Outland Forge

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In an effort to try to start taking more professional pictures, I decided I needed to built a lightbox to photograph some of my Etsy items. The pictures of the cuffs on the black leather turned out decent, but it took a lot of time to prop everything up just right and I had to lean my floor lamp over to get proper lighting. The easy way to solve all of these problems at once is of course a lightbox!

I ran to the store and picked up two clamp lights and some 100w incandescent bulbs. I moved recently so I have lots of cardboard boxes around. I also bought some white tissue paper.

Results?

Frustratingly, not really, not yet. After moving the lights around every which way, even clamping them directly to the edge of the box the pictures keep coming out with yellow backgrounds. A full 200w of full spectrum incandescent light was enough to make me feel hot, it was affecting my micro climate but not my pictures.

I’m guessing that the fault lies in my ability to operate my ancient (circa 2007) Canon PowerShot A530. I tried auto, program and manual modes. I tried ISO 80 to 800, shutter speeds, and f-stops to no avail. Either everything is washed out or the background is dark and yellowish. Even in the pictures above it looks like the lights are off, but they weren’t.

If you think you know what I might be doing wrong, leave me a comment. I’d love to know how to get the results that I’ve seen elsewhere online.

My “results” follow…