Light Tents and Lighting

Your link,http://submit.shutters​tock.com/, goes to the homepage.

sorry about that.

my portfolio

Bob

John Sims wrote in post #2630056
Well thanks....I think. ("Damn good" or "awesome" might have been nice )

lol sorry I was too conservative in my compliment, after all it is awesome! . Its much better then I got with my previous setup even after all the post work. grrr

snokid wrote in post #2636713
sorry about that.

my portfolio

Bob

Nice! I like the quality of your work.


Does this look like a good setup?

Lights -> http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …ghType=category​Navigation

Tent ->
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …ghType=category​Navigation

Should I get Tungsten or Flurescent lighting? The lights that come with the stands are two 30watt 5500° Kelvin fluorescent bulbs. Would this 5500 color temp be too blue and 30watts enough light?

please don't spend over a hundred dollars on a light tent when you can make a perfectly good one for under $10. >>>click<<<

also, if you're working in a light tent with static objects, and you put your camera on a tripod, you can use whatever kind of light you want. Long exposure compensates for standard 60watt bulbs. I use cheap-o desk lamps. Custom white balance lets you use any kind of bulb you want.

yea I agree the tent is way too expensive. I'm new to this sort of thing and just want to make sure i'm going in the right direction. Your home made light tent gave me an idea, the only trick is to get a white enough sheet to cover it and a curved background.

Save some money

go buy a piece of white poster board less than $1.00

set the poster board on a table and set something behind it to form a slight curve up.

set a couple of regular household lamps on each side.

camera on tripod

take your picture.

now in PP

"setting white balance"

if you shot in RAW click the eye dropper on the left top of Adobe Camera Raw, then click on an area of the white poster board, set the sliders and open the image.

if you shot in JPG in PS image>adjustments>curve click on the eye dropper on the bottom right, then click on the white poster.

"make white whiter"

Now duplicate your layer (crtl+j) then set the blend mode to screen.
then merge layers (crtl+e)

this will give you very good result's.

Bob

Cyclone_S wrote in post #2645597
yea I agree the tent is way too expensive. I'm new to this sort of thing and just want to make sure i'm going in the right direction. Your home made light tent gave me an idea, the only trick is to get a white enough sheet to cover it and a curved background.

Way too expensive see

http://www.smick.co.uk …me='Photo%20Lig​ht%20Cube'

snokid wrote in post #2646412
Save some money

go buy a piece of white poster board less than $1.00

set the poster board on a table and set something behind it to form a slight curve up.

set a couple of regular household lamps on each side.

camera on tripod

take your picture.....

Bob

That's fine except you will get harsh shadows. One of the advantages of the light tent is that the fabric diffuses the light.

The other advantage is to control reflections on shiny items, for example:-

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Well I just built my own light tent

It's not giving me the greatest results however. David do you know why my picture looks washed out and dull? I tried a bunch of shutter speeds and they all look washed out, just brighter or darker. I'm using the natural sun light in the room.

Maybe it's the kind of material I’m using to cover the tent?

The below photo was taken in raw using a grey card for the white balence and 0.6sec shutter speed.

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What a terrible object to photograph - that should be a test piece

I can see you

Because of the reflection on the surface the inside of the tent needs to be as flat and even as possible. Anything that projects into that flat clean environment is likely to cause a reflection. Make the smallest slit in the cover to put the lens through, otherwise you will see the reflection of the camera.

Use enough depth of field to catch the object only, that way any reflections may be out of focus an less evident.

It may be that you have made life more difficult for yourself with this object using such an even light source. Some highlight may add sparkle and draw your eye.

What is it? I want one. It must be the ultimate product photo challenge.

Yea its a hard object to take a photo of. I'm not too concerned about the reflections cuzz I'm sure I can fix that with more effort. It’s just the pictures look washed out/hazy.

I took a picture of a different object and cropped it so you can see the washed out parts more clearly.

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I would think they look washed out and flat because the light is flat. It is so even that there is no contrast, no light and shade, therefore flat.

Using multiple strobes there are shadows and highlights, it is just a matter of trying to kill the shadows where you don't want them. I have found the easiest way to do that is to illuminate the base.

Yes. You have the low-contrast situation that you built the tent for! You can increase the contrast by adding/subtracting some light from an area of the tent.

You have no controlled baseline exposure. IF you used a controlled light source, you could probably use an action in PS to cut down on the time, but as the sunlight varies, so will your exposure.

what Frank said. one desktop lamp on each side of the light tent, move one of them further away, and then you'll create a little depth.

Thanks for the help guys. I think i'm getting a lot closer. I used two desk lamps and tried to posistion them to make the background white without washing out the subject. One of the lights was resting on the ground pointing up and the other I was holding it so it was shining down on top of the tent. I still think they look washed out but its a lot better then my previous tries. If I had a proper lighting setup, more light, and some light stands this would be much easier.

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