So I have been on a quest lately to take better pics. I remembered reading, some time ago, about setting up a specific, lighted area. From memory, I tried it the uber-cheap way first, without a box. It didn’t quite have the quality I was looking for. Here was my initial setup:
^ You can see a white table-cloth draped at the top, and two flashlights on tripods mounted with painters tape. ^
A pretty lame setup…I know…but I was able to get some OK close-ups like this:
…and this:
However, any shots taken further away had pretty bad shadows that just weren’t acceptable.
So…I watched a few youtube videos on cheap lightbox design, and decided to try my hand at an ultra-cheap version using about $30 worth of items:
1) Cardboard box with top flaps cut off.
2) White duct tape.
3) Tissue paper (large sheets as used in gift bags).
4) White poster-board.
5) 2 x clamp lights with LED bulbs.
6) Painter’s tape (optional, for tacking tissue paper down on the outside of the box, or at hidden areas).
Here is what the process looked like:
^ I started this project by trimming the box up a bit. As you can see above, my cardboard box has windows that I cut out on three sides (Left, Top and Right). ^
^ Above, I used the white duct tape and attached it to a long side of one piece of tissue paper.^
^ I then attached the tissue paper to the upper left corner of the box, and laid another piece of tissue paper along the bottom. I folded the ends of the tissue paper to the outside of the box, and attached it there with painters tape…which allowed me to remove and re-attach if necessary. ^
^ Then I just repeated the process for each interior side-panel of my box. ^
The youtube videos I watched stressed how important it was to have a curved back surface, which helps diminish unwanted shadows. I decided to cut a slit into the top/rear of the box, and feed a trimmed piece of poster board into the slot, then simply curve it toward the front:
^ Cutting the poster-board slit. ^
^ Feeding the poster-board through slit from the outside. ^
^ Poster-board peeking through the inside of my box. ^
^ Poster-board completely fed through and curved. ^
Next, I mounted the lights on the outside left and right side of the box. The clamp lights work great, and you can clamp them in place to any solid object:
^ Right outside. ^
^ Right inside. ^
^ Left outside. ^
^ Box pretty much complete with both lights on. ^
I’ll be experimenting with this box in the next few days. Unfortunately, the pics I have taken so far are way too yellow. I’m not sure if it is a white balance issue, or perhaps too warm a tint on the LED bulbs. I’ll swap them out and try some different bulbs and see how that works.
I hope this helps anyone that is considering building one
Any advice from shutterbugs is always appreciated!
Thanks,
krono