~Building a Light Tent~
After much trial and error, I finally figured out that to take a quality close-up photo of an object, a light tent is simply a must. I looked and looked, and to my horror, companies that make these things expect you to pay upwards of $100 to get one!! I studied the pictures and thought to myself, "Self, you can build one of these for a tenth of that price!" So I did. And now, I'm making a tutorial for my friends and anyone else who wants it. This is how I made mine, and you can copy it exactly, or modify my design, or disregard it completely. Whatever. Just let me know what you think!!
I built my tent frame out of 1/2 inch PVC, so keep that in mind when buying pipe and joints. I found everything I needed at my local hardware store, except the fabric. Here's a list of materials:
4 twelve-inch pieces of PVC pipe
8 eleven-inch pieces of PVC pipe
8 one-inch pieces of PVC pipe
8 PVC corner joints
8 PVC T-joints
Tape (I used packing tape)
1 and 1/2 yards of white fabric (use an old white sheet if you have it, it'd be cheaper!)
1 10x24 inch piece of posterboard**
1 daylight bulb***
**I used white posterboard because white coordinates with every color, but you can use whatever color you want. Change it up to suit your mood. Whatever you want. I'd stick to white with the fabric though. Oh...don't crease the board either, or it'll show up in your photograph.
***This can be the expensive part. You don't want to use a regular incandescent bulb, because it will cast a yellow hue on your picture. If you want to get around this altogether, just do your photo shoot in the broad daylight. I had a daylight bulb already, as well as a clip-style desk lamp, so that's what I use.
Now...for the assembly!!
Step 1
The assembly is pretty simple. Attach one end of the corner to a one-inch piece, then the end of the one-inch piece to a parallel end of a T-joint. Attach an 11-inch piece to the other end of the T-joint. Like so in the picture. Then add another corner joint to the other end of the 11-inch piece.
Step 2
Keep putting pieces together like that until you make a square, like this one.
Step 3
Build another square like the first, only with the T-joints reversed, like the picture.
Step 4
Attach the 12-inch pieces to the open ends of the T-joints so you have (more or less) a cube.
Step 5
Tape the piece of posterboard to whatever side is going to be the back of your tent. Be careful not to crease the board or get it dirty...everything shows up in the pictures. I'd recommend orienting your PVC frame the same way I did in the pictures, so the support pipes don't get in your way too much.
Step 6
Wrap your piece of fabric around the frame, like so. I secured mine with a stapler, but as long as the fabric stays around the frame, it doesn't really matter how you do it. I wouldn't recommend doubling the fabric over, because that won't let in enough light.
Step 7
This is an optional part. This is how I set up my clip lamp with the daylight bulb. Like I mentioned before, you can get around this by simply doing your photo shoot outside in the sun.
Step 8
This isn't really a step. It's just how I set everything up. The tape is sitting there as a pedestal for the camera to sit on. You want to set your camera on something stable because when you use the macro setting on your digicam, the camera must be absolutely still, or you'll get blurry photos. Plus it's easier to focus. The camera is absent from the picture for obvious reasons.
Tada!!
I'm aware that I didn't set this picture up too nicely. But it does demonstrate the clarity that using a light tent will give you. If you're using a digital camera, which most people are these days, make sure it's set on macro mode to get the best picture possible. And now you all can see why I didn't take a "professional shoot" of Taker. The faults show up so well in these nice clear pictures. (Click the picture for larger view.) The idea is to let in enough filtered light to prevent your camera's flash from firing. That's what makes those shiny spots and glares. You'll probably have to play around with your setup a bit to get the results you want.
Epilogue
This is what happens if you don't pick up your stuff immediately. Be warned!! <Insert spooky music here>
