Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Having recently taken delivery of a light tent and lighting rig, I thought a quick write-up might be in order, as they are very useful bits of kit.
At it's basics, the light tent is just a cube of translucent material, in which you put the subject to be photographed, and through which you diffuse your lighting to provide nice even illumination.
They come in a huge range of sizes, from 12"x12"x12", through to 5'x5'x5', and beyond - sizes to suit everything from small jewelry to pieces of furniture for example.
So why would you need one?
Well, you could be like me, and have a bunch of 'stuff' that you want to photograph in nice controlled lighting, you could be an avid EBAY seller who wants to step up their game with some really eye catching shots of your produce, you could be cataloging your stuff for insurance purposes, or even shooting commercial products for catalogues or websites.
What ever the motivation, the light tent is relatively cheap, easy to use, and gets great results.
I went on EBAY and found a 30"x30"x30" tent, with various coloured backdrops, and three light stands with compact fluro daylight bulbs for about 90 quid.
The tent is probably bigger than I need currently - but I figured I might use it's size later for something. Larger tents need more light, so think carefully before buying that 5' monster cube!
Minimum lighting set-up would be two lamps, one either side, shining though the sides of the cube onto your subject. The lighting will be nicely diffused, giving even illumination with controllable reflections.
Two lights is probably fine for smaller cubes, but for larger sizes, adding a third top light will assist in getting even illumination.
I went for compact fluro lighting as it's cheap, daylight colour balanced already, runs cold (unlike say halogen which gets stinking hot), and put out a decent amount of lighting for a small wattage bulb.
This lighting is constant illumination, not flash, and this is probably best for this sort of photography as what you see is what you get - it's easy to set up - and you can play with long exposure times etc to get the aperture and hence depth of field you're looking for.
I used 2x 45w bulbs for the side lamps, and 1 65w lamp for the top light.
The tents come with internal backdrops in different colours, which fix in place with velcro. Easy to set up - just put a box or book under them to lift the object you're photographing up to a decent level, then smooth out the backdrop over it, and place your object.
When you're happy with it's position, fit the front panel in place, using the velcro, and you're ready to shoot.
You're going to be doing longish exposures, and messing about with composition and product placement in frame, so use a tripod. A table top version would work fine - doesn't have to be a super industrial model.
A cable release is also a good idea - keeps everything nice and steady as you take the shot. You could use the self timer if you don't have a cable release.
Using which ever lens gives you the ability to fill the frame nicely, poke it through the slit in the front panel, and set up the shot. I find that using the LCD in Live View really works well here, but you can just as easily do it all through the viewfinder.
Focus is critical, so pay attention to your subject and make sure you focus-in accurately - select a small aperture as you want a lot of the object in focus - so f22 or f32 if you have it. Manual focusing is probably more reliable at close quarters.
You can of course play around with smaller depth of field (DOF) for effect, and review as you take test shots.
Expose using a light meter if you have one, or using the camera's histogram - expose to the right, i.e. for the highlights in the image.
Even with a modest point and shoot, you're going to be able to get some very pleasing results, as the set-up is doing all the hard work, lighting wise, and you have the tripod to help with composition and keeping the image sharp during longer exposures.
Here's the Fauxlex watch from the opening shots, taken with my 100mm macro lens
You get even lighting, and nice reflections, with fewer distractions in those reflections. You can open the front panel to introduce a darker area to your reflections, this can help define the shape of an object, and is easy to play with because of the continuous lighting.
Reaching in to the tent, you can quickly reposition your subject for alternative angles
Reviewing the images on the camera LCD allows you to see things such as the glare on the watch face, and adjust the object and camera angle to neutralize.
You can quickly work through a range of shots in a short period of time, and get consistent results.
Swapping out for the white backdrop, you can see how you can make objects pop on a white background - great for web design work.
When you're done - the tents fold away for easy storage.
I used the following company to source mine in the US:
http://www.ls-photostudio.com/shop/index.php/studio-set/continuous-set/bowl-reflector/table-top-photo-studio-light-tent-kit-in-a-box-1-tent-2-light-set-1-stand-1-case-7.html
In the UK, I have found similar products here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=me%3DA3V5GZ69YQQCQ4&field-keywords=lighting&x=0&y=0
Looks to be the same kit - all of which comes from China I believe.
Lots of other companies to choose from - I have no preference for this company, other than the direct experience I've had with their US product.
Hope that all proved useful.
At it's basics, the light tent is just a cube of translucent material, in which you put the subject to be photographed, and through which you diffuse your lighting to provide nice even illumination.
They come in a huge range of sizes, from 12"x12"x12", through to 5'x5'x5', and beyond - sizes to suit everything from small jewelry to pieces of furniture for example.
So why would you need one?
Well, you could be like me, and have a bunch of 'stuff' that you want to photograph in nice controlled lighting, you could be an avid EBAY seller who wants to step up their game with some really eye catching shots of your produce, you could be cataloging your stuff for insurance purposes, or even shooting commercial products for catalogues or websites.
What ever the motivation, the light tent is relatively cheap, easy to use, and gets great results.
I went on EBAY and found a 30"x30"x30" tent, with various coloured backdrops, and three light stands with compact fluro daylight bulbs for about 90 quid.
The tent is probably bigger than I need currently - but I figured I might use it's size later for something. Larger tents need more light, so think carefully before buying that 5' monster cube!
Minimum lighting set-up would be two lamps, one either side, shining though the sides of the cube onto your subject. The lighting will be nicely diffused, giving even illumination with controllable reflections.
Two lights is probably fine for smaller cubes, but for larger sizes, adding a third top light will assist in getting even illumination.
I went for compact fluro lighting as it's cheap, daylight colour balanced already, runs cold (unlike say halogen which gets stinking hot), and put out a decent amount of lighting for a small wattage bulb.
This lighting is constant illumination, not flash, and this is probably best for this sort of photography as what you see is what you get - it's easy to set up - and you can play with long exposure times etc to get the aperture and hence depth of field you're looking for.
I used 2x 45w bulbs for the side lamps, and 1 65w lamp for the top light.
The tents come with internal backdrops in different colours, which fix in place with velcro. Easy to set up - just put a box or book under them to lift the object you're photographing up to a decent level, then smooth out the backdrop over it, and place your object.
When you're happy with it's position, fit the front panel in place, using the velcro, and you're ready to shoot.
You're going to be doing longish exposures, and messing about with composition and product placement in frame, so use a tripod. A table top version would work fine - doesn't have to be a super industrial model.
A cable release is also a good idea - keeps everything nice and steady as you take the shot. You could use the self timer if you don't have a cable release.
Using which ever lens gives you the ability to fill the frame nicely, poke it through the slit in the front panel, and set up the shot. I find that using the LCD in Live View really works well here, but you can just as easily do it all through the viewfinder.
Focus is critical, so pay attention to your subject and make sure you focus-in accurately - select a small aperture as you want a lot of the object in focus - so f22 or f32 if you have it. Manual focusing is probably more reliable at close quarters.
You can of course play around with smaller depth of field (DOF) for effect, and review as you take test shots.
Expose using a light meter if you have one, or using the camera's histogram - expose to the right, i.e. for the highlights in the image.
Even with a modest point and shoot, you're going to be able to get some very pleasing results, as the set-up is doing all the hard work, lighting wise, and you have the tripod to help with composition and keeping the image sharp during longer exposures.
Here's the Fauxlex watch from the opening shots, taken with my 100mm macro lens
You get even lighting, and nice reflections, with fewer distractions in those reflections. You can open the front panel to introduce a darker area to your reflections, this can help define the shape of an object, and is easy to play with because of the continuous lighting.
Reaching in to the tent, you can quickly reposition your subject for alternative angles
Reviewing the images on the camera LCD allows you to see things such as the glare on the watch face, and adjust the object and camera angle to neutralize.
You can quickly work through a range of shots in a short period of time, and get consistent results.
Swapping out for the white backdrop, you can see how you can make objects pop on a white background - great for web design work.
When you're done - the tents fold away for easy storage.
I used the following company to source mine in the US:
http://www.ls-photostudio.com/shop/index.php/studio-set/continuous-set/bowl-reflector/table-top-photo-studio-light-tent-kit-in-a-box-1-tent-2-light-set-1-stand-1-case-7.html
In the UK, I have found similar products here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=me%3DA3V5GZ69YQQCQ4&field-keywords=lighting&x=0&y=0
Looks to be the same kit - all of which comes from China I believe.
Lots of other companies to choose from - I have no preference for this company, other than the direct experience I've had with their US product.
Hope that all proved useful.
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