DIY mini photo studio

Here's how Nick Britsky made a nifty mini photo studio.

Our household is spawning blogs like bunnies. Since I need all the help I could get, I thought it would be good to up my photo game. We’ve been using a bay window to take some of our pictures. So I started researching a mini photo studio solution. The goal was to combine a light tent and an infinity wall all in a desktop model. I started by mocking it up in Sketch-up. The hardest part was figuring out the curve. Sketch-up was a huge help and with little math I figured out the length while leaving a gap to wiggle it in. I used hardboard as it had the most flex and kept me from having to keft plywood.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski

I’ve never heard of kefting. Probably illegal in Utah.
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  You’d be surprised at how much is legal here.
  
  Well until the Eagle Forum finds out.
Jonathan Danz

Maybe kerfing?
- http://www.facebook.com/nickbritsky Nick Britsky
  
  HA! Thanks for catching that everyone.
Tichrimo

Day-um. That is exactly what I need to resume my stop-motion LEGO animation project. (My homebrew greenscreen solution just wasn’t up to snuff, and left way too many artifacts in the finished product…)
BrianHardyman

Interesting. A nice setup but what does it cost? Since cost is usually the main reason to go DIY. My 16x16x16 light box ran $25 including all materials and lights.
ROSSINDETROIT

Clever, and a good example of careful design producing good results from simple materials.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Nice!

I may make something similar, but it has to be collapsible. I know there are commercial solutions, but I’m a MAKER damnit!
- Robert Cruickshank
  
  I made one that folds flat to about the size of a portfolio case. It would work a little better with Masonite instead of matte board, but it gets the job done.
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/84221353@N00/sets/72157629586763700/
dayhat

The urban dictionary states:
Keft. to pass gas, to rip, to trump. Commonly used in the classroom after someone just let rip a major eggy fart: “OHHH! Who’s keft?”

Colour me confused
http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

Mine is just a sturdy cardboard box with cotton covered windows on three sides and an open front. Seems to give acceptable results. No fancy-ass infinite anythings required. http://lowercasesolutions.com/photography/product/gizmo_600.png
djmidwest

I suspect you mean kerfing not kefting. Kerfing is the process of cutting many parallel shallow cuts into wood to allow the curving of normally rigid materials .
Nick Hayday

Terrible photographic results on his Flickr, I made one out of a large cardboard box and some pure white artist board
- bluest_one
  
  Wow. They’re really bad.
  
  Bit of a shame, really.
http://www.doggo.net doggo

Pretty sweet. And it’s gotta be cheaper than the commercial alternative(-ish):
http://www.manfrotto.us/lighting-still-life-tables-tables
http://ok-cleek.com/blogs cleek

i made mine out of PVC with some white polyester for the sides:

http://www.ok-cleek.com/images/lighttent.jpg

cheap work lights clipped to some handy mic stands for lighting.

works fine: http://www.ok-cleek.com/images/lightning.jpg
http://profile.yahoo.com/7CC7NXXJGVWDVCZV5J26NUSDWM Rad

I think you would be better off making Steve Sint’s light table. Easier to construct and break down also better lighting possibilities.

http://www.setshoptutorials.com/item/1-learn-how-to-build-a-light-table
scooterscooter

I’m wondering if the little tripedal robot is going to drink what’s in the brown bottle – or just look at it.