light box, or a "soft box

[JustWakinUp]

Hey guys,

This doesn't really pertain to leather work but, as many pictures that we all take of our work I thought this would be something good for everyone. I built one earlier this week for less than $5 using the supplies in the tutorial. You can probably build it cheaper too.

The images of my flip flops were done using this very same lightbox

View Tutorial Here

[CitizenKate]

For those of you not familiar with this, it's called a light box, or a "soft box". The idea of it is, when you're photographing your work, you want your subject fully saturated with strong lighting from numerous angles, to minimize shadows. But the lighting needs to be "softened", or diffused, to reduce glare.

The method JustWakinUp shared is a great way to build a smaller one. I needed a larger one to accommodate my large game boards. So I built this one out of PVC and vinyl shower curtains. You can use this method to make it any size you want. The nice thing about this one is, I can tear it down, fold it up, and store it in the closet. It was a little more than $5, but it's also quite a bit larger than the one in the tutorial, as well. I think I spent between $30-40 for the whole setup, including the lights.

Kate

Edited September 15, 2007 by CitizenKate

[Roger]

thanks for posting these guys!

i really need to do something to improve the pics of my work but don't have much room to leave it up and really don't want to take the time to tear it down every time i use it. when i am busy i would need to use it nearly every night

i'll have to think on this some and see if i can come up with something. :scratchhead: :scratchhead: :scratchhead:

[Regis]

In photographing jewelry some years ago I learned something that will sometimes help here. Set a pane of glass on top of 4 water glasses(in corners). Put your item on the glass pane. Then you can place different colors or scenes or just wrinkled fabric under the glass. It makes your item look like it is suspended in the air. I was using close-up photography and the background turned out blurred (nice effect). For smaller leahter items that may also work. I'll try to post example when I get back home (traveling right now).

Regis

[CitizenKate]

That's a great idea, Regis. I've been trying to figure out ways to get some distance between the subject and the background. Look forward to seeing your photos...

Kate

[Romey]

Here is a decent cheap light box. The WHOLE key is lighting, your not so much trying to soften light but diffuse it. Type of bulbs and wattage make a HUGE differance, Get daylight bulbs or simply use natural sunlight, 11 am on clear day works best for me. If the thread goes farther I can mention f stop speed, white balancing ones camera ect and also why daylight bulbs(due to color spectrum) Knives are no question most difficult thing to photograph due to angles, severl dimensions of angles ect round and flat shapes.

Use of reflectors take away alot of nasty shadows as well.

Edited September 15, 2007 by Romey

[CitizenKate]

Romey, that's a pretty clever solution, as well. Amazing, all the things you can do with PVC pipe, eh?

Kate

[howardb]

Wicked Keeeewwwllll! Years doing camera stuff and you think I'd have tripped over it before. The strobist site was nifty and it's bookmarked for future learning.

Thanks!

Brent

[Romey]

The true key I found is the correct bulbs and the placement of them. many set ups and diffusers will work fine but the bulbs make all the differance (or natural daylight)