Sunday, May 31, 2020

DYI Photo Cube

       With most everything being canceled, including live shows, for the foreseeable future, photo shows are starting to make a comeback. The one I am most excited about is Breyerfest Virtual Live show. Mostly because it is a photo show, but NOT a photo show. I did plenty of photo showing, for years, but finding a way to take nice indoor photos is hard for a lot of people. Years ago I built a photo tent to take sales photos, and I also figured I would take photo show photos. The indoor photo show photos never happened, but I did take a lot of sales photos in the tent. And if I got a large enough realistic backdrop (or several) I could quite easily take indoor photos. The last time I set up the photo tent it was on my bed. Really. I have a large square board that I put the footing on, tucked the white backdrop underneath, turned the lights on and got to work. Because they are not photo show photos, but pictures of live show entries (basically) I can do this even without a realistic backdrop. I like that. 
      I built my photo tent years ago but I do not remember which tutorial I used. I looked up several so if you are interested in making your own photo tent/studio/cube you have some ideas on how to start. 

https://www.diyphotography.net/how-build-pvc-diy-photo-light-box/

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HWIRRu7E4zE

https://expressionswithheart.com/2011/08/10/make-your-own-light-tent/

     My big recommendation is whatever size PVC pipe you end up getting make sure you have the connectors in the matching size. I think when I made mine I accidentally bought the wrong size the first time around and had to go back to the store. Remember when you could forget something at the store and just go back and get it and it wasn't a big deal? Those were the days...
      I know that I didn't write a lot of this post and I could have taken out my photo tent and measured everything and written up instructions on how to do this, or how I did it (I did this a LONG time ago), but honestly, there are better instructions out there than what I would give you. My tent will fall if you are not careful. It is a big rectangle with legs. It's not a cube, there is nothing holding the legs together so sometimes the splay out and the thing will fall. Really, there are better instructions out there, lol. I did not read everything in detail or watch all the videos but they look pretty good and pretty easy to follow. I hope this helps someone take some beautiful photos. 

2 comments:

Wyoming Artwork said...

I was wondering whether you could direct me to any good photo shows. I have been trying to get into it, but MEPSA is the only one I have really been able to find so far.

Field of Dolls Studio said...

I don't know of any photos shows other than MEPSA. I am entered into the Breyerfest virtual show and Cardshark live (which is normally live, but is photos this year). I know there are other photo shows, most of them online, but I don't know what they are.