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Light tents aren't easy!

PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 7:03 pm
by bwhinnen
Well thanks to Keith aka Firsty :) (see this thread

I went and bought the stuff to build a light tent. Ended up making it 15" x 15" with 4 little lights from Big W (10.98 each) 2 x 23W 6500K lights and 2 x 20W 6500K lights (they only had two of each all the others were 2700K!) (7.88 each) and the laundry hamper for 19.97 :D And 1 sheet of white pastebaord from spotlight for 2.30 :)

This is the result

Image

And a hell of a lot of stuffing around to get

Image

I am still not 100% happy with it, so hard to get the background nice and crisp white and not blow the phone completely!

Any hints?

Thanks,

PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 7:13 pm
by Kyle
Looks great so far! :D

I found an unlimited resource for light boxen: http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum ... =light+box

PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 7:34 pm
by MATT
Nice results with your Ghetto light box..

Goodwork

MATT

PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 8:37 pm
by fishafotos
It looks pretty good so far, only tip I could give you if you are blowing the phone out would be to put more light behind the backing so it is exposed more than the phone.

PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:53 pm
by Laurie
thanks for the right up. i am really wanting to make my own lightbox, and might give it be go soon.
what lens is best for these lightboxes?

PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:58 pm
by bwhinnen
I used the kit lens (18-70), not the sharpest but at f14 it does ok :)

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:28 am
by bwhinnen
I am wondering if the material I've used for the diffuser is a little to thick or not opaque enough. It is the white garbage bags from Glad, nice and lemon scented...

Any thoughts? As I am using a total of four lights, two from the sides, one at the front top and one at the back top to try and light up the pasteboard.

Thanks all :)

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:41 am
by Laurie
on my uncalibrated LCD @ work the white balance looks a tad off. the white paper looks green at the bottom of the image.

it might just be my monitor. it might also be the lemons in the paper you used ;)

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:49 am
by bwhinnen
Might have caught a bit of the fluoro on the front edge, the kitchen light was on (to the left of the image). The lights are all 6500K and white balance was set to 6500K in PP (shot in RAW).

I'll have another play with it later on. I'll actually set up a table in the garage so I can have all other light sources turned off :)

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:20 am
by billybass
Hi, I am new to this forum.
May I suggest that instead of using opaque cardboard that something translucent can be used instead and the light can also come from below. Ta billybass

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:23 am
by gstark
Brett,

bwhinnen wrote:I am wondering if the material I've used for the diffuser is a little to thick or not opaque enough. It is the white garbage bags from Glad, nice and lemon scented...


I would probably see if I can find some white fabric somewhere. Thin, light ... but mozzie netting would too thin and light ...

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:28 am
by bwhinnen
Thanks Gary, on thinking of it further I wonder if it (the glad bags) were too light. And was thinking of something like rip-nylon or similar (like parachute material) from Spotlight. I think a cotton sheet would be too heavy, even a low thread count one...

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:32 am
by gstark
I think that something like parachute material might be ideal.

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:11 pm
by B01NG
i made myself one the other day too, using the same lamps and bulbs as you! hehe. i used a large printer box though, and i got some white polyester from lincraft as the difuser, works quite well.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 3:20 pm
by bwhinnen
Material has been changed to rip-stop nylon. And the tests re-tried, although my wife has her mobile phone so I had to choose another subject :D

Image
D200 - 18-70DX - 50mm, 1/1.3sec, f18, EV +1.3, ISO100, WB adjusted to 6500K in PP.

And

Image
D200 - 18-70DX - 46mm, 1/2sec, f18, EV +1.3, ISO100, WB adjusted to 6500K in PP.

I think it is better, but will be hard to say until I can get the phone back in there.

Brett

PostPosted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 3:50 pm
by sirhc55
Is that your ”other” hobby Brett :)

PostPosted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:17 pm
by bwhinnen
sirhc55 wrote:Is that your ”other” hobby Brett :)


Keeping my 21month old son annoyed by stealing all his toys? Yep! It is funny, he gets given all these toys from family and his favourite things are a screw driver (one of those ratchet ones with removable tips (yes the tips have been removed) and the swiffer :)