Equipment Project: Lightbox - New side diffusers 23.8.2009

Hey all!

It's been a bit quiet lately for me and the forums, but let's try and remedy that shall we?

I remember that I promised to show you guys what I was working on and I finally got the time to get something done.

When I first started photography as a hobby I quickly noticed that I was really getting into it and spending quite a bit of money on it too (I tend to do that ).

So after a while I thought that a light tent would be nice for photographing still life and for product shots. Did the Internet search and found out that you could get a small light tent for cheap, but if you wanted something more, mainly a solution for bigger items, then you'd have to pay a lot more.

I found a bunch of DIY guides online, but none of them did it for me, making a lightbox out of a cardboard box didn't sound like a professional way to go So I started thinking about it and realized that I had all the needed parts to do my own lightbox. So, I decided to combine my passion for photography with my passion for modding and making things.

The thought behind this was to make the lightbox large enough so that I could photograph bigger objects and also make it "modular" so that I can expand it if necessary. When I was designing it in my head it also seemed like a good idea to make the base of it into a box so I could store some of my studio gear in it when it's not in use. This is because I don't have a studio and my apartment is damn small

I also thought that it should be constructed so that it could be lit from every direction, so this is what I came up with. It's still under construction, for example the bottom plate hasn't been done yet and there are a bunch of small tweaks that I'll have to do before I can say it's ready.

Let's see some pics. These were taken in a hurry, so don't judge me by them.



There are the parts for this project and as I said earlier, there are a few things missing atm.



These stands will keep the lightbox off the ground.





Here are the sides, there's a piece of acrylic sandwiched between those aluminum profiles to keep the dust out.



Here's the lower part assembled, this will have a bottom plate and some wheels soon so I can roll it under my bed when it's not in use.





A few closeup of the corners there...



Here's the lower part with the "lid" on it. This is where the object is placed when shooting.

I plan on swapping the acrylic with a glass "lid" so it'll be more sturdy (also heavier, which is a bad thing...).





Here's the stand for the backdrop, it's quite adjustable, so it'll be easy to tweak the backdrop.





The side plates are in place here, made from the same opaque acrylic than the rest of the casing and diffuser plates.



Top plate slides in place.

And finally...



A view from the inside.


Things to do still:

- A back plate behind the backdrop, so no light can come trough there.
- A bottom plate for the lower part, so it'll become a box.
- Wheels for the lower part, so that I can roll it under my bed.
- Shorten the upper aluminum profiles so that they'll fit in the "box".
- A glass "lid" for the lower compartment.
- Mountable lights for the aluminum profiles (I know they exist).
- A bit of edge sanding and small tweaks here and there.

Other than that, it's more or less done and even now, it's usable.

I'd really like your comments and critique here and also, if you have a way to make it better, please tell me

Sample photos will have to wait until tomorrow, too tired now...

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Janne,

This is very well thought out. I saw those verticals over on eBay but can't remember the name 10/20 or some such.

Could you tell us the aprox dimensions you are looking for? I do thousands of shots for my wife's eBay store and could use one of these.

john

 

Sorry about that, I was going to put the measurements in the first post, but forgot.

Well, here goes:

Width: 57cm

Depth (the whole thing): 102cm

Depth (side diffusers aka. the usable depth): 87cm

Height (the whole thing): 65cm

Height (without the bottom compartment aka. the usable height): 49cm

That's the setup now, haven't weighed it yet, but it's easily movable by myself, though it's a big box to carry around when assembled

The beauty here is that you can replace the short profiles with longer ones and you'll get a box that is 102cm x 102cm, though you'll have to make a new top diffuser then (with supports, since it's bending a bit at this size already.

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Ingenious!
Cant wait to see 'product shots' Janne.

 

Wow, Janne...way to build a hurricane proof light box I've been meaning to build one of these for a long while, even have the materials set aside somewhere. Right now I'm actually in the middle of 'constructing' a DIY beauty dish which is almost done, perhaps I should have documented the build...

 

And where are the sample pics? *taps foot repeatedly*

Looks great!

 

wow.. amazing job!

 

Thanks for the comments guys, I'll try to get some sample images online tonight...

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Sample images...

Okay

Got a few sample images for you, well actually just one, but a couple of different versions of it



This was a relatively fast job, so I might go back and shoot this bottle again or at least do some retouching later (really not satisfied with the small shadow under the bottle). This also took a bit of work in PP, but that should be all better once I get a bit better lighting system to work with.



Here's that same bottle inverted, which looked quite funky to me

I'll leave you with these for now, more to come once I get a few things sorted out. All in all, I think this box helps a lot with controlling the highlights and lighting in general and I'm really happy the way it turned out even though it isn't quite ready yet.

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Excellent. I showed this thread to Marilyn and she says this is what 'I need' for her eBay pics. Glassware is nasty to do justice to as are Precious Moments figurines.

Some glass stuff:


john

 

Janne, can light pass through that acrylic? Also, the base/floor is a bit too glossy which is probably why you're getting that reflection beneath the bottle. What are you using as far as lighting?

Matt

 

Hey guys.

@jhanlon

It really does help if you do that kind of photography a lot. Your welcome to use my box at least as a starting point to your own application. Remember that this thing is still in it's "beta" -stage and has a few niggles and things I need to sort out before I can call it ready.

@Vers

Light can indeed pass trough the acrylic pieces which was the original point of the box. The problem is that it's quite thick so I'm estimating about 3-4 stop light loss atm. I'll have to experiment with thinner acrylic which I do have at the shop.

I also thought about shooting my flash from the back and down the seamless backdrop to blow out the background.

The reflection is not an issue here, I was using a white piece of carton as the backdrop and the bottle was on it, so the ugly reflection is just because I did a fast clean-up in Photoshop and didn't concentrate enough on that part

For now my lighting system is 2 x "worklights" which both have two fluorecent lights in them. I'm using Philips lights which are meant for graphical work, so basically "daylight" lamps. I'll try and take a photo of my lighting setup tonight if I have enough time.

Keep them comments coming and if you have thoughts about how to make this thing better, please share them also.

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Sweet box there man. That bottle looks like its floating to me...

Cant wait to see more shots with this thing!

 

I might actually suggest using clear acryilc and sanding one side with some medium grit. It will give you probably better diffusion than the white and less light loss. Another option is using clear acyrlic with theatrical light gels that are diffusion Rosco 100s are diffusion. Any theatrical supply shop should have it.

 

I'd suggest not using acrylic at all actually, unless you using >1/8" semi-translucent material. The reason I asked was because white opaque acrylic isn't the best material to use for light diffusion while keeping a decent amount of actual luminance (3 stops lost is a bit much). I do realize light will pass through the opaque acrylic you used but its not very efficient. Something along the lines of white tissue paper is more effective so locating a material that has decent tinsel strength with the same effective pass through luminance quality would be ideal...Possibly even a white semi-translucent fabric similar to what is used for umbrellas and softboxes that can be stretched like canvas and sandwiched between two frames, at least that's my plan. Don't get me wrong the box you built looks and seems impressive and is definitely well constructed and if it gets the job done that's even better.

 

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Hey guys.

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their input.

I'm thinking about first experimenting with really thin opaque acrylic, it's either 3mm or less and I have it at the shop.

If that doesn't work, I'll start to search similar material that is used in shoot-trough umbrellas and make a frame for it. As I said, this is still in "beta" stage so all suggestions are welcome and I'll try to implement them as best as I can to make this into a usable product.

Vers is right on the money here, the side diffusers are stopping way too much light at the moment. Well maybe they would work with more powerful lights/flashes, but with this lighting system, they aren't working all that well.

I'll get back to you once I get a few things sorted out.

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May I ask how much you've spent on it thus far?
I'm a bit curious as to why you didn't buy a light tent instead as these come rather cheap and in pretty much any size? And they let a lot more light through while still diffusing.

You may consider just pulling some proper fabric out over the frame of your build or as you say put it on some frames that you can slide into those aluminium frames.

It looks good though

 

Hmm, the cost so far...

Stands: 20€ (versatile as in useful for something else besides photography also).
Backdrop cartons: about 2€
Wolfcraft "clips": about 10€ (and again versatile equipment).

That's about it, besides a few hours of work I've put in

So, if I didn't have this stuff lying around, I definitely would have gone with a light tent or some other solution.

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