I built a light box to shoot picture of parts using my Nikon D40. It only cost about $50 and took a few hours to build. The lights are on a dimmer so I can control intensity.

Here's the setup:
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And a few sample shots:
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Good use of wood!!! The natural fibre composite material.

John

grow-op box

Mark, nice setup!

How many watts do you have illuminating the tent? Do you have any idea what aperture and shutter speeds you are shooting at?

I have two 65w flood lights, and I'm shooting at wide open apeture (3.5-5.6 depending on zoom) and 40 - 80 shutter speed depending on what I'm shooting.

I need to get a couple 100w bulbs so I can increase my shutter speed, but I haven't had any motion blur problems anyway.

Wow that's really nice. Those are hard to shoot contrasts and the details show up nicely. Very cool!

I bought one just about the same size for $30.00 online. Came with lights, camera tripod and different backgrounds. VERY happy with it.

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Those diffuser panels really cut down shadow distractions. Very nice. I'm going to try something like that.

Why would ya? Static objects and I assume you're using a tripod or something solid to mount the camera. That didn't sound great either did it? What are you using for the sides that are diffusing the light from the spots? Paper of some sort?

I don't use a tripod for this. I like the freedom of shooting a variety of angles quickly. And if you have enough light, you don't need a slow shutter, and then you don't need a tripod.

I'm also shooting with a D40 in RAW format.

I'm using Gila Frosted Privacy Window Film. It's a peel and stick product for frosting glass, but I just left the backing on (no peel, no stick).

Got a link for that Eric?

Just need one big enough for a whole car now...

John

For a whole car, you'd need a few of these.

Try eBay... I'll try to find my old eBay purchase but, they're common there.

One thing I notice with Mark's (besides the fact he takes better pictures than I do) is the higher wattage bulbs are very nice.

This is the guy I bought from:

http://cgi.ebay.com/24-Photo-Studio-Light-...=item5ad9e6030a

...mine only had 2 lights so this one should be better with 4. Comes with the different backdrops and folds up into a flat carrying case.

Mark -
What ISO are you shooting at?
You could easily go to 200ASA and increase your depth of field, which will help with the minor sharpness issues you are having...
Also. if you have photoshop, you should run your images through it in order to tweak the images and clean them up -
I agree with your thought process on the tripod, but you need to get up to about F11...



Thom

Thom, I'll try that when I get the new 100W bulbs. I'll admit I'm a sucker for the short depth of field stuff, but it's not always good. I shot the GPR trunk latches above at 200 ISO.

Better to have a ton of light and be able to shoot at a low ISO, fast shutter and small aperture.

ISO 800 with a 50/1.8 at 1/20 second. Pretty much at the limits for hand held.

I agree with more light, but I also believe in the tripod. Re-arrange the product to get different angles.

ISO 200 f/8-f/11 would be my goal. But your shots look great for what you have into the setup!

Maybe add a couple cheap strobes and keep the floods as modeling lights?

Applying a bit of a curve in Photoshop can help the image pop.

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I think maybe I'm missing something about Photoshop. Got a screen shot of your curve? Or tell me where to look? I've probably seen it and played with it, but obviously it's not something I've spent much time with.

Hit Ctrl+M to bring up the curves dialog. Or, Image>Adjustments>Curves...

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The area I circled in red is the peak that represents the white background. Drag the upper right end of the curve to the left to blow out the background. Then pick two points and make an "S" curve to increase the contrast in the rest of the image.

You can also apply curves on an adjustment layer.

Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves...

Then you can drag the adjustment into other images.

I usually just hit Ctrl+M and drag a quick curve customized to each image. You'll get the hang of it quickly.

If you are shooting NEFs, I can't recommend Lightroom highly enough. I think you can download a trial.

f/11 would give you depth of field to make this whole shot crisp:

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On my CS2:

Image/Adjustments/


The adjustments i use most are:

Levels
Curves
Color balance
Hue/Saturation


Andy

Todd,

Great tips on using curves! I will have to start playing with them - iPhoto has a similar capability.

What are NEFs?

NEF is the Nikon RAW format. Uncompressed, full rez pics. I shoot exclusively in RAW/NEF because I don't ever want to have an AMAZING shot, that is stuck in some lower rez JPG file. I'd rather fill up my HD and have all the data there to work with.

It's also amazing how much detail is caught in a RAW file, you can literally change the exposure and see pixels "magically" appearing from black.

Agreed, although I use Color Balance much less frequently than the other three.

Curves are great for setting white point and shadows, and increasing contrast. Levels are handy for color correction.

Do not EVER use Brightness/Contrast. No good can come from it.