AusBonsai

Hi Australian bonsai mates!



So this week is my last week of break before I head back off to college, so I've been sitting around thinking of things to do to entertain myself. Well, I decided I'd try my hand at building my own light box from materials I had lying around the house. This should help me take better pictures of my trees.

Materials used:
-Box
-Box cutter
-Tape
-Poster Board
-Wax Paper
-Lights

First I got a box: Cut out three of the sides: Placed my poster board: Covered the sides with wax paper: Added my lights: And snapped a couple of pictures:
Hope this helps you all!



Comments are welcome.

Hey mate,

Love the set up! See if you can line it with Suede cloth instead of paper though (craft stores should have this) as it will not reflect the image of the light bulbs... also they reduce shadow. .

-Mo

MoGanic wrote:Hey mate,

Love the set up! See if you can line it with Suede cloth instead of paper though (craft stores should have this) as it will not reflect the image of the light bulbs... also they reduce shadow. .

-Mo

Ah yes thank you, that is an excellent idea. Didn't even think of that. Maybe if I can manage to suspend the lights above the box you wouldn't be able to see the reflection though....I've got a lot of toying around to do.

Nice idea and I wish I was looking for things to fill my time in
Not enough hours in the day for me

Ken

Thank you Ken, I'm sorry to hear that

I'm wondering, would black make a better backdrop? Or would that be a bad idea, and eliminate the idea of "depth?"

Suspending the lights above would give poor definition, you want some light to hit as mamy leaves as possible.

As for black, id say get a few different ones! Get black AND white... Lighter green leaves would pop more on black and darker colours on white.. Also a defoliated/dormant tree would not do well against a black background unless it was a light color

MoGanic wrote:Suspending the lights above would give poor definition, you want some light to hit as mamy leaves as possible.

As for black, id say get a few different ones! Get black AND white... Lighter green leaves would pop more on black and darker colours on white.. Also a defoliated/dormant tree would not do well against a black background unless it was a light color

Thanks! Good points all around. I think I'll just stick with white for now, until I can find some more colors to use.

I made a bigger box using a bed sheet and a PVC pipe frame, should work for my bigger trees:

The bed sheet is working very well =D.

If you put the lights on the outside of the paper it diffuses it and stops shadows.
There are some very helpful vids on youtube on this subject.