Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Foldable table top for home studio




























































































Welcome back,

So this is my second post :)
Didn't think I will write it so soon after the first one, but here we go.

For the past 2-3 years I've been planning on buying some backdrops for photographing small objects, flowers, items for auctions and macro. Shadeless tents are a good option (many come with some backdrops to be placed inside the tent), pretty cheap, foldable, portable, but the only con is that they require extra lamps, minimum of two, one on each side - some use third in front of the tent. The whole business becomes much more expensive - too much if you're not planning to use it on a regular basis, and for business use (i.e. internet shop etc.). This solution gives you perfect shadeless photographs.
Another option was to a get glossy acrylic top (came in size of about 30x40cm or so, either black or white version) ... glossy meant a lot of reflections (from home light, flashgun and others) unless you had perfect lighting conditions at home, extra photographic lights. I needed a second top to be used as a vertical backdrop, i.e. behind the photographed subject, quite possibly seeing myself in its reflective surface. So I gave a pass on this one too.

But recently I've found a great foldable table top for home studio for about 21 Euros - as seen on above photographs. Consists of two equal rectangular pieces (both matte white, made out of plastic foam) joined with few metal hinges. The size of each piece is 55x40cm, so large enough for some bigger items like flowers (those in smaller pots/vase).
On top of that the whole set came with 5 coloured backdrops and 4 small paper clips to have those backdrops attached to the table top. The commonly used backdrops will be white and black, the remaining colours are good for pictures of some fancy items like jewellery etc.

Once home, I made some test shots - results as seen above (GPS and a flower). Maybe not the best of quality as I did them pretty quickly, just to demonstrate the good use of such photographic table top at a home studio. But I think the results are astonishing for such cheap backdrop solution.
Now can only buy some extra backdrops for a penny. Also purchased a plastic storage tube for keeping those backdrops safe. Now looking around for a right sized protective portfolio case for the table top itself.
Now the question is, would I need the extra shadeless lamps for this set? Well, first of all I need to test the set as it is, only with (or without) the flashgun, see the results ... and then decide whether I really need them.

If you really like this table top solution to be used at your home studio, then look for it in auctions such as ebay/Allegro (depending on your geographical location).

Good luck !

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