Homemade Light boxes

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MikeHowarth

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Hi guys

My other half has been playing around with taking some product shots recently and has been let down with the results she's been getting.

I've not done any studio photography before so this side of things is totally new to me.

My first thoughts were to look at cobbling together a basic light box, and investing in some suitable lighting along with daylight bulbs.

I had a quick Google and came across an interesting article which sort of confirmed what I was thinking:

http://www.studiolighting.net/homemade-light-box-for-product-photography/

I've got to admit I quite like the home made approach to keep the costs down as really we're currently just experimenting with photographing small pieces of handmade items.

Question is can anyone suggest a decent source of cheapish lighting for us to experiment, the article mentions Lowes however I know they are a US based company. Some of the lights used just look like basic brooder type lights you'd use for breeding chickens etc.

Also are there any specific bulbs we should be looking out for?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Not sure on the complete idea but I have seen Ikea as a supplier for cheap lights whenever this comes up.
 
I did wonder whether some cheap halogen spot lamps would work to kick off with.
 
Any powerful lighting will be fine (though hot) so long as you shoot in raw as you can then adjust the WB until its correct. I wouldn't waste money on 'daylight' bulbs tbh

A well used material for softening the lighting when creating your own homemade gear is the simple opaque shower curtain

DD
 
i built one made out of hardboard and it took 4 hours to make and about £6 (not including lamps) the next day i went to asda and bought two desk lamps for £2 each so it all came up to £10 but i still haven't used it yet as one of the lamps broke.
 
5 sheets of foamboard and a pack of tracing paper from Staples - £10 ish
2 x Cheap Lamps from Argos - £8
2 x 20w Fluoro Lamps to suit above from Asda - £6

Works a treat





 
I take it by the second set of lamps you're referring to bulbs?

So really what you're all saying is either desk lamps or work lamps should be fine providing I go down the halogen route.
 
great results, and all done on the bed...even better
 
MikeHowarth said:
I take it by the second set of lamps you're referring to bulbs?

So really what you're all saying is either desk lamps or work lamps should be fine providing I go down the halogen route.
Click to expand...

Yep - bulbs, sorry.

I went for the Flouro jobs becasue they don't get anywhere near as hot, and I'm not phtographing anything that may move, so i'm fine with 1/2 second exposures if needed. If I was knocking out 200 product shots and needed to get them done in half a day, I might think differently :)
 
Oh - didn't mention - but the Black thing on the top of the lightbox is a cheapo clip-frame which occasionally donates it's glass for the "reflective base" look. Also - i've normally a sheet of white paper at the back to provide an "infinity curve" and save any cloning out of corners etc, but someone had just sat on it before I rigged for that photo, and there were just way too many creases in the paper to use it :lol:
 
Thanks for that BigYin.

Your first post would have probably made more sense if the internet filtering software at work didn't filter out flickr images!
 
im reading this post with great interest, I bought AGES ago on ebay a lightbox which is all collapsible and everything but I never found any lamps to do the job.

do you really need daylight bulbs?

rob
 
the 20w Fluro jobs work fine - shoot raw and fix any colour cast in Post. Important thing is not to mix the light sources - i.e. to have 1 fluro and one halogen or something similar. The 500w jobs tend to work well because they are so bright they'll drown out any light spill from out front. Downside is that they get so hot you have problems running them for longer periods without turning your studio into a sauna! Upside is that you can use a nice fast shutter speed - handy if you're shooting watches with sweep second hands ;)
 
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