OT: Photography Help
 

Does anyone use a light box to take pictures for your eBay auctions or website. There seems to be some good buys on eBay for light boxes to take pictures of items that stand on there own, but I am concerned that it won't be as effective for magazines and photos that lay flat.

Thanks,

Jeff

I have thought about myself so I am interested to hear if anyone has input. It seems like a no brainer every time you have to deal with flash / lighting issues.

I just Googled some DIY directions and made my own bush league version. Basically a cardboard box with sides cut out and some thin foam (old packing material) to kill any glare. Grabbed a couple of cheap lights from the hardware store and it's just a piece of construction paper for the background.
You could surely get much better results with a store bought version or a better homemade version.



http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...ibu/th_003.jpg

Jeff,

I am by no means a professional photographer, but in my experience, the biggest difficulties with photographing photos, magazines or other flat items are 1) glare from lights and 2) keeping the item flat while keeping the camera at 90 degrees to the item. A light box helps a lot with #1, but presents even more difficulties for #2 unless it is large and specifically made to deal with flat items. Placing a card on a stand is one thing, but getting a curled 8x10 photo or a floppy magazine to stand up straight for the shot is a whole other endeavor.

I do use a light box/photo tent for 3-dimensional items (balls, statues, toys, etc), but find that it's tough to beat a good flatbed scanner when it comes to photos and other flat items.

I visited a map store today and asked them if they could create quality scans of oversized photos. They could not, but they gave me a couple of businesses' names that I'll check out this week. Will get back with the results.

Scott,
Something I hadn't thought of when you asked about the oversized photos before is you might check with a duplication/print shop. When I was working in civil engineering, we occasionally had to scan full-sized sets of plans (24"x36") and would have them done at such a place. I would caution though that such places are not accustomed to dealing with high-priced collectibles, and depending on the dimensions of your photos, the scanning would probably be done in a pass-through arrangement rather than an oversized flatbed scanner.

Thanks - that was my thought in stopping by the map store, but they only do monochrome. Most of my oversized photos are cabinets, so it would have to be done on a flatbed; however, wherever I get it done, I'll have a very detailed discussion first. Hoping to get it done this week, as I have one that I'm anxious to get framed.

Scott, I recently had a 16x20 original team photo scanned by a professional photo restoration shop. They used a large format flatbed scanner for the job but still had to scan it in two passes. They stitched the image back together and you could never tell where the line is. The service cost $40 and I got a DVD with the image. The file size is huge (1.5GB) which helps tremendously with touch ups and the quality of the image if I were to do a digital reprint of it down the road. I imagine an image that will fit onto a flatbed scanner without having to be stitched together would be much cheaper.

Thanks William. I'll be bringing in about 25 photos, so if there's no 'stitching together' required, I'm hoping the volume will keep the price reasonable.

Thanks for all the responses...this is how I hopefully have answered my original question. I will let everyone know how it works out.

http://www.juliusstudio.com/shop/ind...photo-box.html

Jeff

Light box
 

Looks pretty cool Jeff. Let us know how it works when you start taking photos with it. Am I to assume that because of the light shining on the item through the side panels, that you don't have to use your camera's flash, thus cutting down on glare?

Exactly Keith. How are you doing?

Jeff

Light Box
 

I've been doing well Jeff, How about yourself? It was nice meeting you in Baltimore.
If it works out well for you, I might need to pickup one of those light boxes as well. I probably photograph every item for my site 5 or 6 times, increasing the chances of better photos, less glare, etc. Probably worth investing in the light box - at the very least it should save me time.

All is well. I will keep you posted....I hope to have it this upcoming week.

Jeff