![]() A heavy camera and lens – like the 70-200mm SSM on a body – can ‘pop’ the table’s tensioned scoop unless you are careful. However, there is no supporting glass or thick acrylic sheet. The bend applied to the opal sheet gives it enough rigidity to support most small product groups as long as the edge clamps are firmly tightened. ![]() Our current table is a Tre-D which has a 75 x 150cm acrylic sheet, adjustable height frame, castors, adjustable back angle and movable backlight spigot. Another inexpensive solution is a plate glass table and sheet of mylar-type tracing foil (opal inkjet roll for backlit prints is suitable – your lab may be able to sell you a plain length to use). To match the clean look of today’s publications and websites and ensure rapid, top quality small product and packaging shots you need a texture free background which can be lit from behind or below. This does avoid lightspill on to the product from adjacent illuminated acrylic, but it’s time consuming. For some time we survived without a studio light table, using the alternative method of placing products on a glass sheet and lighting a white paper drop underneath them. The Elinchrom table was sold with the entire digital studio – lights, tracking, Lumina, massive studio stand used to keep the Lumina rock solid, and so on. When the Minolta RD3000 digital SLR arrived, we compared its 2.9 megapixel images with the 27 megabyte true coincident RGB files of the Lumina and – amazingly – decided we could switch to the RD3000. The Lumina was a scanning camera, taking from 10 seconds to 3 minutes to capture each still life shot. In 1995, we switched to digital studio capture using the Leaf Lumina, sold our electronic flash and installed Systems Scandles ballasted daylight fluorescent lighting on ceiling tracks. It used a 5mm thick clear Perspex sheet as well as an acrylic opal scoop, and could support moderate weights. This was only 80cm wide and cost nearly £1,000 but it tilted and adjusted in such a way that the entire unit could be turned into an almost vertical configuration for storage, and wheeled into a corner of the studio. In Scotland, space was at more of a premium and we bought an Elinchrom Light Table. With its heavy plate glass under the ICI Perspex, my table was also capable of supporting products like large valves made locally for the North Sea oil industry, which no commercial table could handle. Eventually we had colour glossy sheets, about two dozen graduated and rainbow flexible sheets, and many accessories for the tables which were sold with our studio on moving to Scotland in 1988.Īt that time, a FOBA or Manfrotto studio table cost about £500 so the D-I-Y approach was well worthwhile. We built a second one in 1982 for our satellite studio, and continued to use Dexion for constructing many sets and props. This table served me for seven years in a commercial studio. This was given ground edges by the glass supplier to allow safe handling. Additional pieces were bought to allow changing the leg height, and creating a low glass table a bit like a coffee-table but with a 1.2 metre square heavy plate glass sheet. To build the table, I bought Dexion modular storage construction battens cut to length to my order by the Dexion supplier, with their own corner joints, feet and castor wheels. This was obtained by special order through a sign-making firm. My first table was 1.2 metres wide, and was constructed to fit a standard large sheet of opal Perspex, gloss one side, matt the other. My current light table is the smallest, and not quite the cheapest, I’ve owned. This is the method I have used now for over 25 years and it’s saved me a lot of time, and earned me a lot of money. I use a studio light table with an opal plexiglass transilluminated scoop. YOU MAY want to learn exactly how I shoot the product photographs which appear in my own articles here at Photoclubalpha.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |