Somehow I think you are using electronic flash? If so, open a window and
throw that flash unit as far away from you as you can (figuratively of
course).

Get a couple of tensor or luxo lamps and some white and black 20x24 (or whatever)
cards. Move things around and look at what happens, try putting snoots and barn
doors on the lamps (cardboard and duct tape work great). Clear shower-curtain
liner makes a good diffuser: shine the lights on the curtain and place the
object on the other side.

A couple of single tube fluorescent might work well as they have the
same, er, symmetry as the cane: place one along the top and one along the
bottom, out of sight of the camera, of course -- shield the light from
the lens. This would give even lighting along the length of the cane, which
should be goal no matter what.I have never tried this, so take the advice
with a large box of salt.

Color correction with flourescents is a can of worms. They do sell
'flourescent' filters, you may want to get one. OTOH, a slight color
cast will most likely not be noticed.

I don't know if soft or hard light will work best - the trick is to light
the barrel and leave the engraving in it's own 'valley of the shadow'. A large
area enclosing soft light is best for shiny objects, however this doesn't
look shiny at all. If it were shiny then surrounding it with light from the side,
and no light from the top, will make the engraving pop-out from the barrel.

And last but not least:

Go to the fabric store and get some background cloth: plush black velvet,
some silky acetate in silver or gold -- any thing but a towel. If you
want a black background suspend the cane in the air and place the background
in the shadow of the lights, as has been mentioned already. You can also
make any background you want with photoshop.