Using my dining table as a studio setup, I placed my lens ball on a sheet of black plexiglass (less than £10 from Amazon) making sure it was right up to the edge of the table. Behind this, I draped a black velvet cloth (from a fabric market stand some years ago) over my clothes horse.
In Photoshop I created some brightly patterned images, which I downloaded to my mobile phone. I placed my camera on a tripod, focused on the ball before switching my lens to manual focus, then turned the lights off in the room.
I had my husband wave around the phone between the crystal ball and the black cloth, while I took photos on a long exposure. The settings will vary depending on how dark your room is, how bright the phone pattern is, and what effect you want. I would suggest using the lowest ISO your camera allows, and an aperture of at least f/10 to ensure the phone, ball, and reflections are all in focus. You should then be able to use a shutter speed between 2.5 and 5 seconds. I would not shoot for any longer than 5 seconds, as I think the image would become too muddly then.
Every photo turned out differently, even when using the same pattern.
The setup
Hints:
The best results (deepest colours) are obtained if you move the phone slowly.
Make sure both the ball and glass are clean and free from dust.
Make sure the phone goes right behind the ball and below the table level at some stage in the movement.
Don't try to fill the frame with the pattern, the pictures tend to be more interesting if you leave part of the image dark
Curves look better than straight lines, or maybe a combination of both
For best effect, make sure you view the patterns in a landscape format
Make sure that the brightness of the phone screen is turned up to maximum
Check that the writing in white is not visible top and bottom of the phone screen (gently tap the screen to get rid of it)
In post-processing, ramp up the saturation and/or contrast for the best effect
Some of the patterns I created in Photoshop
Below are samples from my various attempts at this, in reverse chronological order.
September 2022 - Second attempt
For these images I used the following settings:
ISO 100
f/10
2.5 second exposure
September 2022 - Day One
I had another go at this today, using slightly different settings:
f/10
ISO 100
2.5 seconds exposure
January 2021
For these images I used the following settings:
ISO 100
ISO 100
f/13
5 seconds exposure
Red and blue stripes makes a nice purple
Green and yellow stripes
Rainbow stripes
More red and blue
More green and yellow
