First attempt at a light box

[illmonkey]

I remember seeing a guide a few months back, thinking i'd love to try it on my new camera. Finally got around to going and buying the stuff. 1 stolen box from work, 4 sheets of card (70p each, 4 incase I muck up!) and 1x1.4m of fabric (£2.50).

Got to work, cutting 3 sides off the box, leaving 3cm as a border. Covered the top with a cut of the material and then laid the card into the box and taped it down.

Firstly the setup. I hung my bulb on a lead from the beams in my garage. Closed the door and turned the light off. Tripod about 6inches from the box.



1.

Played with the colour settings, orange wasnt doing it for me

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Number 4 is over 6 seconds, I love the effect it put on the second hand. A few specs of dust on the sheet, need PS'ing out really. Reflection of the tripod in the glass too. But my first shoot!

Anyway, thought I'd share.

Edited by illmonkey on Monday 10th August 20:28

[jon-]

Dave Hobby would be proud

[RobDickinson]

Whatever WB you set on 6 you should keep.

[Torquemada]

Thanks for posting - I've been meaning to try something like this for a while. Are the sides of the box open, or covered with card? What type of card and material did you use?
I'm wondering if an old white sheet wold do the job. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[illmonkey]

Torquemada said:

Thanks for posting - I've been meaning to try something like this for a while. Are the sides of the box open, or covered with card? What type of card and material did you use?
I'm wondering if an old white sheet wold do the job. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Sides of the box are open currently. Originally I drapped the material loosely over the top and sides to test. Once I was happy with the shots/setup I cut a square for the top and stapled it down. Side are open currently as I need to buy more lights, once I have them, I will put material over the side then put the lights behind the sides.

The car is just a standard box. Just corrugated card about 5mm thick. Once I cut the top and 3 sides off, it was very weak, so I cut some of the excess card up into strips and taped them along the "frame", its made it much stronger. The material is just sourced from a furniture shop. You cant see through it, but easily see light through it. I originally thought it would be too thick, but its perfect. So try to get something thicker than you think. It needs to take the sharpness away from the light. Luckily the shop I went to had alot of lights, so I held it up against it and couldn't see the shape of the bulb or the filament. Try a old bed sheet, you'll then know if you need thicker/thinner.

I'm happy to do more pics etc if you want, or a more detailed guide.

[Torquemada]

illmonkey - thanks for the inspiration, here's my first effort. Used tracing paper in lieu of material, and off-camera flash at various angles.

[illmonkey]

Torquemada said:

illmonkey - thanks for the inspiration, here's my first effort. Used tracing paper in lieu of material, and off-camera flash at various angles.

Looks like you've made a good start.

My idea of the light box is to remove shadows, hence why I want light coming from so many angles!

I'd also upload the image to imageshack.us or similar, the PH upload compresses the image alot, so the quality just wont show on topics.

How big is your lightbox? Mine is about 15x15 inches, and I'd struggle to fit anything as big as that camera in it due to the cards angle..