Macro Light Box

In macro photography even shadow less lighting is important to get good quality pictures. When dealing with shiny metallic objects such as jewelry, completely even lighting is absolutely critical for the photographer to capture the subtle color differences in reflective metal. When shooting shiny metallic objects, direct flash will always look terrible, with deep sharp shadows and an exaggerated texture on smooth surfaces. Direct flash is also terribly unflattering, emphasizing scratches, dust and imperfections.

Example of Direct Flash

Generally for studios doing macro photography soft boxes are used to minimize shadows and give a pleasant even light. For metallic and shiny objects, even soft-boxes can prove inadequate as in the final photographs often the photographer and the lighting can be clearly seen in the reflection on the surface of the object. For macro photography of small shiny objects what is needed is a system to entirely surround the object with light so the image is shadow less, but also without a reflection where the camera or light source is clearly visible. This device is called a ‘light tent’ or ‘light box’, and while they can be fairly expensive to purchase, they are simple enough that they can be built easily at home with things you might already have lying around.

There are two main considerations that need to be taken into account when building a light tent. First, the object needs to be completely surrounded by light or there will be ‘dark spot’ reflections off the metallic surface. Unfortunately it’s not possible to entirely eliminate the reflection of the camera and often you will have to rotate the object you are photographing to find an angle where the reflection of the camera is least visible. Secondly, you need to decide the strength of the light that you want on the subject. For images of jewelry with stones, such as diamond rings, a harsh, shadow-free lighting can give a spectacular vibrancy and brightness to the images. For objects made mostly from silver an even but diffuse and matte lighting is better. Do this when you build your light box you will construct it in two separate parts, an outer reflection chamber and an inner diffusion chamber. The reflection chamber will ensure that your lighting is bouncing everywhere, while the diffusion chamber controls the strength or diffusion of the light.

What you need:

Styrofoam blocks. (Note: I got lucky and found Styrofoam that was the perfect shape for the project. You can use any Styrofoam and try and build a ‘box’ with it.)

Large plastic container- translucent ‘diffuse’.

(I used a windshield wiper fluid bottle)

External Flash and off camera sync cable.

And some sheets of white paper.


1.
Take a large bottle of translucent plastic. (This particular bottle is for car windshield wiper fluid). Mark off with a marker the top which will be cut off. Also draw a line down the side of the bottle, but at an angle. We will need the bottle to lie on its side, with as much room available at the back of the bottle as possible, so cut off as little as possible. Cut out a small half circle on the other side of the bottle. We will use this as the space where the camera lens will shoot through.

2. On one of the Styrofoam pieces, lay a piece of paper down. This will give us a smooth white reflective surface with very little texture.

3. Put the plastic bottle on its side on top of the paper and then place the rest of the Styrofoam on top. We want to create our Reflection chamber on the outside with the Styrofoam and our diffusion chamber on the inside with the plastic bottle. Cover the whole open side with white reflective paper. If you have extra Styrofoam you can use the Styrofoam to cover this side as well. Be sure to leave a hole in the paper to take pictures through.

4. Once you have put the box together it’s time to test it. Place your flash anywhere there is space inside the box and point the flash away from the diffusion chamber (plastic bottle). The light should bounce around creating a perfectly even light for your macro photography! Don’t forget to leave yourself a hole at the top of the box so that you can point your camera inside to take a picture.

This is what it should look like in action.

Comparison in lighting:

Direct Lighting:

This picture is taken with direct on camera flash. It’s boring, dull, and at the top and bottom you have a strong reflection from the camera flash.

Even Light Box lighting:

Here you have smooth even lighting that shows smoothness and beauty of the jewelry. We still have a small dark reflection from the camera on the jewelry, but it’s much more acceptable then when shooting with on-camera flash. To minimize this reflection even more, you could always paint your camera white to almost eliminate this reflection entirely.

As you can see, the light box provides for much higher image quality, and if you already have Styrofoam (or any white colored material that you can build into a box) then it won't cost you anything to build setup for macro photography that will give you professional results.