Creating a very simple studio lighting rig with virtually nothing

[Chris of Arabia]

It's my first post here, so perhaps you'll excuse me.

Here I am in the middle of Riyadh with very little access to a decent photographic store. I need to do some pictures of some greetings cards my wife is making for a small website - essentially a bit of low level commercial photography.

The things I have to hand are my Canon 350D, a tripod, a Speedlite 430EX and a selection of lenses from 10-200mm, including a 60mm macro lens. What I don't have is much else, except what I can grab from a local craft shop or stationers - think foamboard, card, tracing paper etc...

I'm particularly interested in how I might use what I have to create a simple lighting setup to do her cards a bit of justice. Can anyone suggest a setup that would help me get a reasonable result, without having to escape the country and raid Jessops next time I'm in the UK?

>;o))

[RMThompson]

Get a cardboard box. Cut large windows in each side of the box , and glue tissue paper on the inside. Then add any kind of lighting to the sides.

Cut on side of the box off, so it looks like this |_| but flipped over. Then you can use material or posterboard as a background. It's a cheap lightbox.

More here: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

[Chris of Arabia]

Thanks for that, useful link there - sure I can manage that without a problem. Do you have any particular suggestions about getting the exposures right with that type of setup?

>;o))