Subject shooting at home. Lightbox for subject shooting at home Clean boxing with your own hands

For shooting at home, homemade mini photo studio can be very useful. This beautiful thing will be very useful to any photographers, and beginners and more advanced, for shooting all possible small items, food, when you shoot in Macro mode. Having learned the cost of such a photo studio in the store, you hardly want to buy it, but by analyzing the macrobox itself, you can make it yourself.

Necessary materials

Here is a list of materials that you need when creating boxing for macro shot:

1) Box. The box can be absolutely any size, the main thing is to take it, with which it would be more convenient for you to work, and think about what size will be those things that you want to take a picture in it. This cardboard box can be simply asked in one of the food stores, or find a box that remains from purchased office equipment. If you try to try very much, you can make it yourself, not from cardboard, and from chipboard, it will be more reliable and last longer.

2) the cloth. It can be any fabric. In the example, an ordinary white fabric was used, which can be purchased at any store for needlework.
3) adhesive tape. Adhesive tape, or tape, are needed if you want to try to take pictures with different backgrounds, so you can always replace the fabric another if your plans do not include all possible experiments with the backgrounds, then you can fix the fabric and something Strong, for example, on furniture paper clips, or glue.
4) Glue. Glue will need to stick the bottom of the box.
5) Paper. This sheet will be located on the rear wall of the box with a semicircle and will serve as the main background. The paper should be relatively thick, but not so much that it was bent with wrinkles and cracks appeared. You can buy several sheets at once, different colors in the usual artistic store.
6) Lighting. For the normal operation of your photo studio, it is necessary to organize proper lighting for it. Without it, you will not get an image that you want. A table lamp with a daylight light bulb is suitable as a lighting device.
7) Other materials. To work, you will need scissors, ruler and pencil.

Macrobox manufacturing process

Now that you have all the necessary materials, you can proceed to work.
Step 1. Take the box, pencil and ruler. Make a pencil point on the box that will become its borders, then run the line. The boundaries are scheduled.

Step 2. Cut is superfluous, strictly following the outlined lines, so you have a box in the windows. Leave one side untouched - this is the bottom of the box.

Step 3. Take the paper prepared for the background, and keep it on the size of the box, insert in the box and secure it. Remember, paper in length should be greater than the height of the macrobox.

Step 4. Take the cloth, and cut rectangles from it, such that could close the windows in your photo-box. Stick this cloth using adhesive tape. Your task is to close the cloth three side openings and one top.

Ready!

Well, congratulations, your photocobe for subject and macro shot is ready. Take pictures of pleasure.

The process of working with macrobox.

There are many options for how to work as photo pieces for subject vending. If you have unwanted shadows - highlight an additional lantern from the right side. If you want to get the effect of vignetting, place the lens in the box as far as possible. You can always come up with something new, playing with lighting and backgrounds.

When I started writing my first reviews, it was already over 4 years ago - I immediately encountered the problem of quality photo. For them, the house catastrophically lacked the light - I have such a location of the windows, which is not enough to lunch the light, and after lunch, the sun shines directly into the windows. Especially acute the problem was in the winter, when it's not enough on the street on the street, and in the room so at all ... then I made my own hands my first Likebox, which improved several times. But he had long come to an end and I chose to replace him. This Likebox can help immediately in several questions - good clear photos with sufficient lighting and various backdrops - substrates. In general, if interested - go under the cat, at the same time I will show my homemade monster :))

As a minute of humor, I propose to look at my first self-made Likebox. For its manufacture, I used a box from the water heater, cutting out one of the sides, leaving a small visor to cover the lamp. For the quality of the photo, do not judge, because I fotal on an ancient smartphone for a long time, it's good that generally pictures are preserved.

Then I bought a lamp of daylight. I took the maximum power that I found.

Well, the lamp was screwed to the wrong part with nuts. Cardboard is thick, so it was fixed reliably. In addition, I endowed holes in different places, so that the lamp could be rearranged in different places, avoiding glare and reflections. For the background, White Watman usually used. That's how the finished design looked like.

Of course, the quality of the photo she improved, but not much. Lights lacked, ideally there should be 3 sources of light, i.e. 2 more on the sides. Over time, I refined and this question. But my miracle design had several flaws: first, it turned out quite cumbersome and not folded. And secondly, over time, she just rotted, because stored on the balcony))
Well, here we approached the very hero of the review. I received something in a small bag, I even thought that the Chinese were mistaken.

But by opening it, I realized that everything was in order. They somehow shoved Likebox into a small handbag. As soon as I pulled it out and pulled over the edge, all this design (as inflatable boats in the cartoon) began to rapidly turn around and increase in size. I am a little bit of what is happening. Fold it in the original state I could not! Maximum what I could achieve - plane, in this form you can safely hide for the sofa.

For comparison - with a handbag, where everything was stored.

In addition, 4 more fabrics were in the bag - substrates.

Bilateral fabric, on each side, different textures. On the one hand, something like suede, on the other - more glossy. In the corners of the velcro, to glue inside the cube.

Of course, the fabrics are with folds in the field of bend, so before use I had to swallow everything.
The cube in the unfolded state is quite voluminous. On this photo, the dimensions are clearly visible in comparison with the washing. At this time, the wife just passed and said that I bought a big laundry basket :)

Dimensions: 60x60x60 cm. There are less, for example, 40x40x40 cm and more - 90x90x90 cm. For my purposes it seemed to me the optimal size of this one and I did not lose.
As you can see the cloth Cuba, everything is mad, but it is absolutely not important, because in the photo it will not be visible. Her main destination pass through himself, making it soft, scattering it.
There are many spaces inside.

You can completely close the cube, only a small cut will remain for the photo.

With the help of lips, we cling the fabric - the substrate.

Ready, you can take a photo. I have not yet decided the problem with the light, before my lamps were attached to the cardboard, and now you need to think with tripods or other mounting options. In the ready state it should look like this:

I still have only one source - from above, the side did not come up with how to fix it. And I have a lot of table lamps. But even it turns out quite well. Here is a small faceter photo from Lightcuba.

The goods are provided for writing a survey shop. The review is published in accordance with paragraph 18 of the site rules.

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Many photographers, especially beginners, for some reason believe that it is possible to engage in the subject shooting only in a good studio, and even if there is special equipment. But it is completely wrong. They are deeply mistaken. Even at home you can perfectly organize a small photo studio in order to photograph objects. This is how our today's article is dedicated.

So, we start work.

Stage number one. Equipment that we need

Option first. Create a subject table

This option is probably one of the easiest. It is well suited for photographing small items and even to shoot still lifes. Such a home subject table is not difficult to build. It is under the power of any photographer, even novice and inexperienced. To do this, we need a white cardboard sheet sufficiently large sizes, approximately like a watman sheet. We will also need a support for our subject table. Such a support can serve as anything: for example, some big thick book, something from the dishes, a children's toy or even an old shoe or boots. Anyway, this is a support in the frame will not be visible, it will remain beyond its borders.

Such an improvised place for subject shooting is best organized on a wide windowsill of your home. It is very important to pay attention to the sunlight. If the object that you take pictures will be in the strip or stain of bright sunlight, on the walls of your subject table, it will discard deeply coarse and dark and ugly shadows. And this, you yourself understand, it will not declare your snapshot, you will not get the desired result. It is for this reason that it is best to arrange the subject table on the window going on the shadow side. Or, as a last resort, wait for another time, such that the sun goes to the other side of your home.

Option 2. Homemade photocock for subject shooting

Modern special photococcuses for subject shooting are very expensive, and buying them for one-time work at home does not make absolutely no sense. Let's try to make such a photocox with your own hands from what can be found in every home. Well, at least from an ordinary cardboard box and Watman's sheet. In this photo you see one of the options for the manufacture of such a homemade photocobe.

Some of the photographers manage to build similar photo pieces right on their computer desk. They do it all from the same Watman List. True, to work with such a photocus you will need quite a lot of lighting devices.

Option 3. Just background

In some cases, photographing objects, especially small, can not be on the windowsill. Even the subject table or photococcus is not necessary to build. You can do without them. Some photographers come much easier. To do this, choose the brightest angle in your room, or at least a well-lit part of the wall. If the wall in your room is not a monophonic, then you need to hang the background. This background can serve as the same sheet of Watman or a piece of suitable fabric. The subject you decide to take a picture should be put on the stool. This stool, you understand you want to cover the same material from which you made a background to shoot your subject.

I want to give another purely practical advice. If you decide to take pictures of jewelry at home, for example, your wife's favorite ring or its most beautiful earrings, for shooting these items can be placed on a stirred granite tile. The reflecting surface of this noble stone will emphasize the beauty of the decorations themselves.

Stage number two. Organize lighting

Lighting with home subject shooting primarily depends on how the equipment you will use to use. If you decide to photograph items on the window, the main source of light in this case you naturally have sunlight. Reflector can be used as an additional light source. It is also very easy to do from cardboard and foil. As a last resort, for this purpose - the backlight of the subject with reflected light - you can use just a sheet of the usual writer of A4 paper, or cardboard. The reflector can serve any light surface. Even a ordinary newspaper or ... a friend in a white T-shirt.

If you decide to use a homemade photo message for an alignment, you will need at least three sources of light. These sources will highlight your object through the walls of the photocobe from above and on the sides. This will help you to create very good lighting in the photo without sharp and coarse shadows. In some cases, if you really try, the shadows can be avoided at all. In the role of such light sources, you can use table lamps or any other lamps that you can easily find in every home.

Stage number 3. Photographic equipment required for subject shooting

In order for your pictures to be clear and sharp, and this in the subject, it has, you agree, very important, it is necessary to use a tripod. This simple accessory will allow you to avoid the vibration of the camera when shooting on long excerpts. In extreme cases, the camera can be installed on some fixed support. You also need a remote control of the camera, or at a thin end, a cable in order to produce a contactless shutter descent.

Stage number 4. Survey process

Well, for the start of work, everything has been prepared. Now we need to be beautifully located the subject we will take pictures on our improvised mini-shooting area, simply speaking, shoot in a beautiful composition of the future photography. Also at this stage you need to properly configure the camera.

Naturally, the subject shoot is best to lead in manual mode. If you take pictures in automatic mode, the exposure errors are most often inevitable. Especially if you take a bright object on your color, placing it on a dark or even black background. It is also important to properly adjust the balance of white and light sensitivity of the matrix. The ISO value must be no more than 200 units. The smaller the ISO value, the smaller the noise level will be on your image. In the subject photo, this is also important. After all, the subject should be shown in the photo as natural as possible.

Do not forget to turn off the flash on your camera. In order to get a high-quality image snapshot, light from the window or desk lamps will be quite enough.

Well, it's time to make the first trial picture. Consider it carefully and analyze the result of your work. If you see an exposure error in the picture, fuzzy sharpness, if you do not suit the lighting or something else, correct all these flaws by changing the camera settings or the lighting scheme and repeat the shooting. And if everything turned out well, since you planned, boldly continue the job. All you have to do.

High-quality survey of objects is very difficult. We need special tables, backgrounds, sources of scattered light - softboxes.
But there is a device that great facilitates the life of the photographer. It is a Lightkub, he is a photocobe, he is a batter tent. On sale, of course there are ready-made solutions, but Lightkub is such a thing that it is much easier to make it with your own hands.

Structurally, the device is a frame covered with a scattering cloth with a background inside, and illuminated by 1-3 light sources. The simplest lightcube can be groaning literally in twenty minutes from a cardboard box and "cigarette" paper, but if you want something more thoroughly, you will have to work hard. Fortunately, detailed instructions are published in various photoblogs.
Most of the authors recommends making a frame from PVC Cable Channel boxes. Ok, Bartimeus told himself and went to the construction store.

So at first I had:
- Watman leaf size A1.
- PVC box 16x16 - 4 pcs for 2 meters;
- Barbaching Land 15x20mm - 6 pcs. 1.2 meters;
- Spunbond, he geotextile - 1 packagevKA, 1.6 x 10 meters.

I cut 12 slices of a box with a length of 35 cm. In four of them, I made a slot on the side, even four cropped "ears". Looking forward, I note that this is very paint job. The cable channel is not intended for the creation of structures from it and therein does not forget this relationship.

For cutting box, I thought of using a garden secateur. :) And for the connection - use the construction mounted glue Lacrysil "cooler nails", in the hope of compensating for the unevenness of the profile and flaws cutting. Looking forward, I note that the hopes were justified only partially.

Nevertheless, quite soon I became the owner of two 35x35 cm. It remains to connect them to the cube, "eared" slices.

The task was so difficult that it was necessary to call for the help of liquid nails ...

Nevertheless, here he is the cherished cube! Oddly enough, the design came out relatively durable. Although also non-zeys. What can you do, working with PVC box, requires direct hands ...

For prophylaxis, I saved the corners with scotch. Then placed inside the background, and covered the cube spanbond. By the way, instead of geotextile you can use a hazard, and, in principle, any white tissue, even the old shirt will fit.
Who whispers there "nightie" ?? Leave the audience, pursuit! :))

Something forgotten? Surely! The most important thing is the light!
This is what Lightkub looks like on combat positions. For lighting, I used two desktop lampsULTRAFLASH UF-301. These are the first pictures. As you can see, they look more than decent. Despite the fact that there were no successful to get rid of the shadows (the spunbond is still too thin, it is necessary to at least two layers), the quality of the photo is an order of magnitude higher than those that I did when light from the window.

Nevertheless, when the first delight of the pit, I wanted ... Make version 2.0. For in the process, annoying structural flaws were revealed.
I already thought to buy a box, and connect it correctly, cutting off all the irregularities and customizing the details as accurately as possible when it saw it during the next meditation in the constructionarket.
Remember and do not say that they did not hear! The best Lightcuba frame material is a "corner" profile of PVC, white, 20 * 20 mm, 1.5 mm thickness. Sold with chunks of 2.7 meters, worth a penny, in any case - cheaper boxes. And he is tough enough to build a cube at least 60x60x60 cm ...

Perfectly cuts with a metal with a metal ...

... and no less perfectly glued! Moreover, you can even use the glue "moment", it is not necessary to spend money on the mounting. Frames came out in one breath. For reliability, I fixed the places of gluing with clothespins.

My Lightkub 2.0 is a parallelpiped 30x35x45 cm. Rating forward, I note that a bit missed - the length of the module it was necessary to make a centimeter 42.5-43. Why explain below.

I introduced another important addition to the design - a LED ribbon was placed on the inner surface of the top corner. For front illumination. This decision I spied the Chinese from Aliexpress.

Tape power - 14.4 watts / meter, with a length of 35 cm (this is 7 LED modules, each 5 cm) Power consumption will be 5.04 watts, with 12 volt supply voltage, the current will be 420 million. Which allows you to use the usual DC 12 V block with a current of 500-700 mA!

While the shock glue, you can build the scattets. According to the new concept, they must be removable. From the extext bar, I fastened the subframes 2 pcs. 30x35 cm and 1 pc. - 35x45cm. On the side, I pulled the ceiling tissue PONGS, and on the upper - two layers of sponbon. For the attachment used the power buttons with caps, but are suitable and ordinary.

Now someone will ask, and why it was impossible to build the entire frame from Bru, why is it a roastery with a corner and overhead scattens? I answer: for this you need not only elementary carpentry skills, but also a joiner's workbench or at least a normal desktop with vice. Saw a bar "On the knee" - a bad idea, and collect the frames of the frame "on weight" from pieces - and worse.

As you can see, this time every effort was justified. A piece of Watman lay inside as a glove, if my photococcus was shorter, centimeters so 43, then calmly it was possible to use a ready-made format A2. The ceiling fabric dispels the light well, despite that I screwed in the "Boards" powerful GAUSS 15W light bulbs, 1400 lumens each. For the top backlight, I used the luminaire on the clothespin"BlueCont" E50N With a lamp 590 Lumen, although the usual cartridge on the tripod is suitable.As you can see, the results are achieved. The glare and shadows disappeared, the only thing that needs to work on the white balance correction, but this is another topic.

Visual demonstration of the backlight results of the LED ribbon. Option "No backlight" - left. As you can see, the result is very much worth a pair of extra rubles spent on the tape and block.

The frame and the scatterers cost about 7 rubles with new ones, and half the amount was given for glue. Another 5 rubles had to lay out for the LED ribbon, it is sold by meters. The power supply does not take into account the dispersion on them.

Summary. Lightkub is an effective help for the subject photographer. Its easily and just make it with your own hands, the main thing is to determine the size and choose the right material for the frame.

P.S. It remains to wait until Santa Claus bring me an "adult" camera, and it will be possible to try the forces on the photos ...
P.P.S. The original article was originally posted on the "Ozzovik" website, but, in connection with the policy of the administration, he had to postpone here.

If you do not want to spend money on what you can do yourself means you look like me. Once I was in the store and saw photos of these accessories. They consisted of a foldable base, covered with white cloth with a hole in the front wall. Photocles are used to shoot items in a photo studio (for example, such as this chocolate deer).

I was going to buy a photocobe until I saw a $ 100 price. Would spend $ 100 into several pieces of translucent fabric and frame?! All this can be done much cheaper. So, I built a similar light tent myself (so they are also called), and it turned out quite well.

Necessary materials:

1. Cardboard box.

It can be any size, depending on which items you are going to shoot and what is the power of light sources. I prefer the box in the shape of a cube or close to it. Boxes can be found everywhere for free. I brought my job, where they are still thrown away. You can also find boxes in the backyard of various shopping centers, shops. Boxes of thicker material better.

2. Fabric

You can use any white tissue. For this boxing, I used white Muslin. You need to buy so much so that you can close all the walls. I spent 4 dollars on the fabric. Some people use other fabrics such as nylon or white fleece. It is better to use one type of fabric from one cut, otherwise small color changes are possible and the final result may disappear.

3. Adhesive tape

I use the adhesive tape to fix the fabric on the sides of the box. Thus, you can easily change the fabric to another if necessary. I use paint scotch tape (1 dollar per roll).

4. Clay

You can use any adhesive to glue paper strips inside the box.

5. Dense White Paper (Watman)

Dense white paper or watman will be glued with strips inside the box to make the surface white, and will also be used as a background. I suggest buy 2 or 3 sheets to have enough. Watman is sold in stationery offices and is used for drawing or drawings. If you want to use color backgrounds, you need to purchase similar colored paper.

6. Lighting

The most expensive of everything you need for a photocox is lighting. Well, if you already have a fairly powerful table lamp. In my opinion, the lighting is the most important component - without it you will not get the desired picture. I went to the nearest household appliances store and looked that you can buy for this purpose. As a result, I bought a lamp with an energy-saving lamp equivalent to 90 W. Beware of the use of incandescent lamps, as they give a yellow shade. Better, if the lamp is with a round reflector.

7. Other tools

You will also need a roulette, ruler, scissors, knife and marker.

Step by step

1. Perform markup.

Take the roulette, ruler and marker. Return from the edges of the box of about 2 inches (5 cm) Spend the lines to get a square inside.

2. Cut the windows.

Repeat markup on all sides, except the bottom and top. Then a sharp knife cut the windows in the markup box. Remove the top cover sash. Do not touch the bottom of the box. You should get four windows.

3. Cut paper strips.

Watch lines on Watman every two inches. Then make the strips on the size of the inner sides of the box.

4. Stick paper strips.

Stick paper strips to the inner surface of the box to close the cardboard and make the inner surface of white. Make sure the side of the paper strip, where you marked the line marker is turned to the cardboard.

5. Doing the background.

Cut out the blank for the background from Watman. The width must be the same as the inner size of the box, and the length is much larger than the box.

6. Place the background inside.

Place the paper strip in the box so that it is smoothly bent. Do not bend the sheet, do not make a bick, as it will be noticeably in the picture. Cut extra paper from above.

7. Close the windows with a cloth

Follow and cut the cloth so that it closes the windows from the sides and the back, except the front wall. Then cut the piece to close the upper part.