Tuesday 25 December 2012

All I want for xmas... Is a steampunk light tent

No, really! That's what I got, check it out!


I've mentioned for some time that I was intending to upgrade my photo-taking apparatus and my now retired dad got very excited about the project. He's a long way craftier than I'll ever be with DIY and so I figured "carry on Sergeant" was the way forward. Well, a couple of days ago he delivered a pile of tubes and bolts with pages of instructions and a slightly maniacal grin. Nervous, I set to construction and the results are brill.


Firstly, it's huge! That's our spare room double bed supporting it. The core is an 80cm cubic light tent made of diffusion fabric. That way the lamps light the fabric and the fabric transmits soft, shadow free light within the cube. Big enough even for titans (thankfully).


The lights, which I've yet to screw in, are 30W energy saver daylight bulbs, equivilent in wattage to an old 150W bulb and virtually cold so I can get them as close to the fabric as I like. The mounts move along those copper rails and he's even included multiple clip positions to allow my to jiffle them around to my hearts content.


And no more need for bulky tripod. That is a camera mounting bracket attached to the base of the unit on clips so that again I can jiffle it around to my satisfaction.

Well, I'll be test driving this soon so we'll see what this rig produces. I'm not really back in action properly until the new year. Taking a week to rest and do some charity painting for Paint the City Pink. Until next time folks.

TTFN

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