Light box photos

B

Brad Lilly

Moderator and Awards Boss
I have been trying to cobble a light box together and I'm giving it a test run.
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I think my red background looks the best followed by the black. When I tried the green and blue it just did not look right. I will take any photography tips anyone would like to share, I'm not very good with a camera
 
It's about lighting more than anything.
White balance your camera using all the lights on you normally would.
lighting should be 2/3s from the back, 1/3 from the front.
Check your focus. If you can manually focus, try that.
more light gives you a smaller aperture which gives you more depth of field.
you will need to get more over the top of the knife. You are shooting at too low of an angle.

what kind of camera are you using?
what is your light setup?
 
I’m using a Fuji fine pix S. I have turned the aperture down to try and sharpen the image. Auto focus is the only option for this camera. Etched blades are easier to shoot compared to shiny blades. I have a hard time getting over the top of the knife without having a reflection of the camera in the blade. I was playing around a little more and came up with this picture.
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I turned the shutter speed down and edited the brightness and contrast a little in photobucket.

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This is my set up, a box made from puck board. I wired two outlets on the box that are controlled by dimmer switches so I can play with the brightness. I'm thinking the sides should be cloth and filter the light through that.

If I don't get this out of the kitchen the light box may end up my coffin
 
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This is what I use with no problems. Cost me less than $10 to make. Got $1 show curtain from dollar store, made frame from 3/4" PVC pipe. Notice main light behind and over knife. Reflector in front giving a 2:1 ratio. Reflection on shiny blade is larger than knife shower curtain.
Hope this helps.
 
TacticallySharp, is that just a white shower curtain? What is the smaller reflector in the front? What do you mean about the reflection on shiny blade is larger than the shower curtain?
Thanks.
 
Just a dollar store shower curtain. I mean that the curtain defuses the light, and causes the light area to be larger than the subject area. Kinda like the the way the clouds cover the sun and create a soft light effect.

The front reflector in this case is a piece of foam core poster board.

I use all kinds of reflector materials depending on the results I am looking for. Lighting source is one or two 200 watt second flash units. Depending on The size of the knife I am shooting. I am nearly always trying to shoot with the smallest lens aperture so I get a larger in focus area front to back of photo.

Sample finished photo:

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Normally works pretty well for me.
 
After fabricating a couple of light boxes on the cheap, I finally broke down and bought a 2' x 2' light tent and have been very happy with the results. A light tent is basically a cube made of diffuser material. I've experimented with daylight bulbs inside and natural light (both direct and indirect) outside. You can find these for $40-$50 if you shop around.
 
white garbage bags make decent "diffusers", but I think I'm gonne get one of those "light cubes" like shawn hatcher mentioned.

I'm sure you can find them on Ebay for relatively cheap.
 
You can pick up a small "cube" from Sear's Amazon-like shop for about 35.00. BTW, tissue paper and wax paper/parchment paper make AWESOME diffusers.

Here is one of the better videos on proper lighting specifically for metallic flat objects.

[video=youtube;Qb-6-rqyarE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb-6-rqyarE[/video]
 
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I also have a 24" pop up light box I use for smaller items that I got from Cowboy Studios. http://www.cowboystudio.com/product_p/topopentent.htm

They have a lot of lighting gear and some good videos on how to use the stuff they sellq. They are quick to deliver, their products are good, and a live person will clear up any issues you may have. They also had an eBay store the last time I checked.

Later today I will set it up, and post what it looks like tonight.
 
Great info here, thank you, I've been struggling with trying to get good photos of my work. I'll try some of the ideas in here to build a lightbox.
 
That was a great illustrative video.
I cut the center out of a piece of foam core (picture a 2" frame) to hold my tracing paper diffuser.
Clamp lights rule :)
 
Shawn I just bought one to money well spent I found a 2ft x2ft with 2 lights on tripods and a 10 inch camera tipod with a level and swivel and tilt good deal 50 bucks shipped. My pictures are getting better . slowly but everyone here is really good that what makes this site so awesome. kellyw
 
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