Thread: A question for the pro's about a light box.

Originally Posted by Substance

Photo Cube Light Tent Lighting KIT Softbox Soft BOX Stand 4 Backdrop Background | eBay

I bought one like this $20 good as gold lights and everything included
I can use my phone (with an extra holder i stole off the brides selfie stick thing) or a camera with it

I'll give a second opinion on this one since I purchased the very same product. Don't buy it.
I had to wrap electrical tape around at least 4 exposed wires in the cords of the two lights.
The soft background panels are dust magnets and crinkle very easily (delicately ironing between set ups).
I recently cut a couple of the white panels from the light box for filtering light. I'm not saying this won't work for someone, it just didn't work for me. Next up is homemade box.

Great. Just great. Along with all the other AD's, now I'm getting PAD. Photo AD. Now I have to build a light box. Great.

rhensley, anyone who has touched a digital can attest to their complexity. Honest folks talk about how much they don't understand. There's no way to cram half of photoshop onto a 3" screen & keep it clear. If there's one thing they did right - is to keep the menu structure fairly consistet, varying only w/ added features as new models come out.

I've not handled a D60, though I'd bet they're quite decent.
The White Balance setting is in the 'Shooting Menu' with the tiny icon of a camera on the left of the menu screen. Its usually the first/top choice. To enter the menu, right click the multi-position selecter button, then scroll up/down until you see white balance. Right click to enter white balance options.
You'll see incandescent, fluorescent, direct sunlight, flash, cloudy, shade. Often there can be multiple choices for fluorescent or incandescent. If there are multiples - test shoot each to see what looks best to you. Fancier, newer models have user defined profiles for one's particular shooting preferences - which saves all the white balance, image size/quality, color balance, etc. If you get a look that seems best to you - jot down the settings so you don't have to trial & error it all again.

Knowing/using all the gajillion settings on a digital is for very sick people (that would be me). Even pros admit to learning what they need & never learning the rest. Why bother? Half of it is cutsie tricks to market with.

One more w/ the film nobody uses... From the first camera on the moon.

Originally Posted by WW243

I'll give a second opinion on this one since I purchased the very same product. Don't buy it.
I had to wrap electrical tape around at least 4 exposed wires in the cords of the two lights.
The soft background panels are dust magnets and crinkle very easily (delicately ironing between set ups).
I recently cut a couple of the white panels from the light box for filtering light. I'm not saying this won't work for someone, it just didn't work for me. Next up is homemade box.

+1 the light were junk. I kept the box as it worked for me, but it was too small to shoot certain types of angles.
IMHO 24" cube is the minimum that will work.

Originally Posted by pinklather

rhensley, anyone who has touched a digital can attest to their complexity. Honest folks talk about how much they don't understand. There's no way to cram half of photoshop onto a 3" screen & keep it clear. If there's one thing they did right - is to keep the menu structure fairly consistet, varying only w/ added features as new models come out.

I've not handled a D60, though I'd bet they're quite decent.
The White Balance setting is in the 'Shooting Menu' with the tiny icon of a camera on the left of the menu screen. Its usually the first/top choice. To enter the menu, right click the multi-position selecter button, then scroll up/down until you see white balance. Right click to enter white balance options.
You'll see incandescent, fluorescent, direct sunlight, flash, cloudy, shade. Often there can be multiple choices for fluorescent or incandescent. If there are multiples - test shoot each to see what looks best to you. Fancier, newer models have user defined profiles for one's particular shooting preferences - which saves all the white balance, image size/quality, color balance, etc. If you get a look that seems best to you - jot down the settings so you don't have to trial & error it all again.

Knowing/using all the gajillion settings on a digital is for very sick people (that would be me). Even pros admit to learning what they need & never learning the rest. Why bother? Half of it is cutsie tricks to market with.

One more w/ the film nobody uses... From the first camera on the moon.

The white balance is the easiest to set with a 18% Gray card on custom , most higher end cameras have that option.

Originally Posted by mainaman

The white balance is the easiest to set with a 18% Gray card on custom , most higher end cameras have that option.

Right as rain. A 3 card set is around $9.00. Get them and turn pro!

Originally Posted by mainaman

Here some vids on how to make light boxes.



I made my light box similar to the one in the second video

Finally got a chance to take a pic of my set up. I went with 40x24" to allow to take pics at different angles without having to rotate the object I am shooting.
My backdrop is vinyl lines fabric I found at Walmart.

A moving box from Home Depot, Lowes, U-haul, etc. a couple sheets of white heavy paper from the craft store, a remnant of white drapery lining for the diffusers, a couple desk lamp fixtures about $10 a piece, tape, glue, scissors, etc. I don't worry about the white balance. I correct it in photo shop with then image is cropped, downsized, etc. The only thing important is to shoot in as high an F stop as you can...depth of field is king!