Photo Fun With Light Boxes

Well, one good thing I can say about how unpredictable the sun has been this summer is that it's pushing me to try some new things with photography.  I love shooting landscapes but have always wanted to try doing some studio photography too--especially interesting product type photography.  But, studio equipment is freakin' expensive so I kind of dismissed ever being able to afford to do it.  Until I ran across a book at Barnes and Noble and a few websites online that talk about really cheap ways to make studio equipment.  Man, I love the internet!!!

Because I don't have studio space (and storage space) right now, I decided I should start with something fairly small.  So, I decided to try making a light box or light tent.  Basically it's a box or tent made with white fabric that is used to photograph close ups of small objects--think etsy and ebay photos.  I found some instructions online to make one out of a cardboard box.  Here's a link if you're interested in finding out more.   http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent 

Anyway, I went to Lowes and bought a cardboard box, a few clamp-on work lights and scrounged around till I found some vellum and some masking tape and voila, I had a light box.

Here is the basic set up I used today.

I took all the camera photos in my last post using this set up and then tried some pictures of glass.  

 

I still have a ton to learn and I need to try a few different techniques in order to get the kind of photos of glass that I really want but all in all, it was a fun day of experimentation.  :)