lightbox tips for me anyone?

So i finally was able to get some cloth backdrops for my lightbox and start messing with it starting with my airplane models.
I'm not exactly sure what kind of final products i should be looking for here so if any of you gurus have any kind of comment please let me know on how i can do better!

my lights are currently set up right on the left and and right of the box shining in directly. no flash. i do have a third light, maybe i need one coming from above too?

so other than shrinking these down using PS and the full jpeg settings, i did no edits in PS so that you guys can comment on a "pure" picture.

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You may want to look at this set up.. its cheap, and works great.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=281524

yea i saw that. but i gotta work with what i have right now. that easel paper would be a easy get though. his shots are all of one item and you really dont have to worry about aperture and depth of field though.

btw only reason why i bought a lightbox was because it was foldable and i can take it wherever i need it, not some clunky homemade box. i could have easily made my own if it werent for that portable aspect of it.

you can make this one portable, or close to it, by not gluing any of the corners.

with the box you have, use the sheets for the sides & top, just for diffusion of your light source. They make an ugly backdrop. You can make decent backgdrops out of butcher paper, or posterboard (less than $1 at staples) or velvet (buy scrap from a fabric store, iron it before use). The trick is being able to support the backdrop they way you want it.

good luck,...

It looks to me like you are not compensating for the fact that most of the scene is white. The camera wants to make everything a middle gray tone. I assume you want the pictures to look more or less like what you see with your eye. To do so, you will have to give it more exposure either through the exposure compensation control on your camera or shooting in manual and giving more exposure than the meter indicates. I won't recommend any particular setting, but with digital it is so easy to play around with exposure, you should just test until you get what you like.

I do think you will like a smooth paper backdrop better than the cloth background.

tyea maybe i should get some paper. hard to get a "heavenly" background with cloth and your lens stopped down.
i was playing with manual settings there.

Read this thread.
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=281524

If you don't feel like it then I wrote a short run down

I think your trying to mix product photography with portrait photography. I say this because it seems like your shooting a product, but still keeping the background all wavy and stuff like you would with a portrait?
Try to get the background as smooth and flat as possible with no angles what so ever. Id suggest even ironing all of the wrinkles out. The trick is the smooth backdrop with no angles-- nothing that can create a shadow.

Once you get your backdrop smooth, take a close up picture of the backdrop with all of your lights on and set your custom white balance to this image (shoot in raw if possible. Makes blowing out the background much easier). Use f/8-11 for your shots and try to throw as much light into that box as humanly possible. Instead of cloth as your backdrop, use paper (I use poster board because its much thicker) and use your cloth for now as your light diffuser (Id use something thinner than that when you can get a chance because that thick cloth will kill a lot of the light. I use a very thin white cloth, almost transparent). Pick up a few flood lights for about 10 bucks a piece and place them on each side. Oh, and don't forget to use a tripod.

This is my setup. I also use my hotshoe flash with omnibounce pointed at the roof of the box at about 1/4 power.

hmm i see. i just have to get some paper.
i dont think i can control flash output with my 420ex.
also dont think i can get that close with my airplanes. these things arent that small!

Dont need to get close, just have to get bigger paper! lol. Really though, 20 bucks for a couple flood lights will work wonders on getting that nice background you want.

Just make sure you use a tripod and get good DOF.

oks. i do have some floods to use. just got to get that right paper