I made a light box.

I've been meaning to make one for a while now and a few days ago I decided to actually do it.

Frame

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Front before I cut the camera hole in it
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I used white baking paper and I think it works pretty well.

Finished box with lights
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I experimented with using the skinny red lamps from the front for a couple of the photos and I'm not sure if I think they were an improvement.

Without red lamps
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With red lamps
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The rest of the pictures, taken with different white balance settings
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I think the pictures turned out pretty good(at least by my standards) but with some tinkering I think they can get even better.

Cool! That was interesting...IMO, the bottom two pics are the best, maybe a bit brighter lighting...but very nice! Thanks for this :D

Nice!

It's pretty easy, and does a lot to the pics :)

I got some Halogen lamps with clamps from Clas Ohlson for mine, gets even better with the same lightning all around.

If you can set manual white balance on hour camera I'd look into that.

The first 6 pictures have the white balance set automatically, the "Orange" picture has the white balance set to the highest setting and the last two have the white balance set to 2500 I think.
I'm not very experienced when it comes to photography so this is all very new to me, luckily, my father is very into cameras and photography(I used his cameras to take the pictures) so I get a lot of tips on what settings and optics to use from him.

The lamps are just what I had lying around, I'll look into halogen lamps.

Cools, i was thinking about looking up light-box ideas/design on the way home today.

Boom,

there it is!

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Camera/camera apps: you might play with the "f-stop" settings too. Lower numbers, longer "exposure", better detail but camera must be steady.

And now that most bulbs are rated in Kelvin temps for colors, you can play with that as well. 2700k is the "warm" light end and 6500 is "daylight" bluer color. 5000k strikes a good balance, and is becoming more available. I often "mix" the 2700 and 6500 for work area illumination.

You might try the "y" sockets such that you can double up on bulbs (low-wattage stuff like CFL and LED) and work on colors/intensity. I do this with clamp-on utility lights (reflector removed).

I forgot to mention, these things made the whole project a lot easier, I just wish I had found out that I had three more of them before I was almost done.

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I figger sticking paper to the sides of an unused aquarium would be a quick easy. Or (careful folks he's had zero coffee) I just conceived of this: cutting windows into a box, then papering up the box-internally or externally, add lights.

oh, lookie that USPS box is white even..

okay i'll grind some beans

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Originally Posted by WadePatton

I figger sticking paper to the sides of an unused aquarium would be a quick easy. Or (careful folks he's had zero coffee) I just conceived of this: cutting windows into a box, then papering up the box-internally or externally, add lights.

oh, lookie that USPS box is white even..

okay i'll grind some beans

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One can easily solve great problems before the morning ingestion of a legal drug brings them back to reality.

gotta seize the lucid moments!

Took some more pictures, this time I had the side lights moved to the front, a longer shutter time and a few other settings tweaked.

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Showing off my bread tie razor stand:
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I see you've done some tinkering since your first post! The most recent pics look great. I like the stand, too!

I have bought nice goose necked Halogen lamps at Thrift Stores for 5-10 dollars, can do double duty for honing and bench light.

If you allow your camera to only use a lower shutter speed, you can really do a great job with the post processing software.
I like the free download; PhotoScape:
Main Page PhotoScape.
It can undo errors, and It will teach you how to set your camera for future better results. What you change in PhotoScape is how your camera should have been set originally.
It won't happen overnight, but your photos will improve quickly.

At the start with an old camera, I had to shoot may be 20 shots to get one to be what i wanted when posted. Now, most days I only take two or three, and they are more for the angle than the visual effect. I now have a greater pixel count which allows me to do better crop with high quality.
All gyrations are done in the post-procesing. For instance if my subject is tilted I can rotate it to level. or even go off level to make a visual point.

'Nuff said, Have Fun!
~Richard

Thanks, I'll look into it but I'm somewhat limited in what settings the camera will let me use since the lens is about 20-25 years older than the camera so they're not a 100% compatible.

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Originally Posted by Baxxer

Thanks, I'll look into it but I'm somewhat limited in what settings the camera will let me use since the lens is about 20-25 years older than the camera so they're not a 100% compatible.

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Then the answer is even better, get plenty of light on the subject like your last photos and use the software to tweak the image. All my SOTD's are with a 14 Mpx point ans shoot that was well under $100 when purchased. example:
straightrazorplace.com/shave-day
That software is pretty intuitive and the best thing is to play with it, over time, till you get what you want.Have fun!
Oh yes, Hues toward the red are underexposed, that is common with the man made lighting. Can be corrected by the "exposure" or "Gamma Bright" in the software.
All graphics and writing is the persistence of effort to describe the world as it is. The art is to capture it!
~Richard

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Originally Posted by Zephyr

I got some Halogen lamps with clamps from Clas Ohlson for mine, gets even better with the same lightning all around.

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Sure, but then you have to wait for a thunderstorm and fly a few kites with keys hanging on a string and it's all just a big hassle.

I wasn't there when George Washington flew that kite but I bet it was something neat to see!!!

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Originally Posted by WadePatton

I figger sticking paper to the sides of an unused aquarium would be a quick easy. Or (careful folks he's had zero coffee) I just conceived of this: cutting windows into a box, then papering up the box-internally or externally, add lights.

oh, lookie that USPS box is white even..

okay i'll grind some beans

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Yeah that's what mine is. I used cut up white t-shirts for the "paper". Seems to work pretty good. I think I got the idea from a youtube video. +1 on the daylight color bulbs.

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Originally Posted by mrsell63

I wasn't there when George Washington flew that kite but I bet it was something neat to see!!!

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I'm not sure if Ben Franklin ever brought Washington along for one of those experiments!

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I'm not sure if Ben Franklin ever brought Washington along for one of those experiments!

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I do believe they were solid drinking buds.....By the way Ron, did you ever develop a liking for the Hess HairMilk fabric strop and the English bridle leather I sent you a few years back?

I'm still very grateful to you for the Hess strop. It is quite unique and I'd still like to figure out what makes it that way. The bridle leather is still waiting. I have an idea for a different sort of mounting apparatus but have not had time to act on it--like so many other things in the past couple of years!