Well I finally broke down and bought some photo stuff. I'm going for the setup that someone posted (sorry- can't remember your name!) with the two goose-neck lamps, reveal bulbs, the pvc/hamper box, and some cloth. I got everything except the hamper, but I got some pvc pipe and such so I can build the box myself. So far I just did the basic setup of the two lamps on each side with white posterboard as the backing. No cloth, no diffusing, etc. First, unaltered pic: Auto-levelled: I'm not super impressed just yet, but hopefully the light box will help. The bulbs are only 60W, since that's the max that lamps can hold. Comments, suggestions, etc?
Instead of using the white base and a white backboard, use a long sheet of paper, have it curved without bending the paper, it'll create the illusion of an endless background.
I used to do that, but I had a hard time getting the paper to be superwhite. Oro, it looks ok, besides needing one more lamp (one to each side and one above), it looks like your white-balance is off a little bit on your camera.
To get the paper superwhite, simply get another set of lamps and shine straight onto the papers to blow it out.
I've got a white bed sheet I'm going to use for the background once I get the box frame built, so that should help. That would explain why I can almost never get a good white pic out of it. I'll have to go through the manual and play with the settings.
Looks pretty good to me, especially for a first try Only thing I can really think of is getting more lighting in there which should help. Also maybe try and fiddle with your different camera settings and photo-editing software tools.
Definitely need to reset your white balance. Should be pretty easy to do. Check your manual to see exactly how to do it. Other then that and another light, your on the right track.
I have 3 reveal bulbs @ 75watts in my ceiling fan, and 3 lamps with reveals @ 60 watts. I think the problem is the fiber count of the paper. Its ok, I don't get the gaps in my posterboards
Hey, good luck, man, me, I just point and shoot, but get some lights going on and you'll see the diff OS
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I went in and reset the white balance on the camera and it made a huge difference. I think it's still a bit off, but much better than before. I also broke out the white sheet tonight (it needs ironing, but it doesn't show up much in the shots) and put it over the posterboard. I also used a third light to hold overhead during shots. Pic of my setup: Unedited: Auto-levelled: Unedited: Auto-levelled: And one last one, levelled and brightness/contrast adjusted: So I still need the levelling but I think that's mostly due to the white balance being a little off. And some diffusing on the lamps should help with the hot spots on the box corners. The background still seems a little dark though, do I just need that much more light?
Looking good to me! What camera are you using? I'm interested in getting a good one myself and yours looks like it takes pretty decent photos.
It's a Canon PowerShot S400, 4.0 megapixels. I have no idea how it rates compared to other cams, it's just what's available to me.
