# Testing my new light tent.



## fmw

I got a new light tent with more working room inside so I can use reflectors and gobos. It seems to work pretty well. This test shot used a gobo to define the line at the top of the blade. I'll get it perfected in no time and be making pretty good images with it, I think.


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## Jeff Canes

IMO this one seem pretty good


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## fmw

Jeff Canes said:


> IMO this one seem pretty good


 
Thanks.  Yes it is almost there.  Knife blades on a white background are a little challenging.  There is too much light right at the tip of the blade.  I could have fixed that in PS but it's better to fix it at exposure.  I just have to experiment with positioning the strobes and subject.  Or maybe another gobo.  It's close.


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## Big Mike

Can you post a shot of what your set up looks like?  I'm curious as to where you have your lights and gobo etc.


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## LaFoto

Light tent ... oh yes, please let me see what your set-up looks like, I don't know what a light tent is *at all* ... but I can see how very, very evenly the light's been spread, and that is interesting!
More so since today I have set up my first little desk "studio" and worked with a "model"... so _light tent_ is really something that I find interesting.


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## fmw

La Foto, a light tent is a translucent white thing that you light from the exterior to produce the ultimate in soft, diffuse light on the subject which is inside the tent. Here's a shapshot of my new one.






Mike, I have two flash heads lighting the tent - one on each side and high. The third unit you see in the photo wasn't turned on for the image you saw. My gobos are a collection of little black plastic and fabric things of various sizes and shapes. I just handheld one edge on above the top edge of the blade and moved and wiggled it until I could see a faint reflection of it on the top of the blade. it was pretty close to the blade and I had to remove it in the post process. If it had been a film shot I would have had to spend quite a bit of time with gobos and clamps.  I was just happy that I could add some light modifiers to the setup which I couldn't do with the old one.

My old light tent was just as deep but much shorter and narrower. It was a cocoon style. I think this new one will work out very well.

I did reshoot the knife. I needed to move it back about 5 inches into the interior of the tent. I'm going to build some doors for the tent that I can attach to the sides and swing them in and out to prevent extra light leaking in from the front. That's what caused the overexposed knife blade tip.


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## fmw

The light tent, by the way, is not expensive.  I bought it from B&H for about $45.  It is portable and includes a carrying case and couple of clamps so you can hang a paper or fabric sweep inside of it.  Very nifty.  I think my old cocoon cost me about $150.  I like this one better.


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## Big Mike

Cool, thanks.


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## John_05

very nice shot Fmw.  

i like the light tent you have too.  i have a couple,  but they are the pop up variety.  ive tried to take a couple shots of the knives i have in my collection,  but so far i havent gotten any decent results. i get too much glare and i cant seem to get a decent shot of the spine or the edge of the knives.

would i see a difference if i used strobes instead of continuous lights?  i have 2 small lights that came with it that are continuous and rated at 5500k.  im not sure of the wattage of the bulbs,  but they seem to work well enough in the 12" tent.  i also have 2 5500k 250 watt lights i can use for the 36" tent i have.  

would i see a difference if i used the door on the tent and used the flash on my Rebel XT with the lights i have?


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## fmw

It is hard for me to envision the problem you are having without seeing what you mean.  The image above was made exactly with the setup above.  2 750ws flash heads dialed down to 1/4 power, f18 and a shutter speeed of 1/250.  Pretty straightforward.  After running the test, I left everything as it was, posted the shot and then went about my invoicing and shipping for the day.  Later, when I was asked for a shot of the setup, I just grabbed another camera and shot the light tent without any changes at all.  In fact, the same knife was still in the light tent.

The door I'm talking about will just shade the front of the light tent from extraneous light leaking in the front.  My old one encircled the product 360 degrees and had some holes in it for lenses.  This one is open at the front which is what motivated my desire for a light shield for the front.

I doubt flash or continuous lighting is an issue.  I use flash because it is fast, predictable, daylight white balanced, more powerful, cheaper to operate and free of heat buildup.  Photographically, however, the shot should look the same with continuous light.  The exposure and the white balance would be different but that shouldn't be an issue.

Don't get me wrong, photographing knife blades or anything light or shiny against a white background can be tricky.  You need to fool around with light placement, subject placement, exposure etc.


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## John_05

i wound up deleting the shots i took because i wasnt happy with them,  so i cant post an example.  if i remember right,  i used a shutter speed of 1/400 and an aperture of f8.  i didnt use the door that came with my tents, so could extra light coming in from the front be what was causing the excess glare? the lighting in the room i shot in isnt very bright (20 watt fluorescent) and was almost directly overhead so i didnt think it would cause a problem.  

ill try a few more shots later and see what happens and post an example.  thanks for the tips.


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## fmw

Ambient light shouldn't be a problem at that kind of exposure.  My commercial studio was actually lit by bright flourescent.  It never got in the way of my studio photography at all.  The flash heads would reduce the ambient light to insignificance.  I never even turned them off during a shoot.  That was in the film days where color temperature was a make or break issue.

By glare we normally mean unwanted or excessive light reflected from the subject back to the lens.  The light tent should eliminate about all of that as long as the lights aren't directly on the subject but are on the tent itself.   The subject should not "see" the lighting at all except through the tent.  If you still get glare you might be able control it with less exposure.  If you can cover the front of the tent with something that has a hole in it for the lens, that might resolve the problem.  On Saturday I'm going to go looking for a couple of pieces of black and white acrylic that I can use to make the doors for the front of the tent.  My plan is simply to have them close off the front of the tent but be able to swing so I can crack the doors open to make room for the lens or open them fully to get things in and out.  I'm also going to cut a slit on the top panel of the tent and glue velcro to the edges so I can close the slit or open it for a lens.

Maybe it's time for me to design something really cool and get into the light tent business.


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## fmw

There we go, all adjusted. I can knock these out in about 3 minutes each including the photoshop time.


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## theusher

Very nice work! I've been looking into making my own light tent, but for $45 that one seems pretty nice for the price. Plus a cardboard box is not very functional for storing it when not in use.

Would you be able to change the background to black?


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## fmw

theusher said:


> Very nice work! I've been looking into making my own light tent, but for $45 that one seems pretty nice for the price. Plus a cardboard box is not very functional for storing it when not in use.
> 
> Would you be able to change the background to black?


 
Of course. For something like the knife, I would just lay a piece of black foam core over the white one and shoot away. Or, I could hang a black paper or fabric sweep from the back top of the unit. It even includes a couple of clamps to help you secure a sweep to it.

Over the weekend I put together some temporary doors for the unit. I couldn't find any acrylic so I just used foam core and made hinges from duct tape. It was dirt cheap and works pretty well and might hold up for a while.

The unit comes apart pretty easily.  I keep a light tent up and running every day so it's permanent at my place.  The downside to this unit is the translucent plastic fabric which seems a little delicate for commercial photographic use.  At least the unit is cheap enough that, if I can't get replacement fabric, I can replace the whole unit without wincing for a week.  I've put both my cocoons in storage.  I may never use them again.


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## simonydes

i want to get one of those tents, it looks good, i think i might go to home depod and make one you think it will come out cheaper than actually buying one?


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## fmw

simonydes said:


> i want to get one of those tents, it looks good, i think i might go to home depod and make one you think it will come out cheaper than actually buying one?


 
I don't know.  the one you see above was $45 at B&H plus shipping.  Not very expensive.


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## simonydes

oh so thats not bad then, ima go on their website and check them out, hmm maybe ill get the kit with some lights.  and i dont have to pay the shipping i could just pick it up


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## THORHAMMER

very nice AND clean !!! 

only thing I was going to add is watch the black shiny heads, they look dull but once when I was trying to shoot a cheese grader, (yeah) they were reflecting a lot... how weird it that? I had to velcro black fabric over mine... 

These are very nice and well shot...


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## fmw

Yes and sometimes it's easy to get yourself into the images.  I've done that before.  It's usually just a matter of angle.


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## zioneffect564

nice lightbox im going to have to try that out since its so cheap


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## RVsForFun

I saw instructions on making your own light box on a website and made one of my own for $15. It folds flat when not in use and is quite sturdy. If I can put enough photos out there, I'll publish photos taken with the tent. It's very useful, and many people use $9 Home Depot work lights to illuminate the box. Neato!






The box is four 20x30 foam boards taped together with holes cut on three sides.






The rear panel is 20" square, not taped in, and is held in place with 3/16" dowels.






Here's the light box with a single light on the side; craft paper covers the holes.






One light, to left, craft paper backdrop.






One light to left, no fill.


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## RVsForFun

One light, to the left, no fill.

You can put more lights (top and other side) for shadowless lighting. Or turn over the box putting the hole on the bottom, for bottom lighting such as crystal and glass.


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## shorty6049

its pretty good. i'd like to see what shadowless lighting would look like. This seems a little too dim for me. Still very nice though, I'd like to make one of these. I built one a while back out of a translucent plastic waste bin, but the problem lies in trying to get shots without the sides or back in them because you point the camera in one end and put the object somewhere between there and the other end... that was a little confusing


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## John_05

i finally got a picture of one of my knives thats acceptable to me.  im sure i can do better with a little more practice,  but for now,  im happy with the results ive gotten so far.


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## Aquarium Dreams

Wow, John, that really pops!  It looks like it's suspended in midair.  Very nice.


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## John_05

Aquarium Dreams said:


> Wow, John, that really pops! It looks like it's suspended in midair. Very nice.


 

thanks. i showed the picture to another person and they asked what type of set-up i used, so i took a quick shot of that too.






i wound up "stealing" that table at, of all places, a thrift store here for $17 the lights and stands were a gift, as was the clamp i used to hold my makeshift horizontal tripod. i made that with a tripod i had that rarely got used.  i just popped the legs off and used electrical tape around the center part so it fit snugly in the clamp and doesnt slide if i use it at a different angle. the only thing thats not in the picture is the reflector i used against the back of the table to eliminate some shadows i was getting towards the top edge of the knife.

as you can see, i was shooting some ornaments when i took that shot. rather than hijack FMW's thread, ill post those later in a different thread.


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## fmw

Looks good, John.  I'm still trying to figure out the angle.  I looks like you shot the knife from directly overhead but behind the subject.  Or you shot the subject upside down and changed it in photoshop.  You definitely got the shadowless look.


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## John_05

fmw said:


> Looks good, John. I'm still trying to figure out the angle. I looks like you shot the knife from directly overhead but behind the subject. Or you shot the subject upside down and changed it in photoshop. You definitely got the shadowless look.


 
thanks FMW.  i did shoot it overhead, but it was centered in the frame like you see it here.  i didnt crop or rotate that shot at all.

the only thing i did was prop the knife up slightly by placing a .177 BB inside the second hole in the handle of the knife.  if you look closely,  it looks darker than the other 2 round holes in the handle.


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## DigitalDiva

When I worked at Apple, I used a light tent in studio with top, left and right soft boxes. It produced nice photos. The quality of light in your photo posted is nice. 

I've found the tent especially useful in photographing white and black objects or especially shiny objects.


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## eravedesigns

DigitalDiva said:


> When I worked at Apple, I used a light tent in studio with top, left and right soft boxes. It produced nice photos. The quality of light in your photo posted is nice.
> 
> I've found the tent especially useful in photographing white and black objects or especially shiny objects.



off topic but what did you do at apple?


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