I learned something new today. :-) Recently I purchased a lightbox, like those photographers use to view slides and doctors use to view x-rays. I had originally planned to use it for illuminating transluscent objects, but the light isn't strong enough to be very effective. However, a while back I bought some transluscent scrapbook paper for when I finally got a lightbox, and today I decided to play around a bit.

This is what I got:



The great thing is the grapes are completely isolated, and I didn't have to do any touch-ups on the isolation in Photoshop at all. With the exception of minor color adjustments, this was completely done in camera. I had grown so tired of isolating in Photoshop, and now I don't have to do that anymore. Woohoo!

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Photography by Karin Lau | SmugMug Pro Account | Shutterstock | Mostphotos | StockXPert | Dreamstime | iStock | 123RF | BigStock

Looks like a great tool.

Just for further clarification, what is the rest of the lighting/camera set-up?

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BigWhiteBox | FeaturePics | Citizen Image |

I used one small studio tabletop lamp with a daylight balanced bulb positioned on the side, and then basically just stood above the lightbox on a low table and shot it using aperature priority at f-11 and an 80mm macro lens. I also shot some green bell peppers, but afterward noticed that I should have used a second lamp on the other side. The lack of lighting on one side worked well with the dark grapes, but not on the bright pepper.

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Photography by Karin Lau | SmugMug Pro Account | Shutterstock | Mostphotos | StockXPert | Dreamstime | iStock | 123RF | BigStock

Funny you should mention a light box. That was next on my list of "things to build" :-D Honest!

The plan was to make it big enough to go under the clothes hamper light tent, so I'd have bottom light to take out the shadows and the spots in between groups of objects. Much like your grapes, a pile of nuts, have black areas in between.

I suppose I could add a top light, but it still wouldn't get into all those nooks and crannies.



I used a commercial version at the museum for shooting some pots, in isolation. The table had two top lights on goosenecks and a bottom light.

The top of the box was frosted glass (on the inside) smooth on the surface.

I'm headed in the direction of flourescent tubes, under a piece of white plexiglass. However if I see a hosptial closing auction, I'll be sure to snap one up. ;-)

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Normally combining florescent lighting with daylight lighting wrecks havoc on white balance, but with the bottom lighting, I'm able to overexpose the white background much more easily to achieve the isolation and don't have to worry about a messed up white balance. It's very cool! And clean up is a breeze, if there are areas that didn't completely overexpose, especially around the edges. Without the lightbox, I used to spend like a half hour per photo most of the time cleaning up gray areas and shadows. With the lightbox, I don't have anymore shadows. This is one of the best investments I've made in photo equipment.

As soon as my white isolation of Jello is approved, I'll post it as well, along with some very funky squirt gun shots.

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Photography by Karin Lau | SmugMug Pro Account | Shutterstock | Mostphotos | StockXPert | Dreamstime | iStock | 123RF | BigStock

LOL...the squirt gun shots were just rejected by SXP for poor lighting in one corner. :-) Oh well...I shot them on the fly tonight and didn't put much thought into them, and plan on shooting them for real tomorrow.

Here's the Jello (sorry it's so boring...it was also shot on the fly)...

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Photography by Karin Lau | SmugMug Pro Account | Shutterstock | Mostphotos | StockXPert | Dreamstime | iStock | 123RF | BigStock

I used to be a medical photographer and one day they were throwing out some lightboxes from the X-ray department. I took one out of the skip. Didn't use it for 5 years but when I started doing stock, I have found it useful.

I sometimes use it for multiple exposures, like this one.

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istock-Shutterstock-Yay micro-Mostphotos-Dreamstime-Stockxpert

Really cool ideas guys, I had a plan to build a lightbox too lol. I got lots of glass and stuff. I also have daylight lamps which I used to use for painting, they are flat and can basically slide under something. so i thought if I built somthing then put the lights underneath I can position where I want it, and put different colour translucent paper on the glass

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www.ayeshawilsonphotoart.co.uk

Here's the squirt guns...



Kinda lost the trigger on the orange squirt gun, but y'all get the idea.

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Photography by Karin Lau | SmugMug Pro Account | Shutterstock | Mostphotos | StockXPert | Dreamstime | iStock | 123RF | BigStock

Why didn't you clone it from the green one?

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JK

www.microstockphotography.info