[Tako Kichi]

I've recently had a hankering to try my hand at indoor photography using a light tent as there are many times when I can't get outside to shoot for either health or weather reasons (this last winter I hardly set foot out of the door for almost 5 straight months!) Cost was a major factor so I set out to see what results I could get on the lowest budget possible. I finally got all the bits and pieces together earlier this week and tonight I had my first photo session with my new equipment and I must say I am very impressed with my initial testing.

Equipment Used

QTY - Item - Source - Cost
1 - 24" light tent* - Ebay - $29.00 USD
2 - desk lamps - local hardware store - $12.17 USD each
2 - CFL bulbs** - local hardware store - $6.55 USD for two
2 - light diffusers - home made - Free - using materials I already had on hand

Total Cost $59.89 USD

* The light tent came with four backdrops (red, blue, black and white) and they have a reflective and non-reflective side.
** The CFL bulbs were rated as equivalent to an incandescent light of 100W and marked as 'bright white' with a colour temperature of 4,500K.

As we had some nice flowers in the garden a lily was chosen for the initial subject and I tried a variety of lenses to see what results I could get. The camera was a K-30 and the white balance was left on auto and then I set it to 4,500K in LR during PP.

Here are some of the shots I took (some PP has been applied to all just to see how good I could get the results).

Pentax DA 18-55 mm WR



Pentax DA21 Ltd



Pentax DA40 Ltd



Sigma 105mm DG EX Macro



I then decided to try my hand at some pseudo product photography using a few bits and pieces that were close to hand. All the following shots were taken with the Sigma 105mm Macro.









Lessons Learned

1. When placing a flower in a vase or glass take time to ensure the flower is central to the object otherwise you end up with off-centre crops and poor symmetry!

2. I also decided to try my hand at image stacking for the first time and used a macro focusing rail (another new toy) but unfortunately my attempt failed. The rail may be good for what it is intended for but I guess I used it incorrectly and the 20 shots I took were useless when I tried to stack them. I should have left the rail off and manually adjusted the focus point instead.

Conclusions

For the cost I think my set-up could be very useful and the pseudo product shots turned out to be quite impressive. I can see me getting a lot of use out of this equipment.

Hope this posts helps others thinking of going down the same road.

[SpecialK]

All pretty nice. That metronome image is not what I think of when I hear the word...I did not realize they got so fancy - like watches :-) Money well spent.

[Tako Kichi]

That metronome image is not what I think of when I hear the word...I did not realize they got so fancy

It's quite sophisticated and can accent specific beats with different sound tones and covers a range of time signatures (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 etc.). It can also provide non-standard rhythms like dotted notes and shuffle beats.

[Kerrowdown]

Wow, that Sigma shot takes the Lily image to a whole new level when compared to the others.

[Tako Kichi]

Sure does and the others lenses are no slouches either. You can see individual strands of spider silk and can almost count the pollen grains when you go pixel peeping on the original shot.

The Sigma sharpness on the guitar picks is amazing too, the white, purple and grey ones are covered in tiny spikes and they feel just like a cat's tongue. The other thing that amazed me in that shot is the way the Sigma retained all the detail of the white spikes on the white background. I thought that would have blown out but no, the detail is still there.

It's a pity the Sigma 105mm EX DG Macro has been discontinued in Pentax mount as it's a cracking lens. I was lucky to find a NOS (new-old-stock) version on Ebay (with an extended Canadian warranty) for less money than I'd seen used ones going for.

Here's the PF review page for it: Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG Macro Lens Reviews - Sigma Lenses - Pentax Lens Review Database