View Full Version : Light tents for product photography?
weltweit
18-03-2010, 09:25
Does anyone know how they work?
Do you set lights outside the tent or do you flash inside the tent?
How would the results differ from bouncing flash on a white ceiling?
Basically anyone know about light tents for product photography?
inside, (well it depends how you make it really, but the light shines/flash fires in the ten obv. :D) I have a good link to make your own somewhere, will dig it out :)
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent
Vintage Paw
18-03-2010, 09:30
I don't know, but you could try the Strobist group on Flickr - I bet they'd know.
Does anyone know how they work?
Do you set lights outside the tent or do you flash inside the tent?
How would the results differ from bouncing flash on a white ceiling?
Basically anyone know about light tents for product photography?
Afaik they basically are designed to cover the item in an even light all over...... and i think 2 flash heads go in either side of the tent
They dont do anything you couldnt achieve with a few bits of card and a flash gun (use the flash gun off camera).
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2143/1727721710_b1a0819b7d_m.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2043/1726879385_ff582edbde_m.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2208/1726878387_91a7644105_o.jpg
All of that was shot with a piece of white card, some good daylight, and my metz (only the shoes where shot with a metz).
If youve got all that stuff already, then save you money and dont buy a light tent.
I made one when I went on a ebay spree.
Get a box. Cut out four sides and tape in tracing paper. Have one piece of white paper to place the object on. Take the photo and the flash evenly illuminates the object inside the box.
Results are awesome and costs about 2 quid ;)
weltweit
18-03-2010, 13:27
When I last did product photography I used large sheets of white card, one for the product to sit on and the rest at the sides angled to reflect light into the sides of the product. Then I bounced flash off a white ceiling down onto the products.
I got quite acceptable results.
cybertect
18-03-2010, 15:30
I bought a tent kit, with some continuous lights, for doing a lot of product shots for our new website at work about a month ago. I got a fairly large one (150cm) as some of the work we do is quite big.
Advantages of a light tent that I've found centre round it being an easily controlled environment.
- minimises colour casts from other light sources in the room. i.e. better colour accuracy (important in our business and something I've had trouble with in the past)
- with continuous lights, it makes it easier to judge the modelling when you're setting up
- set up once with the camera on manual exposure and a tripod and you can then just whip through several subjects in relatively quick succession. Turn it off at the end of the day and pick up where you left off the next morning.
http://www.paperhat.co.uk/projects/HomeFeature/images/ondigital.jpg
I bought a tent kit, with some continuous lights, for doing a lot of product shots for our new website at work about a month ago. I got a fairly large one (150cm) as some of the work we do is quite big.
Advantages of a light tent that I've found centre round it being an easily controlled environment.
- minimises colour casts from other light sources in the room. i.e. better colour accuracy (important in our business and something I've had trouble with in the past)
- with continuous lights, it makes it easier to judge the modelling when you're setting up
- set up once with the camera on manual exposure and a tripod and you can then just whip through several subjects in relatively quick succession. Turn it off at the end of the day and pick up where you left off the next morning.
http://www.paperhat.co.uk/projects/HomeFeature/images/ondigital.jpg
What continuous lights where there? Tungstens i guess?
cybertect
18-03-2010, 15:48
They were compact fluorescents, keeps them nice and cool and the energy bills down.
TBH, they could be a bit brighter, but it was a cheap kit for the size (about £180 from Amazon compared with £400+ that I've seen elsewhere).
It came with four different coloured linings (white, black, red and blue) to make it easy to isolate different coloured subjects. Worthwhile having a domestic iron available to get rid of the creases from packing ;) I may yet get a secondary white background to use as the weave of the supplied one is a little coarse.
I'm still tempted to build a DIY box for small items, as this is a bit too big for some things.
They were compact fluorescents, keeps them nice and cool and the energy bills down.
TBH, they could be a bit brighter, but it was a cheap kit for the size (about £180 from Amazon compared with £400+ that I've seen elsewhere).
It came with four different coloured linings (white, black, red and blue) to make it easy to isolate different coloured subjects. Worthwhile having a domestic iron available to get rid of the creases from packing ;) I may yet get a secondary white background to use as the weave of the supplied one is a little coarse.
I'm still tempted to build a DIY box for small items, as this is a bit too big for some things.
Were they daylight balanced? Or did you have to use red to correct?
cybertect
18-03-2010, 19:08
6400K lamps
weltweit
18-03-2010, 23:33
So effectively the light tent is a big diffuser.
some useful tips here.... http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html
weltweit
08-05-2010, 17:25
I had a play with the light tent at work last week.
It is kind of like a white one man tent made in the shape of a cube with one side openning up.
One of the engineers was photographing something in it before and he struggled with a couple of lights and a tripod.
I decided to blast a flash around the inside of the tent and hand hold the camera.
Mucked about at 1/4 power and about f4 but that was no use, dof too shallow so I upped to maximum power and went to f11 which was much sharper.
I could not get the light to wrap around the products properly, one side was definately in shadow but the results were not too bad.
In the end I used a coloured background. Seemed to work alright.
Anyone have a view about product photography and unsual set ups or colourful backgrounds?
with shiny objects black card can be deployed at the sides to help define the edges
weltweit
08-05-2010, 17:34
with shiny objects black card can be deployed at the sides to help define the edges
Aha, yes that is interesting, I think I heard something similar for photographing glass. My problem last week was that I was initially photographing grey products on a white background which was not very pleasing.
cybertect
08-05-2010, 19:07
coloured backgrounds are useful for being able to easily cut things out in Photoshop
White object edges on white background makes it a bit tricky. White and black object edges on black or white is similar - use red or blue.
weltweit
08-05-2010, 20:33
coloured backgrounds are useful for being able to easily cut things out in Photoshop
White object edges on white background makes it a bit tricky. White and black object edges on black or white is similar - use red or blue.
Oh, yes, you have a point about cutting out ...
But I liked the red background so have kept it in shot.
Perhaps I am making a mistake but I have recently seen some product photos that use a lot of colour, sometimes colour gradients and I liked them.
Am currently trying to be more imaginative where product photos are concerned. Have seen some nice examples so far.
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