Great Food A Millennial Perspective: Light Tent

I believe photography is a major key to website success. Photographs are the key to triggering viewer’s attention, thus keeping them on your site. Once a site has great photographs and great writing they are set for success. The tools that help are light tents and great photographic equipment.

A light tent is basically a huge diffuser for light. Have you ever wondered how people get that floating effect? I’ve had so much fun with mine I decided to put a tutorial up on how to make it.

Supplies

- A Large Square Box
- White Muslin Fabric
- Masking Tape
- Glue Stick
- Four Sheets White Bristol Board
- Ruler
- Tape Ruler
- Knife
- Scissors
- Sharpe
- Two Halogen Lights

The Process

1. Grab the box, tape ruler and Sharpe marker. Measure two inches from the side of the box marking multiple points. Once you’re finished connect the points with your ruler, creating a square two inches for the actual edge. Do this to all four sides leaving the top and bottom intact.
2. With your knife cut out the four inner squares you just made in step one. Once you’ve completed this cut off the top of the box but keep the bottom intact.
3. Now grab the Bristol board and make lines every two inches eight times. After completing this you should have eight rows length wise on the Bristol board. Proceed to cutting out the eight strips of board, depending on the size of your box you make have to repeat this.
4. Grab the glue stick and glue the strips of paper inside the box. Make sure the entire interior is covered, with no brown box exposed.
5. Get another piece of Bristol board and cut so the width is the same as the inside of the box.
6. Place the Bristol board inside of the box to where it curves at the bottom. Avoid creasing as it can show up in photos. If it’s not long enough you may have to glue two pieces of Bristol board together. Cut off any excess paper that is sticking out the top.
7. Cut the Muslin fabric where it will cover the sides, back and top of the box. If you make four separate cuts it will work out better.
8. Pull the fabric tight over the cut out holes and tape it down using the masking tape. Make sure the fabric is very tight avoiding unwanted shadows. Make sure you don’t cover the hole that is facing the background.

The light tent is now complete. If you don’t already own Halogen lights then you can purchase them at the hardware store. Once you have the two lights ready plug them in, be cautious because the lights get extremely warm. Position the box in the middle of the two with the two lights on the side pointing towards the background.

Camera Settings

Once the light box is complete, you’re far from getting fantastic photographs. So much of photography is the settings you choose. If you ever want constant results you should learn how to shoot in Manual mode, this takes a lot of practice though. Shooting on a tripod is highly recommended since shutter times may be long, so consider using the timer or a wireless remote. Another thing to think about is purchasing a speed flash.

Strawberry