Light Tent Set Up

[rickman]

Ah, here's mine. Got the idea from "Sharp By Coop" over on Bladeforums.

My lighting setup:



My studio setup:



Light diffuser is "Cracked Ice" fluorescent light diffuser, 6 inch clamp-on lamps with 100W Daylight fluorescents, pvc frames, vinyl floor tiles from Home Depot and a nice selection of art papers from Michael's craft store.

Now to get better with Photoshop to clean em' up and make them look better.

[Iceman]

Rickman,

just to be sure that is the white cracked ice deffuser, not the clear cracked ice?

[rickman]

Sorry, that would be the white cracked ice diffuser.

[SPLITSHOT]

Thank's for the great idea's . i have to make me one .....

[Frstr8]

Thanks for the ideas! I just got a Nikon D90 and I am trying to learn how to use it. Been playing around, but I am gonna make something like what you guys have posted for sure! Here is a couple shots that I took while messing around.

[ouhunter]

Great post, thanks for sharing

[Markous]

I have this link bookmarked for future reference.

[loonybin]

Nice setups! I'm using an ultra-cheap photo booth that I built for the boys' and my pinewood derby and model cars. I actually found it on a model car forum The lights are... ok. My camera is an old Canon A95 that is about 5 years old, and getting the proper white balance is a major chore. Images are waaaaay too yellow, so I need to find some 5000K lights to put in it. Hopefully that will improve my pictures.

$20 Photo Booth

The images tend to come out like this:


It takes a lot of manipulation with Irfanview to get them to look like this:


and this:


Any ideas to make them look better will be greatly appreciated.

[katodog]

Now here's a thread that's right up my alley. Well, any thread on a knife forum is up my alley, but photography too?? I must be in the right place.


Lightbox shooting is pretty easy, and you can do it with the most minimal of "gear". At the most basic, all you need is a cardboard box and white paper. Add a camera and some light and you're good to go. My technique is to use a flash on a wireless trigger, and place the flash inside the box aimed at the inside/top of the box. For cardboard lightboxes I line from top to back to bottom with a piece of white seamless paper.


Some "typical" shots...














With white, the only thing you have to worry about is if you want the white to be pure white, which is easy to fix on the computer. Use the Histogram or Curves in the processing program of your choice to change the white levels. For black you can use the same things to turn the black pure black. For camera settings you can shoot around 1/250, f/8-f/16, and vary the power output on the flash so the box gets filled with the right amount of light. regardless of technique, I've found it better to use a single flash or two flash units inside the box with diffusers, and aim them at the top/inside of the box. Shooting with lights or flash through the sides of the box will work, and works great for people, but I always found that technique to be a bit harder to work with than shooting with the flash inside.

[Clevername]

Katodog are the black pictures simply black paper in the same box?

[katodog]

It's black cloth. When shooting inside a lightbox, even if it's a makeshift cardboard box, with a black background you want to use something that will absorb the light, otherwise it won't be pure black. Black paper, posterboard, etc., will either let light go through or it will reflect some of the light, which means you'll have to edit the photos more to get a pure black background. The black in my shots is the black cloth that came with the fold-up lightbox I have.

[katodog]

Of course I should say this: Your main goal is to present your subject as best you can, whether it be for sales or for showing off. You want the viewer to see the true nature of the subject, and you don't necessarily need a lightbox or fancy camera gear to make it happen. Here is a few shots I did, simply laying the subject on cloth and shooting with the flash on a lightstand with the flash bounced off the ceiling...



Feb 28 001 by Ed Durbin (Katodog), on Flickr


S3000 003 by Ed Durbin (Katodog), on Flickr


Lucasi 002 by Ed Durbin (Katodog), on Flickr



Now, let's say you don't have a camera, flash, etc., like I do. Let's say you're using a simple point-n-shoot camera. If it has a flash all you need is a tablespoon...yes, a tablespoon. Pop-up flash to the photographer community is something that makes us say "EEK!!" and we run fast the other way. However, it's not as bad as we make it sound, and it actually works given the right circumstance. With these examples you can see the difference between blasting the subject with the pop-up flash, and the more even results when you put a spoon under the flash...








Those were shot with a Fuji S6000fd, which is a bridge camera but basically the same as any point-n-shoot camera. Pop-up flash can work and work well, and if you're shooting in a lightbox or if you practice different setups, you'll find that all you need is a spoon. Basically what happens is the spoon bounces the light into the room (or into the lightbox if you're using one) and fills the whole subject area with light. With the bare pop-up the light is directed at your subject, which causes reflection and that "deer in the headlights" look.

[Clevername]

It's black cloth. When shooting inside a lightbox, even if it's a makeshift cardboard box, with a black background you want to use something that will absorb the light, otherwise it won't be pure black. Black paper, posterboard, etc., will either let light go through or it will reflect some of the light, which means you'll have to edit the photos more to get a pure black background. The black in my shots is the black cloth that came with the fold-up lightbox I have.

Thanks for the info. I have a nice camera (7D) and a few L series lenses, but no flash yet (other than the pop up). I got the camera and lenses relatively recently and am still learning a lot. Went from a Canon point and shoot with major limitations. With the new camera the limitation is me.

[katodog]

The easiest thing to do is jump on eBay and look for YongNuo flash and triggers. You can get a great flash in either the YN560 or YN565, and they're cheaper than Canon branded flash. Way cheaper. Then look for either RF-603 or CTR-301 triggers, you can find sets with two or three triggers really cheap. That way if you buy more than one flash you won't have to keep buying triggers. For stuff like this going cheap won't hurt your shots, I use YongNuo triggers and love them.


Anything that gets the flash off-camera, a sync cord, triggers, etc., will give you a broad spectrum of ability for lightbox and other types of shooting.

[AILL]

I thought I show You my garage setup.

Looks like this:



2 Halogen lights, ~10,-- each, white paper, used compact camera ~40,--

result:



other samples:





...

or, with a different background:



...

This is NOT GOOD - I know. But more on the eye-candy side than on the eye-cancer side for sure.

Andreas