Question regarding light tent.


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Linnl71

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Greetings to all snappers.

Currently I am considering to purchase a light tent for taking pictures of specific objects and items to put up for sale.

However, after looking at images from google and reading up a little. I've realised that usually when using a light tent, there will be additional lights shining towards the sides of the tent.

Now, my question is, if I were to purchase a light tent and not use any additional lights except my pop-up flash & room ambient light, will there be sufficient light? Will the result turn out good?

Hope someone can help me out here :)

Cheers!
 

For light tent im pretty sure you need at least a separate flash to do..

What I've done as an alternative is use a big white styrofoam box (like those for fish, but clean) and put the object inside. With your built-in flash you can wipe out the background leaving you with a pretty good product shot, for much less than $40+- experiment with overexposure... as long as the object you selling isnt white then should be fine :) (if it is, then find a long sheet of black paper and put it so that it forms a 'base' and a 'back wall' without creasing, so instead of a "L" shape, a "J" shape. Put your object on it and diffuse your flash. The continuous background will make it look like a pretty good product shot.

hope it helps!
 

Last edited:
Greetings to all snappers.

Currently I am considering to purchase a light tent for taking pictures of specific objects and items to put up for sale.

However, after looking at images from google and reading up a little. I've realised that usually when using a light tent, there will be additional lights shining towards the sides of the tent.

Now, my question is, if I were to purchase a light tent and not use any additional lights except my pop-up flash & room ambient light, will there be sufficient light? Will the result turn out good?

Hope someone can help me out here :)

Cheers!

No, there won't be sufficient light. You'd need to light it up. What the light tent does is to diffuse the light and bounce it around.

Using just the pop-up and room lights is NOT enough. I've tried it.

Normally I just use a single off camera flash.
 

Understood, thanks for the help!

Guess I'll be heading down to Ikea to purchase additional lights already.
Hopefully can find good steals there.

Cheers :)!
 

Understood, thanks for the help!

Guess I'll be heading down to Ikea to purchase additional lights already.
Hopefully can find good steals there.

Cheers :)!

Do note that the light from Ikea is more warm, tungsten in WB. You'd need to correct this later on during processing. Alternatively, you can opt to use constant compact fluorescent lights. It'll be closer to the correct colour.
 

Just buy those lights with screw in bulbs. Buy different kind of energy saving florescent light bulbs and experiment with what color temp is suitable for your use. Dirt cheap. I find ikea energy saving bulbs are all yellowish. I like the ones from phillips, which you should be able to get at any supermarket or hypermart (carrefour. NTUC, Giant) or any hardware store.
 

Btw, this is an example of my DIY light tube complete with snoot.

 

Do note that the light from Ikea is more warm, tungsten in WB. You'd need to correct this later on during processing. Alternatively, you can opt to use constant compact fluorescent lights. It'll be closer to the correct colour.

Just buy those lights with screw in bulbs. Buy different kind of energy saving florescent light bulbs and experiment with what color temp is suitable for your use. Dirt cheap. I find ikea energy saving bulbs are all yellowish. I like the ones from phillips, which you should be able to get at any supermarket or hypermart (carrefour. NTUC, Giant) or any hardware store.

Yep noted guys. Or I could take my shots in RAW and adjust the WB from there too right ;).


Btw, this is an example of my DIY light tube complete with snoot.


Looks handy! How much does it cost in total? I might consider setting up my own DIY lighting too :think:
 

Pretty cheap actually... the light fixture was only $6 or $7, from a small lighting/hardware shop. The clip portion attracted me. :bsmilie:

The bulb was the expensive one, abt $10+

The snoot was made out of Lay's potato chip tube and gaffer taped.
 

You just position the light where you need them... it all depends on how I want to shoot in the first place.

And I'm kinda lazy to bring the whole set out just to shoot an example pic. :bsmilie:
 

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie and stumble upon this forum.

I would like to ask if I can use table lamp or reading lamp instead of flash light for light tent?

I don't know much technical stuff and just want to take a decent photo of small items to put up for sale. I'm using digital compact camera, I only have macro setting and tripod to help. Thinking of buying a light tent to help me. Any suggestion please?

Thanks
 

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie and stumble upon this forum.

I would like to ask if I can use table lamp or reading lamp instead of flash light for light tent?

I don't know much technical stuff and just want to take a decent photo of small items to put up for sale. I'm using digital compact camera, I only have macro setting and tripod to help. Thinking of buying a light tent to help me. Any suggestion please?

Thanks

Using table lamps is a possibility, but you'd probably have to correct the white balance later on during post-processing as normally such lamps are more tungsten in colouration and will give a yellowish colourcast.

There is a thread on how to correct the white balance even in jpg. Go have a read. :)
 

can anyone tell me which kind of lights to get from ikea? i was looking online, saw this table lamp,$7.90 but it states that i have to use ikea bulb. so i dont know if thats a good choice.

i need 2 lamps for my 75cm light tent.

any recommendation? on the lamp and which philips bulb to get?
 

can anyone tell me which kind of lights to get from ikea? i was looking online, saw this table lamp,$7.90 but it states that i have to use ikea bulb. so i dont know if thats a good choice.

i need 2 lamps for my 75cm light tent.

any recommendation? on the lamp and which philips bulb to get?

Ikea bulbs have different colour temperatures, so it all depends on which bulbs you get in the end. Also the cost is not cheap either, esp. in the long term.

Look around in hardware or lighting stores, they probably have more choices of lamps and such which allows you to switch around with other specification lamp bulbs.

Note the type of termination and the maximum allowable wattage and you should be ok.

The colour temperature can range from 5600K to 8000K, so check on this too.
 

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