my home made Light Box...(nappy box)

salsa-king

salsa-king

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The light box I made for taking some Lego Figure pictures looks like this...
legolightbox001.jpg


I can raise or lower the top flat that has the light bars on it depending where I want the light directing.
Also I can disconnect either the front or back or both lights if I wanted, again depending on the light effect I want.

legolightbox003.jpg

legolightbox002.jpg

legolightbox004.jpg


the only cost I had was the 2x strip LED lightstrips (these are 5050SMD style, so you get a spread of light, not a pimple style you can get with LEDs) and the 240/12v transformer + my time soldering the wires together to make it work :)
 
you might need some side light to get some all round coverage. You could try adding white paper to the edges.
 
rgrebby said:
you might need some side light to get some all round coverage. You could try adding white paper to the edges.
Click to expand...

I might try that. I can also inter change the strip colours too. I've got green or red to try that. I wondered if putting a sheet of paper of the lights would defuse the light.
 
right I've altered the light box...

papered the sides in white.. the back Light bar I've covered with a bit of white paper to defuse the light at the back. I've moved the front light bar back slightly to cover the centre, then I've added another light bar to the front flap to create light to the front even more. So far I'm getting a better spread of light over the whole area.

legolightboxpt2001.jpg

legolightboxpt2002.jpg


you can see the defuse light bar at the back better here..
legolightboxpt2003.jpg

legolightboxpt2004.jpg


a good result..
legolightboxpt2005.jpg
 
How about showing us one of the resulting shots to see how well it has lit your subjects.
 
later... need to pop to argos and buy some more Lego figures :)
 
lol
now building lego up.... not done that for 30 odd years :lol:
 
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Hmm, a very interesting idea, I look forward to the results.
I purchased some led strips to back light my tv but they weren't bright enough so I put them in a cupboard and forgot about them.
It may be time to dig them out and borrow your idea! ;)
 
I'm using the 5050SMD light strips, they are the brightest you can get. I think they are the reason for the blue tinge over the white back ground, but saying that I don't dislike the look it gives, I may try to put a cloth cover to defuse the over all glow of light on the heads of the little men ;)
here's a pic...

lego men pt20006 by salsa-king, on Flickr

the rest of the set are in the CREATIVE Feedback section on TP.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=379547

enjoy ;)
 
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Hmmm..what's the CRI for those LEDs? We have led spots in the house that muddle colors to no end but I know you can get high CRI LEDs now.

I would make a strip light out of LEDs and not a light tent :)
 
CRI?
you've lost me.

All I know is they are the 5050SMD style bulbs used in the strips.. very bright. The're not like a normal LED.
 
CRI = Color Rendition Index, it measures the spectrum emitted by the light to give you an idea of how many % of the color spectrum visible to the human eye they emit. Objects can't reflect light that's not there so a low-CRI light source will basically strip your photo of parts of the color spectrum.

The human eye is extremely good at compensating for lower CRI in real time. However when you take a photo in such light and show it to someone in a normal environment, the problem sticks out like a sore thumb.

Googling for 5050SMD I find leds with CRI at 60-70% (so missing out on 30-40% of color spectrum) and high CRI models which I guess are 85+%. The highest output ones are typically of lower CRI as it's a balancing act between efficiency and spectrum management.

As an example of very low CRI, Sodium and mercury street lamps have a CRI of <30% which is why they look almost like monochrome pictures with very little traces of washed out colors.

This is an example of the spectrums from Nichia which makes nice LEDs..

CRI-Grouping.jpg


And before someone says "color temperature", well that's different :)
 
thanks.. I'm now even more confused lol


anyway..
done a couple of test shots in RAW, then had a fiddle with WB, sharpening and a bit of saturation/colour etc. Not 100% sure what i need to alter but these look better than the original. Colour of th egg i so much better and teh 'blue' tinged backing paper looks 'whiter' too.

what do you think?

lego men RAW edit0001 by salsa-king, on Flickr
 
I don't mind Dave, but it doesn't look any different to mine does it? lol
 
vaizki said:
CRI = Color Rendition Index, it measures the spectrum emitted by the light to give you an idea of how many % of the color spectrum visible to the human eye they emit. Objects can't reflect light that's not there so a low-CRI light source will basically strip your photo of parts of the color spectrum.

The human eye is extremely good at compensating for lower CRI in real time. However when you take a photo in such light and show it to someone in a normal environment, the problem sticks out like a sore thumb.

Googling for 5050SMD I find leds with CRI at 60-70% (so missing out on 30-40% of color spectrum) and high CRI models which I guess are 85+%. The highest output ones are typically of lower CRI as it's a balancing act between efficiency and spectrum management.

As an example of very low CRI, Sodium and mercury street lamps have a CRI of <30% which is why they look almost like monochrome pictures with very little traces of washed out colors.

This is an example of the spectrums from Nichia which makes nice LEDs..

And before someone says "color temperature", well that's different :)
Click to expand...

At least I didnt go mad on the technical side :lol::lol::lol: :suspect::eek:
 
salsa-king said:
I don't mind Dave, but it doesn't look any different to mine does it? lol
Click to expand...

I would say Dave's is closer to the actual true colour, as the paper is "white" in Dave's tweaked shot.
I'd use the WB picker and just use the paper backdrop as the source in your images. At least you will have consistency.
 
Well doh.. photography is the recording of light.. the quality of light mens everything, you can't record something that isn't there :p

I didn't want to go mad on the tech, just make people aware of the pitfalls of LEDs (and other non-incandescent light sources)... I'll still go for flash or incandescent for a light tent :shrug:
 
vaizki said:
Well doh.. photography is the recording of light.. the quality of light mens everything, you can't record something that isn't there :p

I didn't want to go mad on the tech, just make people aware of the pitfalls of LEDs (and other non-incandescent light sources)... I'll still go for flash or incandescent for a light tent :shrug:
Click to expand...

:lol: I was only kidding :hug2:
 
Can I ask where you get these LED strips from?

They do come in all sorts of colour temperatures, I'm in the middle of making a bathroom light and high power bike light from various LED's, but the CRI factor was new to me so thanks vaizki.

I prefer Daves version with the white background, the previous one looked too pink. Not that I can talk, I'm brilliant at achieving unwanted colour casts!
 
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The strips.... I had a company that sold them, the company closed last year. I bought ll the stock that was left off the company. :) so I have a few GREEN, WHITE and RED LED strips left :)


had another go lastnight with RAW, they seem a bit better :) the white isn't so blue or PINK lookinh :lol:


lego men RAW2 edit0001 by salsa-king, on Flickr

lego men RAW2 edit0002 by salsa-king, on Flickr
 
I love the concept looks really fun and exciting. I bet it was a laugh to do.
 
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