# New light table test shoot...



## Don Kondra

Greetings,

Finished adding adjustable paper holders to my light table and this is the first test shot... 

I was having a heck of time getting the label "clear" until I realized the writing on the back was showing through, sigh.... 







The light stands set up....






The light table itself...






And literally a snap shot of a shrimp platter by Lee Brady, no light stand adjustments, just placed where the Windex bottle was.






Cheers, Don


----------



## Bifurcator

Pretty cool!

Neat workshop too! :thumbup:


----------



## LaFoto

Oh my, to be owning all those lights! What a DREAM!
Well, I will have to keep playing with what I have...


----------



## Don Kondra

Ahhh, but it's never enough 

I've been spending some time drooling over on the Alzo site, sigh...

Strobe/flash, wireless remote, Soft Boxes !!!!!!   Air cushion light stands, Yikes, Stop it, he, he...

Thanks for the comments,

Cheers, Don


----------



## youbetcha1018

Nice shot of that liquid detergent. Whooaa the lights??!!! They're expensive. I heard that they can give a photographer a clear and best shot with those lights and umbrella.:thumbup:


----------



## Don Kondra

youbetcha1018 said:


> Nice shot of that liquid detergent. Whooaa the lights??!!! They're expensive. I heard that they can give a photographer a clear and best shot with those lights and umbrella.:thumbup:


 
Well..... expensive is relative 

The closest set of lights are Casio's with 4 bulbs each (CF 27w) and include a nylon diffuser, ~$180 delivered.

The farthest set are Cameron's bought locally, ~$150.  The CF 65w bulbs were $35 each and the umbrellas are from B & H ~ $15 each.  

Under the table is a clip on reflector with a CF 42w ~$25.

The 30" x 30" x 1/4" plate glass was ~$50 and I built the table myself 

Adds up to barely the cost of one High Grade lens :mrgreen:

Cheers, Don


----------



## Alleh Lindquist

May I suggest using a couple Nikon SB-28's and some eBay triggers. You could pick them all up on ebay for about $220 and it would dramatically increase the quality of your light.


----------



## Don Kondra

Alleh Lindquist said:


> May I suggest using a couple Nikon SB-28's and some eBay triggers. You could pick them all up on ebay for about $220 and it would dramatically increase the quality of your light.


 
Thanks for the suggest.

But, at this time, I have no interest at all in flashes, especially Nikons :lmao:

What I've done is ordered larger bulbs and built two softboxes (24" x 24") for the Casio heads.

Four 45w bulbs will increase the output to the equivalent of 600w/ head. If I find that's still not enough I'll order the 85w bulbs, that will increase the output to 1200w/ head minus the loss from the rip stop nylon diffusers I will install. 

And I have yet to try 500w photoflood bulbs in the Cameron reflectors.

All of these bulbs are rated at 5500k.

http://alzodigital.com/online_store/replacement_lamps.htm

I've also done some experiments with the light table And a light tent. After designing a quickly assembled series of panels I decided it was quicker to just buy a 4' x 4' light tent. Alzo (link above) also sells them.

My hope is I will then have numerous options to light a variety of objects..

Stay tuned 

Cheers, Don


----------



## Alleh Lindquist

Umm I don't know much about hot lights as they are worthless but I am pretty sure it is absolutely impossible for any hot light to come even close to a 1200ws flash. I have worked a little with pro level hot lights in a major studio but they only get used as lamps.

I actually doubt all 4 of your lights can match the output of an SB-28 on half power. Maybe someone can verify this for me?

With 2 defused SB-800's I have shoot product at F18 and ISO100


Ok I decided to look something up. First I forgot I have used hot light. I used 2 4 bank Keno Flows for a shoot once and they are not bright at all even at full power 2 feet from the subject. I had to shoot at 2.8 1/100 ISO200. Remember that 1000w is not the same as 1000ws (watt second)


----------



## Don Kondra

I'm actually not sure of the math in comparing continuous light wattage to flash watts/second ? 

Just so we are clear, the lights I'm using are Compact Fluorescent, not sure if you can call them "hot lights" in the sense they are 5500k and they don't get hot 

After the lights had been on for half an hour I measured the temperature at 145 degrees F.

Cheers, Don


----------



## Alleh Lindquist

Nice furniture. Beautiful craftsmanship.  

Just saying the SB-28's will be much brighter and provide better images right off the bat. I decided the launch a product photography site a few days ago and just grabbed stuff from around the house and used 2 SB-800's.


----------



## Don Kondra

Thanks Alleh,

For now I'm going to explore the use of larger bulbs and softboxes, light table and light tent.

Going back now and looking at the Windex bottle I like the bright colors and the lack of shadows.  The "shine" is just enough to accent the shape and was more defined when shot later in a light tent. 

I wish you luck in your new venture.  Not sure if this would be helpful for you or not but initially my target clients are the local craftspeople.  The majority of full time makers belong to the Saskatchewan Craft Council and my first marketing attempt is an ad in their monthly news letter.  

As with any new venture, the marketing is the most important aspect.  Having said that though, in my furniture making the best advertising is my last project.  Perhaps it's a prairie thing but word of mouth beats any type of printed advertising I've tried. 

Cheers, Don


----------



## Don Kondra

The bulbs from Alzo have arrived, this is where we're at now...

Two four head light stands with 45w/5500k lights, softbox and rip stop nylon diffusers.

One back light 26w/5500k light with thin cotton diffuser and softbox.

"Focus gray" backdrop...






I'm quite pleased with the lighting but I need to figure out why the writing on the filter turns fuzzy after resizing and cropping ?

It's crystal clear in the raw and sharpening just makes it worse, sigh..

Cheers, Don


----------

