How to mess up your pictures (or using a light box) :-)

[paddy]

A little problem I ran into today. I don’t know if any of you use a light box ? its basically just a box with some LED’s in it that illuminates a subject so you can take a picture of it.
They are very useful, I bought mine because I wanted to take hundreds of pictures of all the items I sell, for my website.
Its also proved useful in the past, especially during winter in England where it can stay dark and overcast for days if you want to take a few quick pics of models

The advantage is your subject is evenly lit, so interiors show up well and most importantly, except for the extreme underside there are very few shadows and all four sides are equally lit ..


This is a good example brightly lit with no shadow

and in the box as this pic was taken

Now this has always worked well until today...the interior of the box is a mottled reflective surface to increase the "light from all directions" theme.

This works well on your "matt finish camo" but works completely against you with your "shiny finished car" (or in this case, motorcycle)

and the same finish on the bench

Blimey Paddy, what's going on with your fuel tank paint ? did you polish it with sand paper then melt it ?



anyway when i get some spare time i will call in at the art/hobby shop and get some white paper/board or plastic and line the box with that and see it its better, hopefully it will still reflect light from all angles but wont show up on the subject.

i know its an odd thing to post but it might interest some .....lol

 

[moon puppy]

That's weird. How about other shiny objects? You get the same effect?

 

[paddy]

its basically in the reflection but its far worse on Black or in this case dark blue so at the other extreme, it not going to show nearly as bad on gloss white.
Its interesting to see the seat reflected in the fuel tank in that picture,,

 

[moon puppy]

Oh I see, it's actually a reflection of the surface of the light box wall! The one I have/had had like a silk or nylon curtain that was actually back lit with a little spot light. Maybe another investment? Maybe just simple poster board would work?

 

[paddy]

Yea mines got a silk type curtain over the led's ie: up top but not the sides. its a strange effect, makes me look like my painting is not up to scratch

 

[moon puppy]

When in fact it's a mirror surface.

 

[Rhino]

Is this the appropriate time to mention all my pictures come from the camera of my Galaxy S20?
Or that I use the stock photo editing app before I post them here?
No?
No, I didn't think so.

 

[paddy]

TBH a good phone camera is better and easier for website pictures than a DLSR but the problem is with them for anything else is the lens.

My mate was showing me how wonderful his iPhone 93 or something was the other day, with a hugely colourful macro shot of a flower...but all i could see was massively digitally enhanced over sharpened pic that looked like a cartoon.
Basically the phone uses software to compensate for its crap quality lens and once you enlarge the pic it all falls apart if its anything more than a snap shot.

try doing this with your phone

 

[Rhino]

Yeah, that NOT gonna happen! That is stunning picture!

 

[Bugatti Fan]

I don't use a light box at all. My normal temporary setup is done on my work desk. It.is very simple being a piece of wood batten held in a swivel vice that has a sturdy heavy base. I clip a large sheet of plain paper to the batten to make a seamless background for the model. Lighting is what I have on the desk all the time to do my model making. Two angle poise lamps with cold white light LED bulbs, positioned on each side of my desk. The two lamps can be positioned to suit depending on the model. Good positional light without reflection problems. Works ok for me.