Light box? Please help!

[Hardrada]

10 hours ago, NorthIdahoLeather said:

Yes!  I think this would be close to perfect. My concern is that I may not have the proper lens for taking photos through the holes provided. Is it possible to open the side and achieve the same quality of photos?   This seems like it would work well with an iPhone or maybe a wide angle macro lens!?  I’m sorry, I’m very new to photography. As I mentioned above, it was recommended to me to purchase a prime lense. I have just purchased a Nikon camera, so I went with the 50mm af-s f/1.8. 

Again, and sorry to be so insistent, I strongly suggest staying away from lightboxes. They are presented to budding photographers as the perfect solution—that all that it's needed is to drop your subject in, surround it with lights and snap away. And therein is my main concern about them: they make it very inviting for the shooter to place lights behind every side but the camera's, which results in crossed shadows and ruined photos. I know: I've been there before:

Setting up the 'seamless' background that comes with them is also frustrating, as it's made of fabric that creases very easily: those creases get augmented by the lights into real eyesores.

I mean, if you have the budget, feel free to buy a box and see for yourself what I mean. If your budget is limited, I'd try a different setup. Keep in mind: the only things that matter for the photo is whatever you can see inside the picture frame (and stuff outside of it only when it has an effect on what you can see within the frame). You have more freedom when you can set your lights, tripod, and products wherever you want without being boxed in (pun intended).

Here's one very simple setup I use (I've used it mainly to shoot food, but it's also effective for leather items, especially textured ones):

And, the results:

 

Look, ma! No lightbox!

[fredk]

As you are fairly new to this photography lark I recommend you buy John Hedgecoe's 'The Photographer's Handbook'

This one: https://www.amazon.com/photographers-handbook-Hedgecoe-photography-Leonard/dp/B00BO7WGNW/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=john+hedgecoe+the+photography+handbook&qid=1573102549&sr=8-15

It was written in the olden days when we used stuff called 'film' in our magic boxes but all the techniques are still very relevant. I had a copy, now no.3 son has it and uses it. I reckon it is one of the very best reference books on photography ever written. It can be picked up for just a few $$ but its worth its weight in platinum

[NorthIdahoLeather]

fredk, thank you. I will get a copy of that book.  I’m at the point where it will be a few weeks before I get a decent photo. Still learning to understand iso, aperture, shutter speed and how they all relate. I’ve been reading as much as I can, but it means nothing until my camera shows up and I can go make some mistakes. Thank you for the tip! 
 

I did order a 48” light tent and some LED lighting and a good tri-pod. I’ll give it a go and see what I think. I like photographing the gun belts and holsters outdoors for the reasons mentioned above, but I’m having a hard time doing it in the winter months where I am. It just doesn’t look right with snow all over and poor natural light. But with a manual camera, that could all change. New camera and equipment will be here next week, so I’ll get some practice and experimenting in shortly. 
Thank you all for the helpful tips and advice.  I greatly appreciate it 

-Jeff 

[Northmount]

11 hours ago, NorthIdahoLeather said:

Still learning to understand iso, aperture, shutter speed and how they all relate.

I'll try to put this together in simple terms hopefully to make it easier to understand more complicated concepts later.

ISO is how fast the film is, or rather a measure of how much light it needs to be properly exposed.  In place of film, you now have an electronic image sensor.  High ISO numbers mean fast film (or equivalent) and tend to produce grainy photos.  Lower ISO speeds produce finer detail, less grain.  Since a low ISO number needs more light, you have to supply more light by either opening up the lens aperture, or by keeping the shutter open longer.

Lens opening (aperture) is measured as f-stop numbers.  The lower the number, the wider the opening and the greater amount of light is let through the lens.  f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22 are examples.  As you go from a higher number to the next lowest number on your lens, the amount of light delivered is doubled. 

Depth of field is an interesting item.  It describes how much of the object being photographed is in focus measured from front to back.  A pinhole camera has great depth of field.  So that tells you that a small aperture increases the depth of field.  If you want the background to be mushy, out of focus so it doesn't detract from your prime object, you work with a large aperture (low f-stop) to provide a shallow depth of field.

Exposure time ... if you double the exposure time, say 1/125 second to 1/60 second, you double the amount of light the sensor receives during the exposure. 

If you want great depth of field, you move to higher f-stop numbers. For each number you increase your f-stop, you will need to double the exposure time.  So if you had set your camera for for f8 and shutter speed of 1/125 second, and want to increase the depth of field, you could go to the next highest f-stop number, f11 and increase the exposure to 1/60 second for the same effective exposure.

So looking at f-stop, each increment halves or doubles the amount of light received by the sensor.  Looking at shutter speeds, the marked shutter speeds on most cameras also halve or double the amount of light received by the sensor.

Fast shutter speeds help eliminate the effects of camera shake.  Slow shutter speeds require a very steady camera so most often require a tripod.  Most people can get reasonably crisp photos at 1/60 second or faster.  Wide angle lens can extend the apparent steadiness; longer lenses, telephoto magnify camera shake so need a solid support for crisp photos.  Macro shots need a steady hand or tripod.

There's lesson 1 and 2.  Now get your camera and experiment.  At least with a digital camera, there is no film cost hindering taking lots of practice shots.  Just be discriminating and delete all but the very best, else you will use up lots of storage space!  When practicing years ago, I used to shot 2 or more 36 exposure rolls of film per week.  So a lot of those were B&W to reduce film and processing costs.

One last comment, under-exposing a shot by 1/2 to 1 stop can increase the colour saturation.  Sometimes useful to do.  And of course the opposite, too much exposure washes out colour and detail.

Tom

[chuck123wapati]

On 11/6/2019 at 11:19 PM, NorthIdahoLeather said:

fredk, thank you. I will get a copy of that book.  I’m at the point where it will be a few weeks before I get a decent photo. Still learning to understand iso, aperture, shutter speed and how they all relate. I’ve been reading as much as I can, but it means nothing until my camera shows up and I can go make some mistakes. Thank you for the tip! 
 

I did order a 48” light tent and some LED lighting and a good tri-pod. I’ll give it a go and see what I think. I like photographing the gun belts and holsters outdoors for the reasons mentioned above, but I’m having a hard time doing it in the winter months where I am. It just doesn’t look right with snow all over and poor natural light. But with a manual camera, that could all change. New camera and equipment will be here next week, so I’ll get some practice and experimenting in shortly. 
Thank you all for the helpful tips and advice.  I greatly appreciate it 

-Jeff 

Be careful photography is addicting, you will find yourself taking that new camera everywhere, oh and do they ever have a bunch of toys that go with. lol you can take beautiful wildlife photos like this closeup of a Doe Deer. 

Edited November 12, 2019 by chuck123wapati
added photo

[NorthIdahoLeather]

On 11/7/2019 at 10:05 AM, Northmount said:

I'll try to put this together in simple terms hopefully to make it easier to understand more complicated concepts later.

ISO is how fast the film is, or rather a measure of how much light it needs to be properly exposed.  In place of film, you now have an electronic image sensor.  High ISO numbers mean fast film (or equivalent) and tend to produce grainy photos.  Lower ISO speeds produce finer detail, less grain.  Since a low ISO number needs more light, you have to supply more light by either opening up the lens aperture, or by keeping the shutter open longer.

Lens opening (aperture) is measured as f-stop numbers.  The lower the number, the wider the opening and the greater amount of light is let through the lens.  f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22 are examples.  As you go from a higher number to the next lowest number on your lens, the amount of light delivered is doubled. 

Depth of field is an interesting item.  It describes how much of the object being photographed is in focus measured from front to back.  A pinhole camera has great depth of field.  So that tells you that a small aperture increases the depth of field.  If you want the background to be mushy, out of focus so it doesn't detract from your prime object, you work with a large aperture (low f-stop) to provide a shallow depth of field.

Exposure time ... if you double the exposure time, say 1/125 second to 1/60 second, you double the amount of light the sensor receives during the exposure. 

If you want great depth of field, you move to higher f-stop numbers. For each number you increase your f-stop, you will need to double the exposure time.  So if you had set your camera for for f8 and shutter speed of 1/125 second, and want to increase the depth of field, you could go to the next highest f-stop number, f11 and increase the exposure to 1/60 second for the same effective exposure.

So looking at f-stop, each increment halves or doubles the amount of light received by the sensor.  Looking at shutter speeds, the marked shutter speeds on most cameras also halve or double the amount of light received by the sensor.

Fast shutter speeds help eliminate the effects of camera shake.  Slow shutter speeds require a very steady camera so most often require a tripod.  Most people can get reasonably crisp photos at 1/60 second or faster.  Wide angle lens can extend the apparent steadiness; longer lenses, telephoto magnify camera shake so need a solid support for crisp photos.  Macro shots need a steady hand or tripod.

There's lesson 1 and 2.  Now get your camera and experiment.  At least with a digital camera, there is no film cost hindering taking lots of practice shots.  Just be discriminating and delete all but the very best, else you will use up lots of storage space!  When practicing years ago, I used to shot 2 or more 36 exposure rolls of film per week.  So a lot of those were B&W to reduce film and processing costs.

One last comment, under-exposing a shot by 1/2 to 1 stop can increase the colour saturation.  Sometimes useful to do.  And of course the opposite, too much exposure washes out colour and detail.

Tom

Tom,  thank you for taking the time to spell that out for me. I’ve been reading as much as I can, but you have answered some of the questions that arose from my studying. New camera will be here tomorrow. I’m hoping to have a chance to get some practice time using your comment as a reference. Great info and I really appreciate it. Thank you! 
 

For those who were kind enough to steer me away from a light box/ tent,  yoj were right. It’s a total joke. Spent a couple days with my iPhone trying to get a decent picture.  Shadows?  I couldn’t get rid of em  and those that said the sheets they supply were bad? Horrible. No matter what I do, I can’t get rid of the wrinkles. But, now I know. Lol