Light table info

Actual image from light table

I’ve been asked about this table by several people, so here’s a quick idea of how it is made and its dimensions.

The table is made from ½” white PVC pipe. I used about 4 10-foot pipes, 10 90-degree elbows, 10 cross T’s and some glue. I highly recommend getting a nice pipe cutter as it makes this work a lot easier.

Looking back, I’d probably make this thing a bit smaller. I think it’s too wide and too tall in the back, but it’s height from the table to the floor is about right.
I had to use combinations of elbows and T’s instead of elbow T’s which would have made for a better assembly, but Home Depot doesn’t have those.

I put a cross bar across the front top, and dropped it in the back to below table height to made sire I can light it without a shadow of a cross bar at the back.
I have attached several photos to show it without the glass or backdrop.

Not every piece of PVC is glued, so it breaks down into a bottom back and front section, and cross arms.

The basic dimensions are 33' high from floor to table platform, then another 36" for the back drop holder. It's 34" deep and 32" wide. I'm going to reengineer this so a piece of white plex in standard sizes can fit, about 24" wide and total length from front to top of back piece is 48" total. Otherwise I'll have to buy a full sheet and have it cut. I figure the thinnest sheet of white plex would work just fine with the glass I use on the table top, so I don't have to buy a piece of heavier plex and have it bent to shape.

Right now I use some vellum in a 30" wide roll, pulled across and over a sheet of glass on the table, and if I need a reflection I'll put some clear plex on the vellum.

Front view with dimensions.

Side view

Close up of the T & elbow for the front bottom

Elbow and off-set back brace at the back of the table

And a view of the elbows and T's for the front top, with a cross support at the front for the glass sheet I use.

HRC "suspends" her campaign

What-ever that means... I guess she's hedging her bets in case some whack-job kills or seriously wounds Obama.

So - now what?

For me, it's back to photography blogging. It's hotter'n hell in Texas, already we're hitting triple digits. If it isn't hot, it's hot & humid, with a strong hot dry wind from the south.

Sounds like Southern California on a bad day.

Now for some model recruiting, branch back out to some more artsy fashion stuff.

Until June 22nd. On June 22nd, my daughter is prepared for surgery for her back. At that time, several relatives will descend upon Austin to further snarl traffic between Anderson Mill and the Dell Children's Hospital. My daughter has scoliosis and her curve is such that surgery is required to stop it from becoming worse. So she'll be in the OR for about 7 hours, have a couple of titanium trusses installed, and the rest is recovery and therapy to return her to normal activity.

SO I figure to be back into model photography after July 7th or so.

Stock Photography Update

Shutterstock:

In April, SS announced a rise in subscription rates to image buyers, and on May 14th they announced a small raise for contributors, but only those contributors who were established and already making cash.

About the same time, it was noticed by several contributors a significant decline in downloads. Mine stayed steady with a sudden, and inexplicable downturn at the end of the month, with a slight rebound first week of May. Last two days have seen odd low numbers. Then today, it's back to "normal". All this goes against established patterns of new uploads equaling increased downloads.

I figured it was people leaving their design offices to go on long Holiday weekends. Guess not. Maybe trying to figure all this out is like trying to figure out the Universe itself at a quantum level.

iStock:

These guys announced subscription plans beginning at the end of May. Given iStock's market share, I expect my sales with this company to begin rising.

123RF already has a subscription model in place. I'm still not seeing a lot of sales at this site yet.

Overall, I contribute to 8 microstock agencies, but I have fallen behind in my goal of shooting every other day and uploading at least 20 images a week. Bad weather has curtailed a lot of my proposed shoots, but hopefully I'll get on track this weekend. That plus less time to edit the shots I do have lined up on my hard drive.

Some have voiced their concerns on various forums over the slump in individual sales - a reply by an administrator at SS said they're having records numbers of downloads. So the cause is increased competition from new photographers who join the microstock agencies.

Meanwhile, an agency I was planning on joined has closed, Lucky Oliver. More of the smaller agencies may begin having trouble.

My goal is to continue, but also to implement the other half of my business plan which is to begin working with Rights Managed agencies more. I am earmarking about 25% of my images for RM now, but I have yet to join any except PhotoShelter. It's a cludge to upload images to PhotoShelter at this time, making the process of loading my gallery there a long and tedious one.

The bar is set a lot higher at the RM agencies - unlike the Royalty Free sites. Although consumer cameras are acceptable at places like ShutterStock, 123RF, and others, places like iStock, Getty, Gemini and others want very high quality images, with Getty going so far as to tell applicants they only accept images made with the higher end, pro-level cameras. Okay by me! I have plans to get a Nikon d300 this summer anyway!

The payoff at RM agencies is far, far greater. Which is why they demand higher quality. Seriously, how many photographers on, say, ShutterStock could get images past a real magazine editor? I have, it's not easy and you can't have a huge ego.

Photo Shooting Table

Photographing glass, bottles or anything semi-transparent is easy with the right set-up.


Home build rig designed to allow me to photograph a piece of glassware, a bottle, or even moldy bread with the option of lighting from below to highlight a bottle's contents, with some added light from above to fill in the details of the item, with the option of placing a strobe head behind the paper and having it light up the bottle from behind.

It's made from 1/2" PVC pipe, and a lot of T's and Elbows. I have a piece of glass as the top, and I use a roll of high end vellum as the sweep.

Here, I have one strobe head shooting upwards to light up the table with a soft box set as a fill.




The image below shows how this all comes together to make a beer bottle "glow" and create a decent gradient as the background. I added a piece of black cloth to avoid lens flare from the strobe aimed upwards.

The rig ran me about $25.00 in PVC parts and the glue. I'll post some detailed photos of it, including dimensions for anyone wanting to make one for themselves. The key to this design is the rear cross support is well below the level of the glass top, to allow for some back-lit images without having a shadow appear in the images.