After so many frustrations of taking photos without adequate lighting, I decided to do something about it. The days are getting shorter and my lovely natural light is rapidly disappearing not to mention it’s usually dark by the time I want to do food photos. I began poking around looking at light tent prices and I didn’t like them.  I thought it was something I could probably make myself much more inexpensively. After a bit of searching I found some directions for a light tent and I went from there.

Over the weekend I spent some hours purchasing PVC, ripstop nylon, lamps, and backgrounds. Yesterday I began sawing PVC and assembling. I’ve modified the original design (You know I can never quite follow directions, don’t you?) to include a full box frame and a sewn nylon cover. I wanted to use the nylon rather than a sheet because dirt and things won’t cling to it like they will an old sheet. It’s also easier to keep the nylon ripple free if I want to shoot without a background.

Here’s the first test photo. I need to get out the camera manual still because my background isn’t as white as it should be and I know I can fix that with white and grey cards. I’ve got white and grey felt but those should do nicely. I do think the yarn colors are a bit more true in this photo and oh by the way, this is the start of my exchange socks. If it looks like a big honkin’ ball ‘o yarn, that’s because it is.