Another DIY light box, with build and test pics

and you have to stay true to your roots:

the best beer in the world - hands down.

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Thanks For Posting That Link!

That's a nifty setup. I'm likin' that first mic shot the best.

phuonglam wrote in post #5713318
to whom want to buy the halogen working lamp .Sears have them on sale for $ 11.99 (reg 19.99) 250/500 watt single head with tripod .Sale thru 6/15 .
http://www.sears.com …_10153_12605_03​473826000P

I'm glad you posted that. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted a pair. So what did I do? I returned my other ones to Home Depot and went to Sears! For $3 USD bucks more apiece, now I've got twice the wattage and a tripod.

For $11.99 USD, you get what you pay for though. The bracket knobs are so small that it's hard to tighten them and that causes the light to be a little loose vertically. When you attach the light to the tripod, the attachment is quite flimsy which allows the light to wobble quite a bit.

It's not exactly built tough, but it's a step up from the last lights I had and I'm glad I got 'em. This whole lightbox thing is cool. I wish I woulda done all this a long time ago.

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that's a very nice shot. I know the light box has been all about product photography it seems, but it's nice to see some artistic pizaz in the shot. Nicely done.

Here is my 1st attempt at the black BG.

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rockfordhx wrote in post #5723222
Here is my 1st attempt at the black BG.

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I think I have that exact same trinket. Did you get it from a street peddler underneath the Tower?

Nice shot too! You did very good with the background.

Nope. Got it in Florida... probably paid twice as much.

thanks

rockfordhx wrote in post #5723414
Nope. Got it in Florida... probably paid twice as much.

thanks

I'll have to see if mine has "PARIS" on it. It really looks almost identicle. I've no idea how much I paid. Those Francs sure looked like Monopoly money.

Looks like you got a nice true black background. That's WAY better than my attempt.

newb2pro_1day_or_so wrote in post #5723174
that's a very nice shot. I know the light box has been all about product photography it seems, but it's nice to see some artistic pizaz in the shot. Nicely done.

Thanks alot. I figured it would be something different.

hey just 2 quick question...
So i see that some of you have glass on the bottom you just place that ontop of your backdrop right?
second... For the back drop it just kinda curves from being veritical to horizontal correct? EG no crease/ right angel thanks!

Yes And Yes!

zeva wrote in post #5723771
hey just 2 quick question...
So i see that some of you have glass on the bottom you just place that ontop of your backdrop right?
second... For the back drop it just kinda curves from being veritical to horizontal correct? EG no crease/ right angel thanks!

Yes and yes. From what I've learnt so far, you want the backdrop to be smoothly curved so that no crease or edge shows up in the photo. When using glass, you'll likely get the edge of the glass showing up in the photo though. I've been able to get rid of that by zoming at like 400% - 800% (I think they call that "pixel peeping" ?) and using the smudge tool in Photoshop CS3 to smear the glass edge away.

Oh ok! so usually PP is needed inorder to make the image brighter and simple stufff like removing glass right? thanks

I Think It's Better To Get The Right Exposure In-Camera.

zeva wrote in post #5729145
Oh ok! so usually PP is needed inorder to make the image brighter and simple stufff like removing glass right? thanks

Rather than using the software to make the image brighter or darker, I thought it would be better to get it right in-camera. But getting a good exposure on these lightbox shots has been a pure guessing game for me. So what I've been doing is taking 8-10 photos at different shutter speeds (with all the other settings kept the same) and then picking the best one.

I've been shooting in RAW mode so I can adjust the white balance, blacks, sharpening, saturation, etc. in the software.

I'm not sure what you mean by simple stufff like removing glass though.

CameraLens wrote in post #5733294
Rather than using the software to make the image brighter or darker, I thought it would be better to get it right in-camera. But getting a good exposure on these lightbox shots has been a pure guessing game for me. So what I've been doing is taking 8-10 photos at different shutter speeds (with all the other settings kept the same) and then picking the best one.

I've been shooting in RAW mode so I can adjust the white balance, blacks, sharpening, saturation, etc. in the software.

I'm not sure what you mean by simple stufff like removing glass though.

What I'm looking for is gear that tells me before shooting a picture if the entire background is 100% white. I don't have much time to do post-processing.

On my Canon 30D, it tells me after I take a picture if an area is 100% white by flashing the white section in the LCD screen. I'd prefer to know before.

Same thing, by the way, with the histogram. I'd like to see what it would be before I take the picture.

So I'm talking about live info. Do the high-end Canons have it? Is there any gear one can buy for the cameras that don't have it?

RedCarpet wrote in post #5733353
What I'm looking for is gear that tells me before shooting a picture if the entire background is 100% white. I don't have much time to do post-processing.

On my Canon 30D, it tells me after I take a picture if an area is 100% white by flashing the white section in the LCD screen. I'd prefer to know before.

Same thing, by the way, with the histogram. I'd like to see what it would be before I take the picture.

So I'm talking about live info. Do the high-end Canons have it? Is there any gear one can buy for the cameras that don't have it?

The problem is that the camera's meter is designed to try and make everything 18% gray. Therefore if you want something to be white, or lighter than gray, you need to tell the camera to "overexpose" the image according to its meter. Conversely, if you want something to turn out black, or darker than gray, you need to "underexpose" the image according to its meter.

Camera's aren't that smart, they can only do what they are told. They have been told at the factory that the world is 18% gray. The only way it will see the world any differently is if you tell it to.

I see. Thanks.

Hey, I was just Googling Live Histogram and found a site that talks about "Supercharge Your Camera with Open-Source CHDK Firmware."

"Digital cameras have powers beyond what is immediately available to the user. On a standard Canon, for example, the fastest shutter speed option offered is 1/1,600 second, but the hardware can handle much more than that -- up to 1/60,000 of a second."

This is off wired.com, so it's hopefully reliable...

"Canon Hacker's Development Kit, is an open-source software project . . . It unleashes new features including . . . live histogram . . ."

Anyone tried this?

P.S. Some of you folks should try bracketing if you don't already. That site says:

"Shoot better HDR pics with CHDK's auto-bracketing features."

It's one way to avoid post-processing with background brightness levels.

I think my 30D has about 3 max different brightness levels for the bracketing. It's not always enough, though. I wonder if this CHDK can do 9 brackets or smaller intervals of bracketing.

Here's the answer, upon further research, about the Live Histogram:

http://chdk.wikia.com/​wiki/CHDK_firmware_usa​ge

It shows screen caps of all the different kinds of Live Histogram displays you can choose once hack your Canon.

To the point about auto bracketing...

"Special Build Features

The following features have instantly gained popularity and are now appearing in many builds by other authors....

Tv Bracketing Value = Off, 1/3EV, 2/3EV, 1EV

This allows you to shoot unlimited exposure bracketing by using shutter speed. The EV value selected will set the desired exposure variation between each shot. When using Continuous or High-Speed Continuous mode in your camera, it will quickly fire-off as many bracketing exposures as you desire. They will be recorded in the following sequence, where X is your starting shutter-speed, and EV is the EV value that you selected:

X, -1*EV, +1*EV, -2*EV, +2*EV, -3*EV, +3*EV, etc...

To the point of 100% white backgrounds:

Zebra parameters

Zebra mode is a screen overlay which points out very bright/very dark areas. You can use it like the histogram to avoid over-/underexposure.

-

So apparently you can hack the Canon and make those Zebras flash live (I assume) just like you can make the Histogram live. Haven't tried it yet, but I think I will. Still, Canon should have enabled this already so you don't have to hack!