Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998
photo booth..backlight
Keith Tompkins
>I'm in the process of building a portable photo booth, ala John Lucas and Jamie Donaldson.
I think it's time to get serious about my photography skills, and the booth is the first place for improvement. Question: I want to have provision for a back-light, which I see used on many professionally done slides.
Any tips for including that in my booth? Should the light be from above or below? TIA, Keith
Re: photo booth..backlight
John Lucas
>Keith
It depends on what you want the backlight to do. I use 2 styles for this. One is to put a spot on the background so it outlines the piece or seperates it from the background. For this you need some sort of aimable spot light. These are hard to find used and expensive new. You hand the light above the piece and aim it at the background. You can get similar results by putting a round hood on a light and hanging it closer to the background. A boom arm make this easier. I have 2 I have built from wood and will send you plans if I can find them. (Haven't seen them since my move)
The other way is to create an exagerated fall off. I put the light behind the set aimed at the piece. You have block the light from shining into the lens. This can be done with a piece of cardboard. This light makes the area behind the piece light but puts a shadow on in front of the piece and can be hard to control. The shadow in front doesn't look bad because most of the time there's very little room below the foot in the photo anyway.
One other way is to light from the bottom but you need a translucent background material and this usually looks overdone. It also means it's harder to get the background dark because you are using white plastic or something similar shine the light through.
If I haven't answered your questions let me know. I may have time to shoot a simple test today show you what I'm talking about. If I do I'll post it tonight.
Re: photo booth..backlight
JamieDonaldson
>Keith- it's usually easier to add a backlight from above on a boom, and a light fixture with a snoot( round tube) helps aim and control light spread. The "Phrugal Photo Way" is make a tube from a metal can that will channel the light where it's wanted, and a PAR type Q/H spot will also work in many set-ups. Make sure that all the lights are the same color temp output.
Re: photo booth..backlight
Keith Tompkins
>Thanks so much guys, I'll post a photo or my rig when I finish it!
