The woes of working with a homemade lightbox

As promised (okay, 4 months later - sorry!), I am here to report that finding lamps to fit those darned bulbs, which wouldn't cost the earth, was a painful process!

In the end, I settled on 3 of these beauties!

and one of these:

Ordered from The Lightworks (from one of the only suppliers I could find that confirmed the lamps were suitable for ES bulbs)at the lowest price I could find for £10.97each for the black and £19.97 for the white.

Note: The taller white lamp was ordered for behind the photobox to hover over the top for downlighting.

I gave up on finding the clip-on desk lamps because none seemed to have a big enough shade diameter or none would/could confirm.

Got 3 in total and ended up with this setup (insert picture here).

As for the pictures that resulted from the light box, they left much to be desired!!! No amount of hue/saturation editing in photoshop could get these babies light enough.

 

So, back to the drawing board. I figured there wasn't enough light.  So, I ended up ordering two more lamps to increase the brightness. Results as follows:

As you can see, they are an improvement, but when I photograph lighter coloured and white objects I still have some serious issues. You can see that the white and light pink suffer the most.

I'm not sure if I am drowning too much light now? 
Would a coloured background paper be better to bring out the object more? 
Where else can I put lamps to backlight the object?  I have such a small photobox, I fear needing to make a larger one!

All the blue, green and yellow items look pretty good for beginner's standards.  I am just not happy with the pink and white.  Looks like I'll be posting updates on this matter in the future!

For the time being, they will suffice.

Resolution Number One - Sort out my folksy home page!

After taking most of last year to develop my new range of work, I was finally able to photograph the work in late November in my makeshift light box.
All in all, I have managed to document 80% of my range, with a few hiccups preventing completion of the remaining wares. I still have to load all my mirrors online and photographing them has become a real issue (more on that later....).
I know I need to improve the light quality on some of the photos, but for now, I am happy with a cohesive brand. Finally!!!
Let the sales begin!!! Please!!!
http://www.folksy.com/shops/jmlpottery

Light up my life

Last time I tried to take photos of my work, it took me 4 hours to photograph 10 items.

The sun moved too much that the position I setup in was useless midway into the "shoot" due to shadows from hanging branches.

Those little damned green flies kept sitting on my background paper and wouldn't go away when I blew at them (whilst kneeling on one knee with one hand on camera reaching awkwardly over to rid the scene of them!).

The background paper I had taped into position to some lawn chairs had seperated from the wind howling and bending and tearing the paper.

I nearly lost all feeling in my legs while kneeling on the concrete bending over and peering into the camera.

I had enough! Time to get myself a professional photography studio and leave all that drama behind....

you know how much that would cost? Forget it. I needed to figure out a much cheaper alternative....a light box. Not just any light bow, but a homemade one!

After scouring the internet, I found several amazing sites with instructions on how to build a variation of light boxes with plumbing tubes, boxes, lamp shades and ikea products....to name a few.

I settled on the Ikea option with instructions from PlanetJune, as seen here:

http://www.planetjune.com/blog/light-tent-for-better-product-photography/

I thought I'd send along my step by step progress of assembling my photo box to show you how I achieved it!!

1. Get the Antonius Hamper Frame from Ikea http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10103804. Only £5 - what a bargain.

2. Get some type of white fabric. I chose a cotton sheet from Ikea because I was there and it was cheap. You could get white fabric just about anywhere, but in the UK, no Joanne's Fabric or Michaels to hop to in craft emergencies - so Ikea it had to be...

3. Cut 3 large rectangular pieces from the fabric, using the frame as a guide, cutting 1.5 inches or so bigger than the actual frame size. Do the same for the two ends, cutting smaller more square pieces. Start pinning them together on the frame to get a good snug fit.

4. After pinning, start sewing your pieces together. Put it on the frame to check the fit and adjust where necessary.

5. Start figuring out the lighting!

This is something I haven't had much luck finding! Many thanks to all the Etsians and countless blogs that I have reviewed for some more insight into the appropriate bulbs to use for this light box.

Being in the UK reading US blogs means I cannot take advantage of the great product suggestions available at all those great US hardware shops. In London, B&Q and Homebase without the Lowe's, Home Depots and Walmarts, don't seem to even have a small portion of the selection of bulbs I would have available to me!

I have resorted to online ordering which isn't so bad for ordering the bulbs. However, finding the appropriate light fixtures has proven to be much more difficult!!! Can I ask all of you out there, where did those clunky old clamp-on desk lights go? That is a blog entry for another day...

However, for the bulbs, I can gladly report my decision based on the advice of loads of Etsians:

I am ordering the trumpet low energy compact fluorescent daylight photo bulbs.
They are a bit wider than the usual bulbs, but it seems loads of people have had a lot of luck with them. They have a kelvin temp of around 6000, close to daylight as possible.

The width of them makes finding a lamp more difficult, but I am determined. More on that next time.

I'll post photos of some test shoots as soon as I sort out the lighting!