Once I completed my very large PVC Light Tent, I was pretty certain I would need a portable one. The large one could be portable, but would likely be a pain to cart around. And I was right – just last week someone asked me to come to their location and do some product photos. That shoot should be sometime this week, so I took some time this past weekend and made a portable light tent out of PVC pipe.
I could have gone with the same plans I used for the larger one, but instead opted to try Bill Huber’s design. It is much simpler than the large one, with fewer pieces, increasing the portability. I didn’t really vary mine much from his, except that I used regular 90° elbows, and I didn’t glue any joints together. Not gluing allows me to break the pieces down for maximum portability.
When I went to the craft store to locate suitable heavy paper, I came across a higher quality posterboard that is double sided. Each piece measures 22″ in width, which is perfect for the width of this box. By using this posterboard, I have 8 different colors of backdrop – 2 shades of blue, purple, red, green, yellow, gold and silver. Following Bill’s trick of using a sheet metal or wood screw on the crossbar (drill pilot holes first before putting the screws in) and punching holes in the top of the posterboard, you get a VERY convenient method to hang the backdrops with. This also gives you added versatility. You can put the backdrop inside the frame and cover the tent with a sheet, or you can hang the backdrop so it is outside the frame. You might ask when you would need to do this, and an immediate example I can think of is a spherical object that reflects everything.
As the photos on Bill’s site attest, you can get some great results from this. I haven’t fully tested it yet, but will be experimenting a lot with light positioning, etc. when I do my product shoot in Highlands Ranch later this week. This is a very inexpensive piece of equipment though, and I anticipate using it quite a bit. I’ll be sure to post pics after the shoot.
Also, I’d love to see some other designs for light tents, as well as any other DIY projects you might think of. And you can click on any of the thumbnails in this article to see a larger version.
HDR – I Still Love It
I started shooting High Dynamic Range (commonly known as HDR) images roughly 2 years ago. I don’t shoot many (26 in my flickr gallery), but I enjoy shooting them. The gondola rail car in the photo above is the best one I have shot I think. Shooting HDR takes patience, at least with older dSLR’s like my Olympus E-510. Newer camera models, mainly ones that have arrived in the last 6-12 months, might have enough exposure bracketing built in to them to accomplish HDR captures with one click of the shutter release. Still others might have had a firmware update to accomplish this. It is my biggest hope that whatever Olympus brings out to replace the E-3 will have this feature.
I could write a tutorial on taking HDR images, but really, it would pale in comparison to the master, so I’ll let you have a look at Trey Ratcliff’s HDR Tutorial instead. I would also encourage you to check out his new book – “A World in HDR
“.
After the captures, you need software. I have been using Photomatix HDR since I started doing HDR images, and highly recommend it. Trey does too, and he has even worked out a 15% discount with Photomatix (follow the link to see how to get it). Once again, Trey tells us the best way to use the software. For me personally, I usually play with a couple different settings in Photomatix to get the photo looking just the way I want to. For the gondola above, I think there were 4 versions, this one being the best (in my eyes). I would encourage you to experiment as well, and get the look that pleases you the most.
If you are looking for inspiration in other people’s HDR work, or if you have your own portfolio of images to show people, you need to take a look at hdrspotting.com. This collection of images is extraordinary, and I hope I produce something worthy of inclusion. To become a contributor, you need to obtain an invitation code. While it is not clear to me how people get codes to give away, if you watch #hdrspotting on Twitter or ask around in the HDR group on Facebook, you should see a code pop up. I will post them to my Twitter feed if they ever come my way.
If you are a flickr user, you should look into the HDR and Photomatix groups. Great pictures and discussions happen in both.
Get out and try your hand at HDR, and put links to your pictures in the comments below. I love seeing what other people do with this new type of imagery.