SHARE My $80 product photography studio - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

freeload · 01-12-2011, 06:14 AM

Hi.

My wife is an avid scrapped and produces a lot of great stuff she posts on her blog and in some forums. In order to do this "someone" has to take pictures of her creations. I want the pictures to look good - so usually that translates to me setting up a "light-tent", light-stands, reflectors, flashes etc. Quite time consuming for a few creations, so usually she'll wait until she has made a lot - or ask me an hour before a competition deadline.

Finally, this Sunday I had a few available hours and could build something I've planned for quite a while. Me being a "gearhead" when it comes to photography i had all the parts I needed to build a small "Product studio" for her creations.

It's an 8x8 LO of me as a baby. It's wrapped in a plastic protector, but the angle of the light makes it possible to shoot it without nasty reflections. As soon as I get my hands on some tracing paper I'll add a sheet as an extra diffuser for even light.

I got a lot of the parts from eBay and DealExtreme. To keep it simple I'll only link to the DealExtreme site as all parts are available there. The prices includes global shipping - so it totals to just below $80.

I used a 60x60cm tent as she usually scraps on 12x12in paper or uses lager canvas. It comes with 5 different backgrounds, and a cover (with hole for the camera) for the front hole if you're shooting shiny stuff.

Photography Photo Light Tent Shed Cube with 5 Background Clothes (60*60) - $28.63

I put the tent on a MDF board I "borrowed" from an old closet. Then I attached two wooden "arms" with an angled bracket and applied force until the angle was right.

I wanted a ball-head type of mount so I can adjust the position of the flashes so I hacked two small stands to get the ball-head.
Mini 7-inch Metallic Tripod - $1.99

In order to trigger the flashes I used a simple IR trigger for the "slave", and a cheap radio trigger for the "master".
Seagull Infrared Flash Remote Trigger for Digital Camera SYK-3 - $5.55

YongNuo Wireless Remote Flash Trigger - $17.05

To light this I mounted two cheap, manual flashes. They are "old fashioned" so the high trigger voltage can possibly fry your camera or other more expensive radio trigger. (Learned it the hard way...)
YY BY-18 Electronic Flash -$9.07

After testing this and storing an appropriate USER setting on my camera I could hand it over to her. Now she's able to take these pictures her self - whenever she needs them

A crop from the first picture just to show the result.

Craven Morehead · 01-12-2011, 09:15 AM

very cool, nice job

freeload · 01-12-2011, 01:43 PM

Thank you

The downside of being cheap is that one of the ball-heads ($2 tripod) broke off when I bumped into one of the flashes. Looks like I need to keep some in stock

01-12-2011, 06:14 AM	#1 (permalink)
freeload Done freeloading here Location: on my ass :) - Norway	My $80 product photography studio Hi. My wife is an avid scrapped and produces a lot of great stuff she posts on her blog and in some forums. In order to do this "someone" has to take pictures of her creations. I want the pictures to look good - so usually that translates to me setting up a "light-tent", light-stands, reflectors, flashes etc. Quite time consuming for a few creations, so usually she'll wait until she has made a lot - or ask me an hour before a competition deadline. Finally, this Sunday I had a few available hours and could build something I've planned for quite a while. Me being a "gearhead" when it comes to photography i had all the parts I needed to build a small "Product studio" for her creations. It's an 8x8 LO of me as a baby. It's wrapped in a plastic protector, but the angle of the light makes it possible to shoot it without nasty reflections. As soon as I get my hands on some tracing paper I'll add a sheet as an extra diffuser for even light. I got a lot of the parts from eBay and DealExtreme. To keep it simple I'll only link to the DealExtreme site as all parts are available there. The prices includes global shipping - so it totals to just below $80. I used a 60x60cm tent as she usually scraps on 12x12in paper or uses lager canvas. It comes with 5 different backgrounds, and a cover (with hole for the camera) for the front hole if you're shooting shiny stuff. Photography Photo Light Tent Shed Cube with 5 Background Clothes (6060) - $28.63 I put the tent on a MDF board I "borrowed" from an old closet. Then I attached two wooden "arms" with an angled bracket and applied force until the angle was right. I wanted a ball-head type of mount so I can adjust the position of the flashes so I hacked two small stands to get the ball-head. Mini 7-inch Metallic Tripod - $1.99 In order to trigger the flashes I used a simple IR trigger for the "slave", and a cheap radio trigger for the "master". Seagull Infrared Flash Remote Trigger for Digital Camera SYK-3 - $5.55 YongNuo Wireless Remote Flash Trigger - $17.05 To light this I mounted two cheap, manual flashes. They are "old fashioned" so the high trigger voltage can possibly fry your camera or other more expensive radio trigger. (Learned it the hard way...) YY BY-18 Electronic Flash -$9.07 After testing this and storing an appropriate USER setting on my camera I could hand it over to her. Now she's able to take these pictures her self - whenever she needs them A crop from the first picture just to show the result. __________________ The future ain't what it used to be. Last edited by freeload; 01-12-2011 at 06:50 AM..*

01-12-2011, 01:43 PM	#3 (permalink)
freeload Done freeloading here Location: on my ass :) - Norway	Thank you The downside of being cheap is that one of the ball-heads ($2 tripod) broke off when I bumped into one of the flashes. Looks like I need to keep some in stock __________________ The future ain't what it used to be.

01-12-2011, 09:15 AM	#2 (permalink)
Craven Morehead Custom User Title	very cool, nice job