Replicating natural light indoors: cheap solution?

[bmilcs]

I am a novice person who hits the snap button on my iphone .

Anyways, I'm using a poster board as recommended to create a semi seamless white background for razor shots and don't have time during the day to take advantage of natural sunlight. Are there any cool tricks I could use in order to achieve a nice exposure of white light using inexpensive lamps/etc?

 

[cb91710]

5000k CFL or LED... "Warm White"
Tungsten filaments burn at around 3000k, which is pretty "yellow", generally referred to as "Soft White"... it is much easier on the eyes.

 

[sarimento1]

get a couple high output LED's and bounce them onto white foam boards. you'll need some sort of extension arms for the lights and a solid tripod for the camera. use the camera's 'custom white balance'.

 

[bmilcs]

Alright. That's looks like foreign language to me. You're going to have to break it down grade school style. I want to invest maybe $25 total.

Go!

 

[cb91710]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-...N=2bcoqrZ1z0xeuiZ1z0xetxZ1z0wpul#.Ukdqnz8Xfaw
http://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart...tZ1z0xeuiZ2bcp5qZ1z0xeuiZ1z0wpul#.UkdrCz8Xfaw

 

[bmilcs]

Here are some examples (during the day) that I just took. This was before I cleaned the razor.

 

[bmilcs]

Here are some at night and after the cleaning.

I hate how dark it looks. :\ I'll check out those links.

 

[bmilcs]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-...N=2bcoqrZ1z0xeuiZ1z0xetxZ1z0wpul#.Ukdqnz8Xfaw
http://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart...tZ1z0xeuiZ2bcp5qZ1z0xeuiZ1z0wpul#.UkdrCz8Xfaw

Those look interesting. Would that affect the "dark" spots in my second group of photos? Or am I just dumb and not using enough lights in general.

 

[fast14riot]

The two distinct differences I see between the photos are your white balance and light diffusion. White balance is adjusting the color in camera to keep whites white. The diffuse light creates the soft shadows and even tone. Try placing the lights you have closer but with a sheet of copy paper over them or tissue/thin white cotton cloth. This will difuse th light a bit more, and give better color cast. I'm not sure on the iphone, but you should be able to adjust the wite balance to match the type of lighting you're using. Tungsten, flourescent, cloudy natural, sunny natural, shade, etc...

The dark shadows are from very harsh lighting, try surrounding the razor with foam board or copy paper to bounce the light all around.


-Xander

 

[cb91710]

Ditto.
Looks like a single-point light source.
Build a nice lightbox and use 3 lights, one on each side and one on top.
That will soften the shadows and fill in the dark areas nicely.

 

[fast14riot]

Also, I just put a short write for a very low tech soft box photo shoot using a single light and a cell phone camera. I think it might apply to you in this instance.


-Xander

 

[bmilcs]

Also, I just put a short write for a very low tech soft box photo shoot using a single light and a cell phone camera. I think it might apply to you in this instance.


-Xander

What do you mean?


Thanks everyone for the input! When you say light box, what exactly do you mean?

Pictures would be awesome

 

[fast14riot]

The next thead down from this one, I meant write-up. Its called "lowest of low tech photo shoot"


-Xander

 

[cb91710]

There's a couple of writeups on building one, but it can be as simple or as complex as you want.
Cheap and easy, a cardboard box the size of maybe an antifreeze case, top flaps cut off, laid on it's side, with the other 3 sides cut out to make windows.
Line the inside with white paper, cover the windows with white cotton, and get a long piece of white paper, or black velvet, and hang that from the top of the back, curving down to cover the bottom and out the front.
The curve will hide the back corner of the box and make it look like you took the picture in a studio.

The lights go outside of the 3 windows. Angle each light slightly different, and make sure one "bounces" off of the back of the box to create a back fill.

That's cheap and easy, and disposable.
You can make the same thing from white foamboard for a little more money.
You can also make it from metal wire/barstock. Most expensive, but also the easiest to break down and store flat.

 

[Alacrity59]

To me these pics are very good. The light source suits the subject . . .maybe.

 

[cb91710]

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/366004-Lowest-of-low-tech-photo-shoot

Some good examples here:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/364019-1st-light-box!

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/356962-White-box-line-pattern

 

[bmilcs]

I did a lot of photoshopping by the way to achieve my pictures above.

But thanks!

 

[bmilcs]

Wow guys! I took a little from what everyone said and tweaked my lighting situation.... check out the results!

Thank you!

 

[bmilcs]

Nice! I'm pumped. SO much better than what I was doing previously.

 

[cb91710]

Much nicer.

I'd run the aperture down a bit to increase the DOF and reduce the knob going out of focus.