Another DIY light box, with build and test pics

Methodical wrote in post #11832200
Checked out your shots...they are nice, but I'd adjust the white balance to get the white whiter...try somewhere around 3200-3500 and see what you get.

I would love to have a marco lens for these types of shots

Thanks for your comments Methodical.....adjusti​ng to 3500 did improve the whiteness but also gave a slight blue hue to it. I think the problem is that the car is white, the background is white but the paper the car is stood on is off white. Once again thanks for looking and commenting. Cheers

bloodhound wrote in post #11832981
Thanks for your comments Methodical.....adjusti​ng to 3500 did improve the whiteness but also gave a slight blue hue to it. I think the problem is that the car is white, the background is white but the paper the car is stood on is off white. Once again thanks for looking and commenting. Cheers

The problem is that you're using different lights and diffusion material that isn't made for photography. You can either buy softbox material ($9 or so) or buy a nice WB card. It doesn't really matter that the BG paper is white, it's not made for photography.

A new setup I tired for food. I used 2 60w desk lamps and a homemade light box. I like the results but I think I'll give off camera flash a try when I receive the triggers. Will have to make a softbox for my flashes though. I'll see what I come up with

SuperHuman21 wrote in post #11834079
The problem is that you're using different lights and diffusion material that isn't made for photography. You can either buy softbox material ($9 or so) or buy a nice WB card. It doesn't really matter that the BG paper is white, it's not made for photography.

Thanks for your reply? I knocked up my light box set up in about 15 minutes at about 10 in the evening so even if I had wanted lights and diffusion paper made for photography I would not have been able to buy them.

Any suggestions to improve lightbox and pics straight outta the camera?

Original:

bloodhound wrote in post #11836572
Thanks for your reply? I knocked up my light box set up in about 15 minutes at about 10 in the evening so even if I had wanted lights and diffusion paper made for photography I would not have been able to buy them.

Gotcha but I'm just letting you know because most folks don't. We're all learning things.

daxtrader wrote in post #11839291
Any suggestions to improve lightbox and pics straight outta the camera?

Original:

Lightbox: Foamcore stuffed in a cardboard box. Clamp lights. 60watt bulbs. White posterboard paper.

Hey. Have you looked into this thread on some of the ideas? I have a feeling that you just winged this and have no clue what you're doing and that's fine for fun shooting.

Cut the sides of the box and cover it either with paper or photography material if it's too bothersome to mess around with the WB in PS.

You don't get a pure white BG without some PP work and thus why I don't use these boxes. I almost get pure white but it's still better than what I'd get with the boxes and my blacks are pure black and it's all in-camera.

SuperHuman21 wrote in post #11842580
Gotcha but I'm just letting you know because most folks don't. We're all learning things.

Hey. Have you looked into this thread on some of the ideas? I have a feeling that you just winged this and have no clue what you're doing and that's fine for fun shooting.

Cut the sides of the box and cover it either with paper or photography material if it's too bothersome to mess around with the WB in PS.

You don't get a pure white BG without some PP work and thus why I don't use these boxes. I almost get pure white but it's still better than what I'd get with the boxes and my blacks are pure black and it's all in-camera.

I got the idea from one of the lightboxes that was set up the same way. I'll try what you mentioned tonight, thanks.

Here's a couple of more pics I took. Your thoughts appreciated!

White balance
You need a WB card or at least just do a custom balance shot off of something fairly gray. If you don't know how to, well, don't ask me, I only know how to on my camera.

Diffusion
The harshness works for the spoon but not for the shoes. One of the hardest things for me to do is deciding how harsh I want something to be. It can get quite time-consuming when you test which setup is best for a certain object.

Angles
It's hard to tell what's going on with the spoon. What would help is being able to control the shadows more and/either placing the spoon and camera in a better position. One of the other reasons I ripped up my ezcube or whatever it's called is because shadows can't be controlled unless you know how to do so with gobos and such in such a small area and don't mind the tedious work it involves.

If you ever plan on doing more I'd advise you to start with making diffusion panels from PVC pipes and some kind of suitable fabric or paper.

Here's another try at it. This time I cut out the sides of the box, used a sheet of paper for diffusion.

How to achieve seamless white bg

I'm positive I'll get a little heat for this given the 300 page deep DIY lightbox thread. I hope what I have to say is worth it and is helpful. I remember when I found that lightbox thread...oh the fun I had building it. $5.00 worth of foam core, $10 halogen lights and bam, I was in business shooting tabletop art for cheap. However, like many of you and I know there are quite a few of you, I didn't really understand how the lightbox worked. I didn't understand why my white bg wasn't pure white. Just fix it in PP someone said. Eventually my lightbox went into the closet. One day, I found this and suddenly it all made sense. http://www.zarias.com …torial-part-1-gear-space/.

The secret to white seamless is over exposing the background while properly exposing the foreground. This explained the major flaw of the lightbox. If you build it using the two halogens, you only have one continous light source. There's no way to control when/if your background will be overexposed enough to be pure white while keeping your object properly exposed. Understanding this principle I built this

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Nice shot! I like the little guys. Too bad that setup doesn't work for me. I've tried it but it creates way too much spill for what I shoot.

Wow thanks obsidian. I've got a lot to learn. Thanks for the link.

hey Super,

I assume that you're trying to use this setup to light jewelry. Regardless, spill control is fairly easy. The reason why there may be too much spill is because of the reflected light from the back foam core hitting the back of whatever you're shooting. All you have to do is increase the distance of the object to the background and move it farther away from the back light source. The background stays the same exposure. If you're getting really blown out shots, it might be because the background is too overexposed and washing out the front.

Obsidian wrote in post #11853628
hey Super,

I assume that you're trying to use this setup to light jewelry. Regardless, spill control is fairly easy. The reason why there may be too much spill is because of the reflected light from the back foam core hitting the back of whatever you're shooting. All you have to do is increase the distance of the object to the background and move it farther away from the back light source. The background stays the same exposure. If you're getting really blown out shots, it might be because the background is too overexposed and washing out the front.

Thanks for taking your time to reply but that isn't the problem unfortunately. I mainly shoot towards the ground so the BG under the glass has to be lit up somehow but it's too close, even when I have the paper to the floor. I'm seriously thinking of doing some testing and raise my table another foot and shoot with a ladder since my 105mm is too close. I may need a smaller FL lens if this works so that I don't need a ladder. If that does the trick then I'll be much happier. If this still is confusing I can show some examples later.

EDIT: Funnily enough I posted something about this and only then had a House moment and realized I could just buy the 60mm macro instead of using a ladder, lol. Then again, I could get a T/S with even a shorter FL since 60 actually may not be good enough.

That's how much emphasize on putting gear in the list when it comes to creativity. I try to use what I have for minimal costs. Why go broke if you don't need to? That should be my new motto.