Lightbox C&C Advice HELP!

Dodgykeeper

Got one of the Carpenters in work to make me a lightbox:



Was messing around with it tonight and got these pics:








Any advice, comment, criticism gratefully recieved!

Hugh_C

hi dodge, maybe it's a colour profile issue but it all looks incredibly over-saturated to me, I wouldn't eat any of them ...

Dodgykeeper

Not even the Chips??

Mellor

Looks the same to me, and lighting a bit harsh.

quilmore

if you're shooting with a D300 I'd say the first you need to do is move away from "vivid" (it mashes colours together, specially reds)

shot NEF and play with Capture NX, i.e.: under iluminate a tad and increase exposure after

bradnailer

Nice box! now there's something I don't get to say to often
I think a couple things might help, the camera view point is high, it's the normal view point we see these subjects at most of the time. If you put something under white sheet (eg. biscuit tin) and drop your view to get the lens in line.
Don't know if you have a tripod, if you don't it's a must.
The flash is a bit harsh, try using the manual setting at 1/4, 1/8 power you could bounce it off the sides back onto the subject or use some type of defuser
Just keep playing around and trying different things, I got myself a office desk lamp and a daylight bulb, it works a treat and because the light is balanced it easy to position where ever you need it. Working in a darker room will help, keep the light in your control.Good luck with the box

YogiBear

Dodgykeeper wrote: »

Not even the Chips??

Fast food & gambling are bad for you! Best not eat the chips! :pac:

The pepper looks plastic and without depth..
Cool looking lightbox though, I'm sure you'll figure out what the problem is!

Fajitas!

Well, you've got a dead handy lightbox right there!

Infinity curve and all.

A couple of things to look at - You're getting a colour cast in the photos, there's a number of things to check - Turn the lights off when you're working. See what your flash could be bouncing off to introduce new colours. Custom white balance will help a lot. If all goes to all, play around with some coloured gel sheets over your flash head, you'll get some fun effects out of this too!

Other than that, really play with your flash to see what does what, and what throws your shadows where - Reflectors will be a great help here too! Check out www.strobist.com for flash techniques.

You're getting there though!

PixelTrawler

I've been messing about with "lightbox" (not quite as sturdy as your wooden one!)

Dont use a flash at all... get two big dirty halogen work lights from woodies and point into the lightbox through paper to diffuse the light and set the camera correctly to expose without the flash (not too close to the paper or youll be phoning the fire brigade...)

Use a custom white point and you should get rid of the harsh flash light and shadow and the impact on the background colour...

These wont be the most exciting subjects but it just demonstrates the idea

ThOnda

The idea of the light box is that you won't have direct light from the source (lamp, flash unit) to the subject. Place another paper between flash and the light box, maybe. Or point the flash from the side or the top of the light box.
But it looks nice, go on trying, it's free :-)

Roen

ThOnda wrote: »

The idea of the light box is that you won't have direct light from the source (lamp, flash unit) to the subject. Place another paper between flash and the light box, maybe. Or point the flash from the side or the top of the light box.
But it looks nice, go on trying, it's free :-)

+1
No point in making that box if you're going to use direct flash. Try light from above or the sides through some form of diffuser.

pippatee

Made up one of these a while back ... great fun ...

you need to put tissue paper over the holes on the side and top holes ... you then fire your flash(es) through the paper to get the softest light possible ..

Valentia

ThOnda wrote: »

The idea of the light box is that you won't have direct light from the source (lamp, flash unit) to the subject. Place another paper between flash and the light box, maybe. Or point the flash from the side or the top of the light box.
But it looks nice, go on trying, it's free :-)

+2

The whole point is to keep direct, harsh flash from the subject. Ideally the box could be bigger and squarer with a delicate diffusion cloth aroune it. The colour(s) of the cloth or a gel on the flash would make life interesting.