Brilliant theory or stupid rationalization? DIY lightbox

So I've always thought, "Wouldn't it be great if someone made a lightweight pop up tent in WHITE nylon, that could be used as a giant softbox for outdoor shooting?" But who would do that? A white tent is not very practical. then I was wandering the aisles of Ikea, lost in the marketplace wilderness, desperately trying to find my way out. What did I see in the children's section? A white tent! An igloo tent actually, and I thought, "Hmmm....I wonder if I could use that in some way?" So for $10, I figured the worst that could happen is nothing, and I'd give it to my 5 year old grandson.

So here I am, it's high noon in California and I'm testing out my natural light softbox. What do you think? I can see from preliminary testing that I'll have to be careful about what I use on the floor, as in this sample, it reflects lime green. A hot pink rug might be more flattering on white newborn skin. Since the floor itself is light blue, I will probably cut a square of white foamcore to fit, and see how it bounces the reflected light around. Again, I"m just doing preliminary testing here, but I'm thinking I might be on to something as far as an easy to make DIY lightbox goes. I don't NEED it to work, as I have real softboxes and strobes and whatnot, but people ask me all the time how to get good light for shooting their kids and they don't have gear. This is as simple as it gets. Setup is about 60 seconds, and if you position it so the sun is shining from behind, even a newbie can make a bright, white background. The "snow" pattern you see on the tent front is only on that one side. the other 3 sides are pure white.

My next step is to call a few kids over to the house to test it on humans. it will easily fit 2 small kids inside it. I'm also thinking it could use some reflected light from the front, with silver backed foamcore or just white. Using fill flash would defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to do, which is to come up with a simple, cheap way to surround an object with soft diffused light.

These test shots were done using sunlight only. Thoughts?

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suecassidy wrote in post #11900580
So I've always thought, "Wouldn't it be great if someone made a lightweight pop up tent in WHITE nylon, that could be used as a giant softbox for outdoor shooting?" But who would do that? A white tent is not very practical. then I was wandering the aisles of Ikea, lost in the marketplace wilderness, desperately trying to find my way out. What did I see in the children's section? A white tent! An igloo tent actually, and I thought, "Hmmm....I wonder if I could use that in some way?" So for $10, I figured the worst that could happen is nothing, and I'd give it to my 5 year old grandson.

So here I am, it's high noon in California and I'm testing out my natural light softbox. What do you think? I can see from preliminary testing that I'll have to be careful about what I use on the floor, as in this sample, it reflects lime green. A hot pink rug might be more flattering on white newborn skin. Since the floor itself is light blue, I will probably cut a square of white foamcore to fit, and see how it bounces the reflected light around. Again, I"m just doing preliminary testing here, but I'm thinking I might be on to something as far as an easy to make DIY lightbox goes. I don't NEED it to work, as I have real softboxes and strobes and whatnot, but people ask me all the time how to get good light for shooting their kids and they don't have gear. This is as simple as it gets. Setup is about 60 seconds, and if you position it so the sun is shining from behind, even a newbie can make a bright, white background. The "snow" pattern you see on the tent front is only on that one side. the other 3 sides are pure white.

My next step is to call a few kids over to the house to test it on humans. it will easily fit 2 small kids inside it. I'm also thinking it could use some reflected light from the front, with silver backed foamcore or just white. Using fill flash would defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to do, which is to come up with a simple, cheap way to surround an object with soft diffused light.

These test shots were done using sunlight only. Thoughts?

I would say give it to your grandson and keep using your softboxes

suecassidy wrote in post #11900580
These test shots were done using sunlight only. Thoughts?

Look at the white spots on the front of the bowl, they are reflecting the aqua blue color of the tent... no good. The tent has to be ALL white.

watt100 wrote in post #11900897
I would say give it to your grandson and keep using your softboxes

I have a few thousand bucks invested in lighting equipment and modifers, I don't plan on replacing those with a $10 tent. So that is good advice that I had already planned to take. : ) I just can't help but think that it could be used by somebody for something, if modified correctly. Perhaps cutting the doorway wider to allow more light and to make slipping in the white foamcore floor easier, would be a good idea. My son does a lot of product type shots for stuff he sells on ebay. It's a lot of work to bust out lights and modifiers. I was thinking if the floor was lined with white foam core, as I said in my original post, or a white blanket to deter the blue light cast, it might good for that. So far: 2 votes for stupid rationalization. 0 for brilliant theory. ; )

For $10, I think it would be handy to have in the trunk. You never know when you're on location if someones going to say, "Can you take a quick shot of this?"
Good find.

KurtGoss wrote in post #11900921
Look at the white spots on the front of the bowl, they are reflecting the aqua blue color of the tent... no good. The tent has to be ALL white.

AHHHH! You got me, I scrolled back up to look again.

X-Rite PassPort is your friend -- use it to get the color temp right.
Getting rid of the colored fabric is also a requirement. But shouldn't be hard to accomplish.
If nothing else, the springy frame is worth $10 to stretch fabric that is better suited for photography.

KurtGoss wrote in post #11900921
Look at the white spots on the front of the bowl, they are reflecting the aqua blue color of the tent... no good. The tent has to be ALL white.

three of the four sides of the tent are white, the fourth with the door opening has "snow blocks" stamped on it. My thought process was to cut that front part out to widen the opening, leaving just the three pure white nylon walls, and just pop a white foam core piece down onto the floor. Thanks for the input everybody. I'll figure out SOMETHING to do with this sucker.

Sorry, but I'm like a dog on a bone once I get an idea. So I cut the fabric from the doorway to make a wider opening and it didn't affect the sturdiness of the tent. I cut a piece of white foamcore about 4'X4' to cover the blue floor to avoid the blue light cast and to add some white reflection there. This is the result.

I could be nuts, but for $10 and small bit of effort, I think I can use this for something. It isn't high noon in California, it is morning still, when these latest pics were taken. At high noon, the floor wouldn't be as dark. Im thinking this is a much easier way to shoot some things than busting out all my gear. Take it for what it is.

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