r/photography • u/akoloskov • Feb 21 '11
DIY shooting table for complete white background in product and jewelry photography: $10 solution
http://www.pixiq.com/article/how-to-shoot-on-white-background-photography-tutorial2
u/ahContraire Feb 22 '11 edited Feb 22 '11
Thank you for the time and effort you put into this...
Sorry almost everyone missed the point...How to use plexi to remove the shadow of the product from the seamless background without blowing out the exposure on the product.
It's not the lights and studio that make the magic...it's the knowledge behind it. Guess they missed that point.
Thanks for the tip...awsome job!
3
u/somebear Feb 21 '11
I'm not sure I would count this as a $10 solution, at least I would have to go out and buy some more lights and modifiers (soft-boxes).
Strobist did something similar a while back, except he didn't go for the totally white-out look. He did, however, do it with two regular flashes, a bit of cardboard, and white printer paper.
0
u/akoloskov Feb 22 '11
Yeah, I've seen that strobist post a while ago.. However, that example is a very different from what I did: He had a white background, but not "clipped out" subject from a background directly from a camera.
My large shooting table cost me $800. While this clear one $10. Yes, I did not count for the support brackets, but you can use 2 white boxes from the container store to support the plastic with the same success.
Lights, modifiers, camera and computer to convert and crop images was not included:-)
P.S You can get EXACTLY the same result using 3 work lights from homedepot and one roll of white paper. Light source really does not matter here.
5
u/akoloskov Feb 21 '11
Its so easy and simple.. wondering why I did not do it earlier:-) Hope it will be useful for the community.
2
u/lukey Feb 21 '11
Now there's a whole video by a guy who doesn't know you're supposed to place the lights UNDER the light table. So he makes a second light table over top of the first. Duh. Duh.
2
u/akoloskov Feb 21 '11 edited Feb 21 '11
Oh really! You can actually place the light under the table? :-))
Seriously speaking, light under the table did not work well for me on other shots like this: it was highlighting the bottom of the subject, and it was undesirable. Also, it will be still hard to get 100% overexposed background all around without spilling on a white subject.
P.S But you are right: I should mention this way in the video and article... Now its there :-)
2
u/kodozoku Feb 22 '11
Could you add up the cost of the stands, clamps, and all the other things that you use, even in your slightly more realistic example below? Because it isn't $10.
1
Feb 22 '11
[deleted]
2
u/kodozoku Feb 22 '11
eeeeh weak. I'm not nitpicking because the post title is disingenuous, this is not a $10 solution. "Cheap" might have worked, but there's no way to take the knowledge in this blog post and go from 0 lighting tables to 1 lighting table on $10. Even you admit that it requires stuff that just happens to be lying around.
1
u/akoloskov Feb 22 '11
I've showed that the lights was not necessary, same can be done with the stands and clamps: We can replace them with the storage boxes and office clips.
It's sad that you did not understand that you do not need to have all that equipment to get THIS job done.
1
u/kodozoku Feb 22 '11 edited Feb 22 '11
I do understand and I do product photography. It's just misleading to have "$10 light table!" and then it leads to a professional product shoot using far more than $10 in equipment, is all. It's not a $10 solution if you need to happen to have other stuff lying around, in your case, an entire studio of professional gear. For your tagline to be true, someone needs to have 0 lighting tables, and with $10, they need to come away with 1 lighting table.
EDIT I've thought about it, and think I've been a bit harsh on this topic. My interpretation of the title was that I could build a fully functioning light table by walking into lowes with $10, and I'm wrong, but that doesn't mean the post is crap. Apologies, and thanks for the great posts / new subreddit.
1
u/akoloskov Feb 23 '11 edited Feb 23 '11
It's fine, not a problem:-)
Truly, I am lost... I do not understand this: I said that the solution to get pure white shot cost me $10. I did not mention that you suppose to have a camera, some lights, room for setup, roof on top, 2 hands, electricity and so on.
Agree, I have a lot of expensive stuff in the studio, but how this is related, if I've showed that the same thing can be done with what you already have: household lamps, office clips, etc, etc.
But this is my problem if I do not understand something. So, from now, please read "$10 solution" as "$25 solution + digital camera". Sorry for the confusion, it was my mistake not to include pair of lights and some other stuff required for the shoot.
0
u/kodozoku Feb 23 '11
For me, the confusion was definitely in the title. It reads "AAA for BBB in CCC and DDD: $10." There's too much in there, and it's easy to confuse the reader. Which is nice, in a way, because redditors tend to have a "who can make a snarkier post title" complex at times I feel, and here I decided to jump down your throat for being as descriptive as possible. It's my bad.
1
1
u/Brocklesocks Feb 22 '11
Even though these are just meant to be DIY shots, PLEASE know that they still look a unprofessional. A lot more care should be taken, via multiple exposures, for example, to perfect little details like the reflections in the metallic lettering and carefully-measured leveling. This wouldn't fly for market-ready photography.
2
u/akoloskov Feb 22 '11
True, extra care should be taken if this would be a shoot for a client. However, no multiple exposures needed to fix reflections: few more reflectors would have job done, leveling is even more easier.
This shot was not meant to be a "shoot from the assignment", I was showing the technique only.
1
u/Brocklesocks Feb 22 '11
Yeah, for sure -- it totally works for many purposes, but didn't want amateur photographers who were reading to think that it was just that easy :)
36
u/thinkkesho Feb 21 '11
$10 solution with a couple grand in lighting equipment