Beer + New Homemade Light Panel

jdunphy · Feb 12, 2007

On Saturday I built a mediumish light panel with PVC pipe and some thin transculent fabric I found at a WalMart. The whole thing cost a little under 20 bucks to make. I haven't decided what I'm mounting it on yet, though... So not just gets bugied to light stands.

@50mm

@22mm

And the setup...

Big Mike · Feb 12, 2007

Nice work :thumbup:

Tangerini · Feb 12, 2007

Wow nice

Look at you being all MacGyver like.

fmw · Feb 12, 2007

Nice softbox. It works very well. My one suggestion would be to use a piece of black foam core on the pedestal under the subject as well so that you won't get any color reflected from it onto the subject. Also a piece of white foam core opposite the softbox will reflect a little fill onto the bottles - not a lot, just a little. Good work.

jdunphy · Feb 12, 2007

Thanks for the head's up about the reflected light. I wasn't planning on keeping the surface in view so I didn't even think about that.

I actually had some with a reflector on the other side. But the bottles didn't have the nice layer of condensation built up when I took them. Here's one.

Patrice · Feb 12, 2007

Very effective. Looks like somebody is reading the 'Strobist' stuff. Timely post as I've got a product shoot coming up for an online silent auction.

fmw · Feb 12, 2007

jdunphy said:
Thanks for the head's up about the reflected light. I wasn't planning on keeping the surface in view so I didn't even think about that.

I actually had some with a reflector on the other side. But the bottles didn't have the nice layer of condensation built up when I took them. Here's one.

There you go. Just right. A little lightening of the label on the right without losing the moody composition. One more f stop would probably bring the label on the left into pretty good focus.

craig · Feb 12, 2007

Excellent work! If you really want to get silly; cover the rest of the frame with a white inside and black outside. This will prevent light from escaping. Always include a bounce card or board or whatever. They open the shadows a lot, so adjust your exposure or move the bounce further back. That is why you lost detail when adding said bounce. Certainly there are better bottles out there. I mean these things are just a sea of text. Look for ones with illustrations. I am huge beer fan, but I have to say that wine photographs a lot better.

subtleRIPPLE · Feb 13, 2007

Nice job - I just built myself a soft box, using an old stretcher from an old canvas and vellum - haven't had a chance to try it out yet, as I still need to buy some lights - what kind of light are you using there in that image?

THORHAMMER · Feb 20, 2007

awesome shot !!!

youll discover if you use 2 sheets youll eliminate the vertical line thats hidden in the label..... and your expoaure time should go from 1/400
to like 1/50 or something

Not nitpicking, I just notice a lot of people are afraid to use longer exposures with tripods, and if you can , go iso 100, you should get more leeway with your PS darkroom, in short you can be a little more creative in your editing before you see weird artifacts of any type.

just 2 cents, all in all I want to put this on my wall near the fridge its hot !

neea · Feb 20, 2007

these are awesome. they look cold.. makes me excited for summer

this is an awesome set up. I've been pricing out tents online but think it'd be way cheaper to go with pvc pipe.
this set up also looks a little better than a tent, it allows for larger objects.

great work. nice pics

Stevedevil · Feb 21, 2007

You can also use bottles on a surface to add to the effect and use a maglite to take images then overlay in PS

Steve

jdunphy · Feb 21, 2007

Thanks for the comments, everybody!

Craig: I thought about building sides to the modifier, but right now I want to still be able to pull the legs off. This allows me to hang it in my front window, like for this portrait I took a couple days ago.

If I start attaching more stuff, I'd end up with a big permanent softbox, and I've got no where to keep that in my little SoCal house.

SubtleRipple: That's just an SB-600 fired via CLS from an sb-800. THis was taken at 1/4 or 1/8 power on manual.

neea: PVC will be my financial savior!

Stevedevil: That's a wicked cool shot!

THORHAMMER said:
youll discover if you use 2 sheets youll eliminate the vertical line thats hidden in the label..... and your expoaure time should go from 1/400
to like 1/50 or something

Not nitpicking, I just notice a lot of people are afraid to use longer exposures with tripods, and if you can , go iso 100, you should get more leeway with your PS darkroom, in short you can be a little more creative in your editing before you see weird artifacts of any type.

Thanks, thor.

I thought about using two sheets, but I think the material is a little thick for that. I need to find something a little thinner.

Regarding the shutter speed. I don't see how that really matters when I'm using strobes. I was trying to cut any ambient light from the shot, so I cranked up that shutter.

THORHAMMER · Feb 21, 2007

the shutter speed is just an indirect indicator. I prob said it wrong, but the iso matters. lower iso gives you less noise. you might not think youll notice @ a 1/60th shutter, but if your shooting raw and catalouging your shots, eventually youll want to make sure you have the least amount of noise possible...