Since I do some product photography, I thought it would make sense to build my own light box and have my own studio in my house.
I started reading up sites like:-
- Studio Lighting - Super Simple Light Tent
- How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio
And thought, well simple enough. I proceeded to collect the materials I needed and improvised a bit:-
- A Box
- Mahjong Paper
- A Movie Poster (The House Bunny, in fact!)
- Lots of Cellophane tape
- Scissors & Blade
And what I got was this:-
Now you know why I failed art. I wouldn’t have minded this cheap alternative had it not been the fact that it was impossible to store anywhere. I was worried about tearing the mahjong paper. It was already so flimsy and I had cello taped everything and I couldn’t keep it in the cupboard with my other things not knowing where the box had been so it was a mess.
I then decided, enough was enough and I would just go ahead and purchase a proper light tent. I bought an 80cm one thinking bigger the better.
I opened it and to my horror, it was gigantic! Seriously, I could fit inside it comfortably if I sat cross legged.
Anyway, I tried to do some initial product shots but realised that it was too dark in my room and in the light box. So today, I went to IKEA to find cheap lights, thinking I should budget in RM60 (USD19) per lamp. I was thinking of a desk or stand lamp. Lamps that I could easily store away. The deal with all of this is that I need an easily stowed away, portable product photography studio.
I went there and found spotlights that you could clamp to surfaces for only RM16.90 (USD5) so I bought two of those. The cheap 25 watt bulbs I got are not energy saving. The cost of an energy saving bulb is twice the price of my spotlight. Eep. So my friend who had accompanied me justified it by saying that I should test out the lamps first just in case rather than to waste the money buying only to realise that the lamps don’t clip on or something.
The plan was to clamp these spotlights to my tripods. I thought of that idea. Quite ingenious, I must add. Not knowing if it would work when I had bought the lights, it was only a fleeting thought, I waited anxiously to go home to try out my plan and it worked!
The spotlights clamp securely onto the tripods so now, I have adjustable spotlights which are so much better than table or stand lamps anyday! Not only is the height adjustable, the spotlights also swivel! What a bargain!
The good thing is that the spotlights are made of plastic and are light so even if I were to put in energy saving bulbs in the future, the tripods should be able to handle the weight.
Next, I wanted to see if the lights made a difference or helped my product photography in any way. Somehow, it seems like my homemade light box beat the one I purchased for a hefty RM120 (USD34).
I’m not sure what to make of the light tent I bought. Is it ‘cos the material is too soft or see-through? Is it because I need more lights? I’m not sure. It would seem that 25 watts is not enough for such a big light tent so I may change it tomorrow for a 60cm.
Shots of my Creative Zen Vision:M with the purchased light tent:-
(The light tent comes with 3 other coloured backgrounds besides just white. The other colours are black, red and blue. Quite handy in my opinion but because it was folded up, you can see squares. I think they may need ironing).
The next two shots were shot without the use light tents and with the spotlights trained on the objects:-
The next few shots are of my light tent and the results it produced:-
Doesn’t it seem like my homemade light tent did better? I think ‘cos the background was opaque.
I wanted to show you the size difference of my purchased light tent and of my homemade box:-
Do you see the size difference? I was thinking I may have large items to take but seriously, that light tent I bought is massive and can’t even fit on any table in my house. Also, I would need stronger and more lights for such a big light tent. That’s my guess, anyway. Any thoughts?
