Sunday 9 March 2014

One More Thing off the To Do List

As opposed to the bucket list. But that's mostly because I have to do lists in my head, on scraps of paper, on my phone, but nothing for a bucket list.

The light box finally got made! Now I just have to contend with shadows that I make with the lights rather than having the excuse that the natural lighting is working against me. (Who me paranoid?)

We looked at how people made their homemade light boxes (with cardboard box and tissue paper) but we decided to make ours out of foam core and a light nylon fabric. It didn't take very long to make it, the part that took the longest was finding lamps that would work for our needs. Now I can finally start taking pictures that aren't dependent on natural light.
Extra fabric in case we want less light coming through the box.

Waiting for someone to bring a soap. Oh wait, I don't have people for that, I am the people who bring the soaps.
Testing out the location of the lights.

Look ma, no shadows! Well very little compared to before.












21 comments:

  1. Fantastic Monica, you guys are so clever! Wonderful lighting in your picture, it looks like it was taken in daylight. You will LOVE not having to wait for the optimal light to take your picture....it is soooo much easier (and less frustrating!)

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    1. Thanks Cee! I'm not so sure about the clever part but it's nice to have a light box. :) You are so right about loving not having to wait; it was almost like you sit there waiting for that one microsecond where the lighting is perfect from every angle, and oops, it's gone. Too bad, so sad. Now I wait until the next blue moon rising over Saturn when the unicorns come out to feast on eclairs before the lighting is just right again.

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  2. Very nice light box! Have fun taking all new photos.

    Why is there so much white space under the "Look, ma" photo?

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    1. Fun is a very relative term. I'm procrastinating because the soap pictures turn out so much better without the plastic wrap around the soaps, which means I then have to re-wrap them again.

      Is there a lot of white space? Basically because I didn't do a lot of cropping because I'm lazy?

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  3. I always have that smile on my face when reading your posts. Even before I start reading. I'm afraid that even if you wrote something quite serious, I would still have it!
    Your light box works,girl, looking forward to seeing more pictures.
    If you ask me, yes, there is much white space, you could crop it. Then the soaps would be fully exposed.

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    1. You too?... I get that smile when I see Monica's post and your comment, Maja ;)
      This is gorgeous, I have heard of it, and now I can see it too! I wish you could make it for me too, but... wait, I remembered I have no new soap...Anyway, I can't wait to see your next sopa picturei

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    2. Not only are you ladies talented, you are also too sweet in indulging the crazy lady and her warped sense of humour. ;) Big hugs to you both.

      Thank you for the confirmation of what Teresa said Maja. I think it has way too much white space both top and bottom and I'd definitely need to crop it some more to focus on the soap. I didn't this time because I was too lazy to take the wrapping off the soap, so didn't want you to see that part.

      Nat I would love to make a soap for you, although it wouldn't be nearly as wonderful as what Maja created, she is the true creative genius. I should read through your posts to see what you really like.

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  4. soap pictures'
    (sorry, it's Monday ;)

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    1. LOL! I do that all the time, and usually I can't even blame it on Mondays. :)

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    2. Hihi, we call it 'deaf phones'- I think Nat wanted a light box, Monica! But now, having mentioned a soap.......

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    3. Deaf phones, that's funny. :D

      Okay, I'm embarrassed, good thing this is on-line where you can't see me blush. I can't even blame it on being English as a Second Language because you all know at least 2-3 languages right? And here I can't even get one right.

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    4. Hahaha, you rock!
      It's funny, but we non-native English speakers, who also speak some Slavic language (or Roman), like me and Nat, don't actually need to speak perfect English to understand each other perfectly. We can always rely on our other language knowledge and can even mix words, even if we don't have any other langauge in common (except English)!

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    5. You are hilarious Maja! I think having more than one language is fabulous, you can mix and match your words to best suit what you're trying to convey.

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  5. Good job on the light box and for having one thing off your list, Monica! I know I should learn this too, but right now I am lazy to even think about it. Haha! I hope that with your new toy, you will be more inspired to take more pictures and make more soap. :-)

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    1. Thanks Silvia. Yes, it's nice to have a better way to take pictures without having to fuss with natural lighting. I don't think you're lazy, more like you have so much on the go, you can't find time for everything. I'm definitely inspired to take more pictures, or at least re-take some pictures now that I have the right tools.

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  6. Nice light box! I'm glad you have yours working well. I made a light box once but setting up lamps just right turned out to be so frustrating that I happily returned to natural light. But you are so right about Saturn, unicorns, and eclairs! But I am unceasingly optimistic (and/or delusional)...

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    1. Thanks Amy! Well it's still taking a lot of fiddling, like you said with the lights and I'm still not getting it 100%. I'd love to do all my photos with only natural light, but it's hard when you live in a cave.

      I love that you're optimistic (or delusional, which would make us kindred spirits). We need more optimism in the world.

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  7. Great-looking light box, Monica! I haven't tried to build one yet - I'm not very handy. Fortunately, the kitchen has a lot of light. :)

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    1. Thanks Jenny! I'm very jealous of your kitchen. I get enough light in the kitchen, but only from the one side, so I inevitably get shadows. Wanna trade? ;)

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  8. ooooh! I like it very much! Great Job Monica! I tried making a light box and it fell apart on me. I gave up and ended up buying a pop up one on Amazon. I just realized that I need to get a light in the back for mine. I like how yours leaves no shadows :). Looking forward to seeing more pics!

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    1. Thanks Roxana! You know what my secret is, get the husband to make it. ;) I like the idea of a pop up lightbox though, much more space efficient and if I wasn't so cheap, I'd go that route too. We only used lights on the sides and the top and by moving those around, it minimizes the shadows. I hope I can live up to everyone's expectations for more pictures.

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