Made a lightbox - first time using it

Trying to get a nice collection of beer photos going. Using a cheapy Canon point and shoot camera.

Feedback on it? Thinking of switching the backdrop to a piece of white paper??


No-Bull Kolsch2 by riored4v, on Flickr


This was the other attempt, but not really happy with how it turned out


No-Bull Kolsch by riored4v, on Flickr

Did you use some sort of diffuser over your lighting? One of the challenges I had with my light box was the placement if the lights, brightness, and adjusting settings on my camera. It was hard for me to get the best of both worlds, enough illumination without the glare spots. Not having a tripod for my camera made the picture taking of difficult objects tiresome after a while.

Forgot to add your pics look great considering your camera. Try shifting the lights back an inch or two towards the back of the light box to see if you can get the glare on both sides of the glass less visible without creating a shadow on the front of the glass.

I actually like the second pic better because of the amount of detail in it versus the first pic.

More diffuse light is good in some cases. I can see a fair bit of detail of the lights in the reflections so you might want to move toward something that provides you with a nice even rectangle of light to reflect.

I don't mind the background you have now. Try it with white and see how it looks and works with your camera. I kind of like that linen background and it's always nice to have a bit of variety. Try black, too, and see how that looks.

I'm dealing with similar things once in a while. I do the photography for a local brewery (http://grandriverbrewing.com/our-beers/year-round-beers/). Those are my pics there. My camera set up is okay: Canon 5d mkII. But I have a very ghetto light set up. Email me personally if you want more details. I'm using t-shirts and white sheets. LOL

With the advice here and another forum I made a few changes and tried again with another beer.

Moved the camera further back and used a different (pure white) backdrop. Also doubled up on the layers of cloth to try and diffuse the light a bit better. Kind of worked but maybe I need to move the lights further away.


Ungrapeful2 by riored4v, on Flickr


Ungrapeful by riored4v, on Flickr

Adjusted the white balance a bit and tried again



Ungrapeful3 by riored4v, on Flickr

Moving the lights toward the back (away from the camera) would be good. Another thing that would help is getting some light right on the background to blow it out to white a bit more. Your adjusting the WB was a good move. Depending on the look you're going for you might want to try lighting just the backdrop but keeping the light on the glass the same. The rectangles definitely look better.

Great work!

pcollins said:

Moving the lights toward the back (away from the camera) would be good. Another thing that would help is getting some light right on the background to blow it out to white a bit more. Your adjusting the WB was a good move. Depending on the look you're going for you might want to try lighting just the backdrop but keeping the light on the glass the same. The rectangles definitely look better.

Great work!

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Are you saying cut a hole in the back of the box and setup a light source from the back? Or a light from the front shining in to the box?

This is the design of my current box:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

I want a clear beer picture, but it would be great to show the clarity as well.

I'm thinking of something so that the background is lit from the front or side based on that link that you sent of the light box.

I've used exactly the same thing and it's just a matter of controlling where the light falls and spills. I use a similar set up now but not cardboard. I use white sheets for diffusing the light and black t-shirts for controlling where the light spills.

If you can picture a similar set up to yours I have white near the background to allow light to spill onto it but then a black strip to block light and then white near the front of the box for light for the beer and to shape the reflections from the glass. This allows light to fall on the background to push it toward white but still have the subject reasonably lit.

Am I making any sense? LOL

pcollins said:

I'm thinking of something so that the background is lit from the front or side based on that link that you sent of the light box.

I've used exactly the same thing and it's just a matter of controlling where the light falls and spills. I use a similar set up now but not cardboard. I use white sheets for diffusing the light and black t-shirts for controlling where the light spills.

If you can picture a similar set up to yours I have white near the background to allow light to spill onto it but then a black strip to block light and then white near the front of the box for light for the beer and to shape the reflections from the glass. This allows light to fall on the background to push it toward white but still have the subject reasonably lit.

Am I making any sense? LOL

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I think I'm following you. The table I'm using has limited space so I think I might try a different location so I can move the light on the side further away and then try to get something from the front to try and fill it in better.

I would be curious to see what your setup looks like. I'm pretty happy with how the last picture turned out though. I think I might try lowering the ISO to 100 to cut down on some noise and re-working the lighting.

I also have somewhat limited space as you can see in the attached pic.

Just picture that set up with some black t-shirts draped over to control the flow of light. It's not high tech but it gets the job done.

Thanks.

Makes me wonder if it would help cutting out one of my light sources also since I noticed you just use one flash as yours.

I would keep two light sources.

What you're seeing in the picture is a test shot to see whether my other flash was firing. It wasn't, but you can see it on top of the beer bottles on the rh side. LOL

You CAN use one flash as you see in the strobist shot at the top of the page of that link you attached. It just depends on the look you want. I almost always use two so I get the rectangles/lines down each side of the bottle. Look around online for different bottle and product shots for beer and wine and you'll see that some do use one light or one strong and one week. There are lots of good ideas out there and it's all fun to play with!

I kind of like the looks of the rectangle lines running down the sides also, which I noticed I have on my last picture as well. I like the lighting of my last picture, but now I think my goal is to try and show the clarity. Not quite sure how to go about doing that aside from providing backlighting somehow or maybe some light from underneath the glass.

Tried out the same lightning setup, changed it to 80 ISO from 200 and added a black strip of posterboard in the middle. Also changed the glass as well.


Amarillo IPA2 by riored4v, on Flickr

I was just going to mention your high ISO. You can really see the grainyness in the first few, but that last one looks much better. Great pics!!

Still trying to find the right balance to show clarity. Thinking of moving the setup near a window where daylight can shine in through the front of the box..??

Tried using a light beer, solid black backdrop and removed the second layer of filter I had for my lights.


Ungrapeful - Black by riored4v, on Flickr

I built this same lightbox a couple years ago. I would really recommend getting tracing paper from a hobby store like Michael's if possible. It'll diffuse your light much better. The glass makes it tough because of the reflections and you need to diffuse it as much as possible.

The guy from Beer Geek Nation has a pretty sweet light box. It would definitely be imitated using some cheap white cardboard from a dollar store. I've made one for my gf while she was in a photography course. Her university rented the lighting equipment and we built a lightbox for about $7 and stapled/taped it together.

Personally, I like cardboard because it doesn't show texture.

lactardjosh said:

I built this same lightbox a couple years ago. I would really recommend getting tracing paper from a hobby store like Michael's if possible. It'll diffuse your light much better. The glass makes it tough because of the reflections and you need to diffuse it as much as possible.

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Tracing paper rather than the cloth on the sides/top?

Yeah. The sheets are probably more just blocking the light rather than diffusing it. In the reflections on the glass, you can see how the light still forms a bright spot. When it's diffused properly, that spot wouldn't be there.

Do you have a diffuser for your flashes? That might also help. You could also try dialing back the intensity of the flashes.

Or you could try using a desk lamp with a tiltable neck and shade as an always on light source. You might get more even light from that instead of the flash.

lactardjosh said:

Yeah. The sheets are probably more just blocking the light rather than diffusing it. In the reflections on the glass, you can see how the light still forms a bright spot. When it's diffused properly, that spot wouldn't be there.

Do you have a diffuser for your flashes? That might also help. You could also try dialing back the intensity of the flashes.

Or you could try using a desk lamp with a tiltable neck and shade as an always on light source. You might get more even light from that instead of the flash.

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For the lights, I've been using desk lamps on each sides of the box. I dont have any flashes


This was the last one I just did. Pretty happy with hose this one turned out since you could actually pick up on some of the clarity.


Kolsch2 by riored4v, on Flickr

Bottomline... you need WAY more light