Photo of the Day: August 23rd, 2009

[shmax]

Toys, shmoys. With the next photo contest coming up so soon I thought I'd share a shot of Hellscream333's light box. His looks a little fancier than mine in that it evidently isn't made out of old pizza boxes, and is also notable for the translucent sides, which help diffuse the light, reduce glare, and spread the light more evenly. I've really been digging the results he gets with this type of setup (and I suspect that Wallas does something similar), so today I built a new box for myself out of foam core and styrofoam, with cloth sides. I'll also be working with a new camera, partly because this new one allows long exposures and has a lot of fine controls to twiddle, and partly because I seem to have left my old camera in Japan. So, over the next few days I'll be learning how to do all this from scratch. I'll see if I can post some shots of my progress over the next few days in the Shutterbug Club forum, and you can all tell me how I'm doing everything wrong for a change.

[Squallte]

Dude Hellscream,
THAT IS SOOO COOL!!! It looks like you have some kind of clear plastic cube as the main box with a single sheet of poster board as the bottom and back with cloth as the sides and top. Is that right, if not, WHAT IS EVERYTHING MADE OF??? Someone said it was a "Silky" material, but what is it really, or what was it, a bed spread, pillow case, boxers, I would like to know??? Plus what and how did you build the frame??? I want to build me one for the upcoming contest!

[shmax]

Heya Squallers. You were doing pretty well in the last contest--are you sure you want to start all over this close to game time?

I started a thread in the Shutterbug Club forum where each photographer can post the details of his equipment and methods. I did mine, and HS has promised to do one as well. Why not do one yourself, so other newbies can learn from your example?

Until HS gets around to posting, I happen to know that the box frame is one of these:
http://www.target.com/Storage-Cube-Set- ... _rd_t=5101

It's 15" square, and is made of hard, rigid plastic. HS cut the sides and top out, and, as you say, used a sheet of paper to fill in the back, and draped a sheet over the whole thing. I used his as inspiration for my own, which is larger and cheaper but much flimsier. I looked around Target for a larger version of the same box, but to no avail.