Kind of excited

jedirunner · Apr 12, 2013

So today I spent some money ... actually one of the cheapest photography purchases ever, probably. I bought some PVC, joints, clamps, a white sheet, and some lamps with 100w 5000k bulbs for a cheap light box setup. Cut and assemble the PVC into a 2'x2'x2' (roughly) cube. Clamped the white sheet over top and sides. Draped a dark piece of fleece over the back for a cheap backdrop. Finally, took the 7 year old daughter out to pick a couple of our daffodils. Popped them in a glass, put it inside the box, put the lamps on the outside of the box, and had some fun. (absolutely no care about composition, or photographic artistry or perfection -- just let the 7 year old grab her old hand-me-down camera (she has a canon powershot sx200), and took some snaps.

While this isn't any sort of a professional light cube or strobe setup, it certainly should fill the gap when I want to go shoot something but the weather's horrible, and I can just bring a flower inside.

Also, it has the lovely side-effect of showing my wife what lighting setup can do and what it's significant limitations are. She's already 90% convinced I need a $500-$750 budget for a lighting setup to start learning portraits with lighting. hehehe... Just have to keep convincing her.

Regardless -- i have a blast snapping away with my daughters.

Kevin

jedirunner · Apr 12, 2013

Oh, forgot to mention that I also *finally* invested in a copy of LightRoom 4. Only been using snapseed on the iPad so far for any editing I've been doing. LightRoom will be a huge upgrade I'm sure.

tirediron · Apr 12, 2013

Nice! :thumbup:

Derrel · Apr 12, 2013

What an awesome thing to have done!!!! Major bonus points awarded to you,sir!

tirediron · Apr 13, 2013

:addpics:

jedirunner · Apr 13, 2013

tirediron said:
:addpics:

Let's see if I can make this post slightly less worthless ...

1. The PVC project (roughly 2' cube)

2. Covered (clamped bed sheet, white fleece backdrop, clamp lamps with 100w (equivalent) 5000k fluorescent bulbs)

3. Had to grab something to shoot. Yes, it looks horrible, and I'll need to work on that. But I just grabbed it, put it on a box with a sheet of printer paper under it, and shot.

I think once I:
1- Setup for and take *intentional* photos
2- Diffuse the light slightly more
3- Get more experience
... I could be in for some fun times with the daughters. (the 11 year old is my main photo companion, shooting with a Canon G1-X currently. The 7 year old is the just-getting-started companion, shooting with the hand-me-down PowerShot SX 200. The 17 year old and 13 year old don't care much for anything but taking snapshots).

Kevin