Sunday, December 09, 2007

DIY Studio

I have been reading DIY Photography for a while and, having played around with indoor photography before with unsatisfactory results, decided to build a rig myself.

So what do you need:
  1. two paintbrush handles of the telescope kind (~150.-)
  2. four toilet pumps of the primitive kind so the handles can come off (~100.-)
  3. one broomstick of the modern aluminum kind (~40.-)
  4. the cheapest possible piano chair (390.-)
  5. one 500w building projector (270.-)
  6. one small desk lamp (~150.-) + bulb (~70.-)
  7. two clamps from the supermarket (35.-)
  8. Tesa Cable Managers (~50.-)
  9. Backdrop from the arts stroe (~20.-)
  10. A wooden plate from a DYI store (~200)
The total is 1475 estonians which amounts to roughly USD 140 nowadays. There's nothing very complicated about this build, it was pretty much copied from various posts on the DYI photography. One thing to note is that the Tesa Cable Managers are much more versatile than clamps to fasten the horizontal tube as the telescope handles are pretty thick. They are very easy to fasten, come off without a trace and are rock solid. The other thing I figured was the piano chair would make an excellent adjustable macro table once the original seat was replaced with a large wooden plate. Works a treat. Here is how this thing looks:
I'm yet to figure out the right white balance for this setup. The Custom WB feature of my 10D seems to be way off, probably because the temperatures from the two light sources are different. Without further due, here's a picture I took with the setup, will be adding more (hopefully):

1 comment:

udijw said...

This is a great DIY project, Andres.
Thanks for sharing your blog with me.
- udi