Still Life Light Box

Seba

Seba

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Seba
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Hello Lighting and Studio,

I've been asked about lightboxes for still life photography of ceramics for a school. Unfortunately, I work outdoors in sport and really have no idea about this sort of stuff, but said I would try and investigate for them. Below is the email I got from my family friend.

Seb, We want to buy a light box for school to have set up in the ceramics room so that it is easy to photograph the work. I wondered if you had any suggestions. I am looking on the internet but am confused by types, one with lights, without etc.
I dont think we want a nylon one as the room is subject to quite a of of dust and therefore cleaning. We do need one that is very simple/foolproof , so with lights included. We would like to photograph work up to 1ft tall or wide.

Any suggestions?

If anyone could help it would be brillinnt and would help em earn valuable family brownie points!

Thanks in advance.

Seba
 
Light tents are available in all sorts of sizes. They are pretty cheap because they are made of nylon material. There are a couple listed on the Lencarta website.

After a little thought about the problem of dust on the nylon material. I can't see any reason for not keeping it covered at all times with a sheet of clear polythene or similar material.

This could easily be removed and dusted off or replaced at regular intervals. Add one or two Yongnuo flash guns and it would then be a fairly cheap setup.
 
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Get the kids to build a box frame out of 1" overflow pipe, elbows and tee fittings then

Wrap with this. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DRAFTING-...Crafts_DrawingSupplies_EH&hash=item1e67da6db0

Get three of these. http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/sal100-swing-arm-lamp

Three of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120424054688?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Get some 15mm copper pipe, some 15mm pipe clips. Screw three pipe clips at a time vertically to a wall or whatever, press a 15cm length of pipe into them and the light stem will fit into the top of it a treat. This means you can have the lights anywhere you like and they won't get knocked over.

Make tracing paper diffusers for the lamps and cut holes in them to get a small glint effect when aimed at the glazed ware.

The kids will bloody love doing this:thumbs:
 
I'd love to see what this ^^ would look like.
 





That's the light holder, I use these in my design studio with plain old tungsten bulbs for modeling in clay and mold making, they keep the bench clear of stands. I nicked em out of there when I started taking pics of my stuff, much better than a tripod for a table top set up.

Also useful is the other light on a pole, in one of those cheap brolly holder things.Wrap a roll of tracing or bit of A4 plain paper around the bulb an you have a small light wand, good for moving around the piece catching areas of gloss reflection. That bulb is from a company called Udemon and has a CRI of 95 and is just under 6000 kelvin

Mind you, the kids would probably knacker them in seconds.:)
 
Thanks for the replies chaps.

I'm not 100% sure what our family friend is looking for, whether she is willing to build anything, or whether she would prefer an 'all included' kind of kit. The kind of thing a complete amateur/novice could just simply turn on and snap away with.

If anyone knows of any simple kits (I know there are loads on the net but first hand experience with them is always helpful) they would recommend that would be brilliant.

Thanks again.
 
Wow that one's really changed the light - the camera's changed into a lens :)
 
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