DIY Studio

flicker

flicker

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Name
Dean
Edit My Images
Yes
Try not to laugh!

I blew every penny I had on getting my first decent camera and decided to try making a small makeshift studio for photographing little objects.

Materials Used:
2 desk lamps
a box
220gsm paper
some of that translucent foam type packaging stuff.
yellow pages

(I had to tape 2 pieces of a4 paper together for now until I get some bigger paper)

This is the set up:
13200018.jpg

21031622.jpg


I tried it out with my stapler.
Here it is in the box with both lights on (I set my camera white balance to 'incandecent light' setting since the bulbs give that horrible yellow light:
lightsf.jpg


I left if in the box and turned both lights off so that just the natural sunlight was coming through my side box-windows. I set the camera to 'auto white balance' and got a better picture:
naturald.jpg


Can anyone help me improve this set up so that I can have control over my lighting? Any tips?
 
I set the camera to 'auto white balance' and got a better picture:
Click to expand...
Really? I would say the 2nd picture is softer than the first, but yes light wise i think is better. I dont really have any advise though as im still newish, but maybe less wieght paper to allow more light threw? The background is quite grey?

Still good for a home made jobby though! :)

Andy
 
I still think your white balance is off in the first image. Can you take it in RAW and use lightroom/photoshop to manually set the whiet balance?
 
I would get rid of the box and the side walls and have the lights directly on them. If you want to make the light softer put some white paper over the lamp.

Also did you have the flash on your camera?
 
good work mate, i love making things on the cheap, so much fun playing around trying to get it all right lol.

anyways im not really sure what advice to give you but the 1 thing i would do is set the custom WB in your camera that should give you a natural looking light.
 
Thanks for the tips. Here is another test with white balance still at 'incandescent' with and without the flash:

72410007.jpg


I will have a read of that thread now. :)
 
I have stamped on the box as it was starting to get a bit annoying.

This is my new experimental setup which works quite well. There are 2 desk lamps at each side - one has a piece of paper over it to get rid of one of the shadows.
setup2.jpg


This is the result of a quick handheld shot. I adjusted the levels in PS as it came out a bit yellowish. I would like to know a) how to get rid of, or minimize the remaining shadow, and b) get rid of the faded grey edges.

result2.jpg


Any help is much appreciated.

EDIT: Please don't mention the tripod - it was £2 at a car boot sale and will do for the moment...I just can't trust it to hold the camera on it's own so I keep my feet on the legs and use the self-timer.
 
This looks like fun. I might have a go at this.
Do you think this thread will make 250 pages like the link?

There is a definite improvement from your first attempts.:thumbs:
Would it not look better to get rid of the shadows altogether by using the second light?
 
That's what I was trying to do, but I can only seem to get 2 shadows or 1. How do I get rid of them both?
 
The other designs are using material on the sides of the box to diffuse the light which appears to give a better spread of light.
Could you enclose your new setup with a couple of thin pillowcases or sheets and maybe a piece of white card stuck to the underside of the shelf above to give you a better spread?
 
I have tried using an old white t-shirt in front of the left lamp and positioning the right lamp in the floor front-right. The shadows are more subtle but now you can see both of them.

morei.jpg


Any advice is appreciated.
 
CAn you move the light source further away or diffuse it more? What about so it is level with th emodel. I am babbling.
 
I think I have made some real progress since my first stapler shot. I have my new setup on the desk with a couple of lamps. (Still working on the shadow problems.)

I realised that if I set up my shot, remove the subject, set the white balance using the background and then set my exposure so that the graph is to the right it comes out pretty close to what I am seeing.

stapler.jpg


Any more advice appreciated.

EDIT: The hard shadow underneath is because I have one of the lights almost directly above the subject, the other is to the right pointing at the background behind the subject.
 
And here is an updated version of my little guitar man:

manb.jpg


Could the dark patches be caused by the type of card I am using? Or is it just because I am not diffusing the light enough?
 
I think the shadows are all to do with the light.

Looking at some other methods of doing this, they seem to have the lamps positioned at each side and pointing up into the mini studio through some sort of diffusion material.
I am assuming this diffuses and bounces the light off the 'roof', giving a much more even and soft distribution of light.
 
lawrie29 said:
CAn you move the light source further away or diffuse it more? What about so it is level with th emodel. I am babbling.
Click to expand...

Moving the light source away will make the light harder. The bigger the light source the softer the light is but if you move it away you're effectively making the light smaller in comparison to the subject.
 
They sell a set of two mixing bowls made of a very nice diffusing plastic in Homebase for £5. The lids are the most useful part especially if you hold both lids in front of a lamp or flash. I tried the small lid (160mm diam.) stuck to the front of a flashgun with blu-tak and just held the other lid (230mm diam.) about a foot in front. I was using a wireless trigger so no problem holding the lid. I put one of the bowls over another flashgun to provide some diffused fill...... works great for photos of cameras etc.

The label on the bowls just reads:

HOMEBASE
SET OF 2
WHITE LIDDED
BOWLS

I always set my white balance by shooting a grey card and loading a few tests into an editor on the PC and seeing what setting gives the same values for RGB. Flash usually works best at 4600K Custom setting. 5500K is usually a little to warm, probably due to reflections of warm toned items in the room.

shimbo
 
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