Photography light tent

Ewan · Photography light tent

Courtesy of Mad McGobbo.com

Used with kind permission.

Taken from tutorial section -

After recent success with my homemade light tent or light box as I call it, I was asked by a few people how I did it. So for all of you that need a better way to photo your minis on the cheap too, this is for you!

What you will need:
3x plasticard A4 sheets
1x Medium Cardboard box(height 12 inches, side width 10 inches and frontage of 13 inches)
1x Small miniatures box(eg Mage Gothic Ruins box)
2x Luminous Desk Lamps(available in the UK from Argos under item number 4308148)
1x 3 megapixel camera and tripod
1x Roll of kitchen towel
1x sheet of plain A4 paper

Stage 1: Getting started:

Firstly get your cardboard box and make sure its fully assembled(i.e so its a full box), then cut away the areas marked in red and grey on the diagram below.

The lips are important for holding the plasticard later.

Stage 2: Adding the card

Now its time to add the plasticard, make sure that the reflective sides are facing into the box(as some plasticard has a dull and shiny side), now we add the two sides first(left and right) and make sure they fit snugly against the back of the box. Then add the 3rd plasticard sheet to the back sideways so the sheet is shorter from top to bottom, now you'll want to try to make it arc towards the back of the box(so the sides are held in place by the back piece) with the ends curving out to the front by approx 1 inch. The diagram below shows where to place the plasticard:

Step 3: Platform
We will now need to make a platform to stand our minis on so the camera doesn't suffer from tilt. To do this you need a small box around 2-3 inches high and wrap it in the plain A4 sheet of paper. Place the box as close to the rear as possible, like so.

Step 4: Positioning the camera
Now position the camera 5-6 inches away from the middle of the small box this may mean that the tripod camera is inside the box:

Step 5: Position the lighting
For this you'll need to position the lamps either side of the box with the lamps over the box(see diagram below), position the lamp further away from the box at an angle that makes it show light into the box from the top and front.

Finally add some plain kitchen towel around the lights to diffuse the light and you are all set to go!
The last thing you'll need to do is adjust your camera to settings which will benefit your images, I suggest you play around with the cameras settings to get the perfect settings for yourself.

Finished result -

Thanks to MadMcGobbo for the permission to use this tutorial, check out his site, there's lots more to see there.

Chairface

Its a fantastic tutiorial. I'm going to try and rig one up.

Darkson

Hey! I could make one of those!

If only I had aany models painted worth a damn to bother taking photos of.

hangus

Great idea.

I used (for the last Pearlies Trailer) two desk lamps, one bouncing off a black cardboard background and one used to counteract shadows on the shiny FF board, but i think the box idea is far better.

Guest

This is great...but I have one question, what do you use the toaster for?

fen

Halfway through you stop and have hot toasted scones, don't cha know?

mad mcgobbo

And the Irons for getting rid of any creases in any case of bad photography :D

IronAge_Man

I just thought I'd mention that Maplins (UK electronics chain) have a similar light tent for sale (I bought one for brownrob, who will try it out tomorrow, and one for myself - Maplins have a no quibble 14-day moneyback guarantee for those that aren't sure).

Maplin Portable Soft Light Studio for £9.99

They've managed to set it up wrong in the photo - the three translucent white walls should go on the sides and top, with a two-sided removable velcro-attached cloth drape covering the back and floor. It's quite hefty and solid, and folds into a tidy canvas-finish carry-case from which there are straps for hanging a folded tripod. Dimensions are 40cm on each side. There are similarly-priced 50cm eBay ones, but they look quite flimsy in comparison.

Young (brown)Rob got excited when I suggested replacing the blue/gray double-sided drape with an Impact! felt pitch

Urb

This is what I use. Easy to make and not that expensive other than the light sources.

And this is the differnce it makes in photo's. Without a light box on the left.

Well worth the time to put one together I think.

IronAge_Man

Chairface

Urb, that is awesome. I am going to do my best to duplicate it. Thanks!

IronAge_Man

Thanks to Chairface reminding me about this thread, I thought I'd mention another related idea I had. Urb's setup fairly much prevents light escaping out the front of the tent because of the tapered side walls. The Maplins rig I mentioned does not, but there is a way to remedy this:

1) Take one sheet of photo card (white matt or satin/pearl should do) - A4/Letter size should do, as anything bigger will be flop under it's own weight, anything smaller may not have adequate coverage.
2) Place the lens of your camera on the middle of the card.
3) Draw a pencil line around it.
4) Cut out a (probably circular) hole using the pencil mark
5) When taking a shot, poke the lens of the camera through the hole - fix it in place with some Scotch tape if necessary.

This extra reflector should effectively reflect light onto the front of the subject miniature, where it is most needed. You could even aim your lamps directly at the card to 'bounce' the light onto the miniature - care must be take to prevent the light causing lens flare this way, though.

If you are using the onboard flash (shouldn't be necessary this way, but YMMV), cut out an extra hole in the card for it. You could even attach some sort of diffuser to the card in front of this hole to scatter the light - anything from translucent plastic milk cartons to tracing paper domes to deli bags may do.

A further modification of this idea is to cut out a wedge from each corner as shown here:

After that, fold along the lines of the central rectangle and bend in the four panels until they meet at the edges, and tape them in place. You should have a shallow, flat-topped pyramid with a hole in the top for the lens. In effect, it's a lamp shade for you camera, which should concentrate reflected light towards the subject better than a flat sheet would.
Just measure the same distance from each corner of the sheet when tracing out the wedges to ensure the corners of the pyramid marry up nicely.