lightbox!!!

[Midget]

i tried making a ghetto lightbox today.

i used pvc, mainly because we have lots of it laying around..

first, you make yourself a frame. my frame is trapezoidal-shaped, which i wish i could say i did for a reason. truth is, it's of unequal sides because i'm not one to write down or remember measurements.

then you attach some lights. my lighting system is ultra ghetto. i'm using 100 watt incandescent bulbs, and eventually, when i can find some, i'll use lamps with the hood-thingies so it'll direct the light more. as it is right now, the box is bright, but not *that* bright. i have it wired on a variable resistor though, so i can dim it and stuff.

anyhow. throw a white sheet on top. cut holes to make it fit nicely around the frame. i used some safety pins to hold the edges closed. i had to actually buy the sheet, which was the most expensive part of the project (12.99). use a nice, clean, posterboard of your color choice as a background.

this one is a picture of my knife with lightbox.

a pic without lightbox.

both pictures are taken under similar circumstances. shot at f/22 w/ aperture priority, so the camera judged what shutter speed would be consistant. used a tripod. photoshopped, both pictures -51 on brightness and +22 on contrast.

it's not *that* much of an improvement in picture quality, but it's a start. this took me a few hours to build, plus a quick trip to the store. i'd like to buy a white posterboard (they were out at the time) as well as some nicer lightbulbs.

the incandescent bulbs give it a stinky yellowish tinge and i don't really know what to do about that.



any ideas? tips, comments, pointers would go a long way for me.
---
"aim careful, and look the devil in the eye."

 

[Midget]

a few more of a very special axe

---
"aim careful, and look the devil in the eye."

 

[Andrew Taylor]

the incandescent bulbs give it a stinky yellowish tinge and i don't really know what to do about that.

Go to a camera shop and buy 'photoflood' bulbs. They are over-run (think 90 volt bulb run at 110 volts) and give a brilliant white light. They have a limited life of about 150 hours of use. They completely remove the yellow colour cast. Alternatively halogen lights are whiter. Philips do one with a normal ES cap.

 

[A.W.U.K.]

You can get daylight balanced fluorescent tubes. Run much cooler too. Only trouble is I don't know what the smallest size is. Might be much too big.

The pro answer is to use flashguns of course.

Andy

 

[Cougar Allen]

Adjust white balance on your camera. Try the tungsten setting first. Many cameras allow for a custom setting to adapt to any reasonable light Florescents can be a problem because some frequencies aren't present at all, and you can't compensate for that, but incandescent should not be a problem.

 

[Gollnick]

Most digital cameras have white point settings optimized for either "indoor," "outdoor," or "flash." The outdoor setting is for sunlight and it will work absolutely perfectly if you is direct sunlight as your light source. But, it's hard to work with direct sunlight in a studio. The flash setting will work perfectly with electronic flash. But I find flash difficult to work with. The indoor setting is for tungsten lightbulbs. That sounds exotic, but it is not. You can get these bulbs at Home Depot. What you're looking for is an ordinary lightbulb with clear glass, no coating and no frosting, just a clear bulb. The light will look somewhat yellow. But that is what your camera is expecting when you set it for "indoor."

Just remember to change the whitepoint setting when you use the camera with flash or outdoors for other things.

 

[Cougar Allen]

Tungsten light bulbs are the ordinary incandescent light bulbs that we're all familiar with. The tungsten setting in a digital camera should work fine with them, even if you're also getting some light coming in through the windows.

 

[Midget]

thanks for the tips everyone.

i'm trying to do this on the cheap.

are you saying, i can use halogen bulbs as an alternative to purchasing daylight balanced/photoflood bulbs? i might just go that route.


as far as the white balancing, the axe pictures above are taken with the incandescent bulb balanced setting. i think they came out ok, but i'd still like some better lighting.

 

[Gollnick]

Tungsten light bulbs are the ordinary incandescent light bulbs that we're all familiar with.

Not quite. Most incandenscent bulbs have a coating (which is what makes the bulb white and opaque). That coating plays with the color of the light.

GE, for example, makes "soft white" bulbs which have a coating that deliberately shifts the color toward red. This is proven "easier" on the eyes, but it also makes things appear less "focused," more "soft." (Basically, the red light has longer wavelengths which require bigger lenses to focus well and the lens of the eye is only so big.) We perceive this a less "harsh" light. This light is also "warmer;" actual studies have shown that people feel warmer in a room with the light shifted slightly toward red.

GE makes their "soft pink" bulbs which have a coating that deliberately shifts the color even more toward red to create an even warmer feeling.

GE also makes their "Reveal" line of bulbs with a coating that deliberately shifts the light toward blue. We preceive things viewed under bluer light as sharper and more focused (the human eye is better able to focus bluer light). But, that sharp focus makes objects look "harsher" which actually tends to cause visual fatique, even headaches. Studies have shown that people feel thermally cooler in bluer light.

GE also makes their "Basic" line of bulbs which have a coating that deliberately shifts the light just slightly toward green. The human eye is most sensitive to green, so we preceive green light as brighter. Some people perceive this as economic value in a light bulb.

While I have picked on GE here because they have such a broad product line, the fact is that all vendors are similarly tampering with the color of the light from their bulbs.

The point here is that "ordinary incandescent light bulbs" are not all the same and don't all have the same white point.

However, those clear bulbs, including the GE "Crystal Clear" line, which have no coating and allow the spectrum of the tungsten element to come through unfiltered, are all the same and are all perfect for use with your camera's tungsten setting.

 

[Gollnick]

are you saying, i can use halogen bulbs as an alternative to purchasing daylight balanced/photoflood bulbs?

No. Halogen bulbs produce very blue light. But each manufacturer plays with the chemistry to achieve some goal. Some shift toward green hoping to make their lights appear brighter. Some go for blue trying to claim "true colors." (By the way, the human eye perceives slightly blue as more white which is why many laundry detergents literally contain blue dye in order to make your white cloths more blue so you'll think they are "brighter" and "whitter.")

The best things are either photo flood lights specifically made to mimic daylight and then use the daylight setting on your camera, or those tungsten bulbs with the clear glass and then use the tungsten setting (which is what I do.)

 

[JohnG]

This is excellent info. Midget, I've got NO photog credits at all, but I think the axe pics look pretty good

 

[Midget]

thanks for the kind words, johnG.



i changed out the lightbulbs to halogens, which didn't seem to make too much a difference. i mean it helped, only a little though.

i've been playing with the white balance setting, as well as color cast removal in photoshop.

this is the best i can do, with a white background. you can still see a hint of color cast that remains in the shadow of the sng (it's a bit pinkish).

 

[Midget]

this one turned out better with some better photoshopping.

 

[Peter Atwood]

Go to Home Depot. In the lightbulb section are the mini spiral florescents. Commercial Electric is the brand and they have these great daylight bulbs (6500k) which give you really nice light. Pick up a couple of those and a couple of simple clip on lamps and you will be in business. That tip from SharpbyCoop, a professional knife photographer for those who are not familiar with him.

 

[the_mac]

Get yourself a sheet of pure white paper, and place it in your lightbox.

Next, focus your camera on it, and have it use it as a reference for custom white balance adjustment. That way your camera will use the colour of light coming off the white sheet as a reference for true white. Most advanced amateur cameras should have this setting.

Something else to consider, is to use the timer on your camera when shooting. This will remove the motion that your hand gives to the camera when you press the shutter release, and will sharpen up the image.

Try that, and let us know how it works out.

 

[Midget]

awesome.


thanks for the advice, guys.

i will definately give all this a try.

thanks!!!

 

[Midget]

a shot with the white balance set to the background. i think it turned out better. no photoshopping with this one.

thanks for the help everyone! eventually, i'll spring for the real deal photo flourescent tube bulbs. but i went to the camera shop the other day, and the whole setup is mighty pricey. :-/

 

[the_mac]

a shot with the white balance set to the background. i think it turned out better. no photoshopping with this one.

thanks for the help everyone! eventually, i'll spring for the real deal photo flourescent tube bulbs. but i went to the camera shop the other day, and the whole setup is mighty pricey. :-/

Not bad at all. The colours are really coming along.

Next step is to get rid of the soft focus on the parts of the knife closest and farthest from the lens (the middle of the knife is nice and sharp, the ends are a little fuzzed).

Try using a higher F-stop setting (aperture) and a longer exposure, or shoot with the camera further back and with a longer lens (or more zoom).

That should help to give you more depth of field that is in focus, and that way more of the picture will be sharp. If you were going for the macro look, with the fuzz, then ignore my comments.

 

[Midget]

haha, thanks for the tip the_mac.

i'm pretty familiar with the fstop and toying the exposure time and all-- i was just taking the shot as a test, more for the white background than the subject material. i'll work on this a little more, and hopefully i'll have some nicer pictures to bring to the forums.

thanks!