Journal Entry for Tuesday, Nov 8th

Making a Light Box For Shooting Stills Yesterday I went to Ace Hardware and Michael’s to pick up some materials for making a homemade light box for photographing some of my various art projects. The two shop lamps and 1200 watt bulbs were $38. The five sheets of white foam board (two 15x20 and three 20x30) were $20. Using some old duct tape and paper clips that I had hanging around I assembled it into a ‘box-like’ shape that I can fold up and store after each use. Complete details for building a light box can be found at the following site … Homemade Light Box. Of course this was the easy part. After taking a few quick pictures, I realized that this was going to be more than just point and shoot. After some research and learning how to establish and save white-balance settings on my camera, I ended up with the following checklist for taking still pictures. Today's Tip: Steps For Shooting Pictures With a Lightbox: The bracketed [ ] settings noted these tips are based upon  my Panasonic Lumix G2. You should be able to find similar settings on your camera.  [1] Remove all Lens Filters [2] Set Mode Dial to [P] (manual) [3] Set Focus Lever to [AFS] (auto focus single) [4] Set Focus Dial to [23 Area] (area focusing) [5] Set ISO to [100] [6] Set WB to [1] (custom set WB) [7] Set Flash to [Forced Flash] Mode [8] Set Film Mode to [STD] (standard) [9] Set Anti-shake to Off [OFF] [10] Mount Camera on Tripod [11] Attach Remote Shutter Release [12] Turnoff all Room Lights You can check out the end results here and let me know what you think. Tabletop Rock Art.