Light box -- before, and *almost* after

I apologize for the phone camera pics, but I think you will get the idea. I wasn't able to get the *exact* supplies I wanted, but what I *did* get should serve my purposes. The finished frame gets a backdrop attached to the cup-hooks, and a translucent sheet draped over the top. Lighting is aimed through the sheet, over and beside the frame to light the "stage" inside.
I gave it a quick test drive shortly after the frame was finished. I will definitely need to work on tweaking my camera. It turns out that I can't change the settings I need to the most, but I should be able to do macro with little difficulty. I also found that using 2 Ott-lites doesn't provide enough light, at least not with the sheet as it is. I will do another test run with wax paper as the "filter" to see how it works.
Once I get it working how I need to, I'll post pics of how everything turned out.

Gonna build me a light box!

Well the hands aren't co-operating with knitting like I need them to be, so I have to find other productive things to do with all the deadlines I have coming up soon. A lot of the extras, as I call them, that need working on have been put off for waaaaay too long now. Unfortunately, a good portion of these tasks require me to be able to concentrate fully, and that simply isn't possible when the kids (or Derek for that matter) are home.

My photography skills need quite a bit of improvement, although I have been doing better with them recently than I had in previous years. I spent nearly a full day last week doing all kinds of research on what I can do to make my pictures better. I simply am not in a place financially where I can justify any kind of professional photographer. I discovered that even with my cheap ~$100 camera, it is possible to take much better photographs than I have been. I downloaded a copy of the full user manual to teach myself how to play with some different settings, but I'll save that for another post.

What I will be doing today is making myself a light box to take pictures in. What is a light box? Basically it's a box with translucent sides that allows filtered light in to improve the quality of the pictures of the item inside, particularly with macro-type images. One easy DIY version that you can likely make with items you already have is here. Another cool version that uses screen frames can be found here. The one that I plan on making is here. It uses PVC pipe for the framing, and I plan on purchasing extra piping to be able to adjust the size of the "box". I'm also going to be purchasing a few colours of large poster paper so that I can change the background to best suit the item I'm photographing. I have 2 Ott-lites, a floor and desk version, so I'm basically set for lighting, along with our large dining room window for natural light. I have a tiny, table-top tripod for my camera, but I'm going to look into a floor version as well.

Wish me luck! I'm heading off into town in the truck with 3 kids, on a Friday with no school... what was I thinking???