(unusual) lighting help needed

diverdewan

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I am new to lighting and my needs are almost the exact opposite of most lighting posts. Let me preface this question with I am a scientist and this lighting is for a mouse behavior experiment where I need to track the mouses location in a large box. I need to evenly illuminate (with constant lighting) boxes with out tops that range in size. The camera is mounted on top of box. It shoots both videos and stills in the ir so shutterspeed is not a problem. But for better mouse behavior I want as little light as possible while evenly illuminating box with no ( or almost no) shadows. I was thinking two lights on stands with diffusers or umbrellas....am I on the right track? Thanks for all your help...past, present, and future. Any thoughts, suggestions, or information would be helpful.
 
I think an overhead lighting system would work , kind of hard to say without knowing the types of lights you have or if you have a budget for them. I don't think it would be that hard to make.
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Lanterns
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Shoot well, Joe
 
try making the boxes out of white acrylic sheets so you can light it without using umbrellas.
 
You could custom build a ring-light with leds that you fasten on the lens of the camera. This will create 0 shadows.

Also the light output can easily be modified so you can lower it if it affects the mouse behavior, and since led is a "cool" light you won't fry the poor creatures :D

Here is a tutorial to build a ring-light
Build an LED Ring Light

Hope I could help :)
 
There is only 1 way to light to minimize shadows - a large light source. But, you say you'll be capturing video and stills in IR.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. To be clear the camera will be collecting data in ir. But the mice need a low level of light to be able to see. The low light level is also necessary to help counter balance the computer screen which needs to be on. A bright light makes mice very anxious and they do not behave. I know zero shadows may be impossible but I would like to minimize as much as possible.
The lantern idea sounds good but I am not sure how it would work because camera has to be mounted above as well. It seems like the camera would leave a shadow.
Most of our boxes are made out of white acrylic or are mostly transparent.
The current setup is a single fluorescent light source pointed at the white ceiling. The problem it is just mounted above the camera so I get the shadow of the camera and crossbar where the camera is mounted.
The led idea sounds really great. I am going to go over the tutorial in depth and see if that will work.
As for budget... In the hundreds. It will be paid for by a grant. But the cheaper I can do it the more I can stretch my grant and buy more necessities.
Thanks to everyone who has given my ideas so far.
 
I would stretch a translucent white cloth over the top of the box that has a hole in it for the lens.
The cloth would become a diffuser for the light in the room and would block a lot of the camera/camera support shadow.
 

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