The DIY Light Box, version 1

 At Virtual Breyerfest, one of the things I did was watch all the workshops, how-to sessions, and seminars I could fit in.  One was about making a DIY light box from a cardboard box, tracing paper, and some office supplies.  I watched twice and took notes, and then let it percolate for a while.  I did stash a couple of large boxes over the summer, and ordered a roll of tracing paper from Amazon since the local Michaels & Jo-Ann Fabric didn't have any.  Last week, I googled some more blogs on DIY light boxes and found another similar version, since I misplaced my notes.  

 

Step one - assemble components

 I got motivated last week and rounded up all the parts, after reading the how-to blog again.  Very large box, wooden yardstick, utility knife, pencil, tape, tracing paper, and scissors.

 The Breyerfest version didn't include a roof/lid, but I thought I'd leave it for stability.  

Cut windows in the sides and roof

I left a good margin of cardboard all around, for structural integrity and to give me something to tape the paper to. 

Add tracing paper

Measured and cut the tracing paper, tacked it down with scotch tape, then trimmed it up and taped it with box tape for sturdiness.

Cell phone shot

Canon Powershot

Stablemate

Traditional

The test run was on the dining room table, with a bankers lamp on either side, and the dining room light overhead.  Took pictures with iPhone (SE2) and the camera (Canon Powershot A2200).  The phone does better with white balance for quick shots, but it's eternally out of free space.  The camera has Macro mode and other nifty things, but I'll have to remember how to tweak the white balance.  I also need more light, especially overhead.  I found an Ottlite floor light at the local auction this week and won it for a good price, so that's going to help the lighting issue.  It might make the white balance a little more difficult though - the camera has WB presets but I may need to do a custom WB instead. 

And that's the first installment of the DIY light box saga.  This will be a lot better than the cluttered, distracting pics I usually take on the office desk, with keyboards, computer monitors, and other stuff in the background.  It needs a little work on the backdrop, and I probably need to find a larger box for Trad-scale photos.

Cool things found at Michaels

 While buying extra posterboard (because you need an emergency supply of posterboard and foamcore when there's a high-school student), I found neat things for photography purposes. Along with plain solid-color posterboard, there are patterns.  I found a fluffy cloud posterboard, and one with a space pattern.  

 The space one is going to be great for unicorns and things, I think.  The handy thing about the space sheet is that it's got a nebula on one end, while the other end is less variegated.  So, especially for SMs, rotating it 180 degrees will make it almost like another background. 

Full sheet of space

Pavel and Ivanova with one side of the space sheet.

Unicorn with the other end of the space sheet.

Cassidy with the sky sheet

Delia pictures

All right, here are a few pics of Delia. Color-wise, she reminds me a bit of Riesling from this year's BF, although her dapples are fainter (more subtle) than Riesling's.

In compact florescent lighting:


With the flash, and quite a bit of contrast from the image editor:


Natural light (cloudy day):


Detail of the oddly flat mane:

The missing forelock:

Pictures

As promised, pics of the Hagen-Renaker Mini Morgans.

The mare, who is beautiful. The first picture is more her true color, although I'd love it if she'd been closer to the color of the second picture.




And the stallion. He's very sooty, for lack of a better word, especially on the "show" side. Not what I would have picked if I'd had a choice, but that's the way it goes. And I wouldn't order something online and expect the seller to go through all 50 horses to find one in a certain shade, either. You pay the bill, you get the horse that was on top of the stack or whatever. He's still gorgeous, and I wish I had a safe place to display him. Unfortunately, until we move, he and the mare will be living in their shipping boxes. Sigh.

A little rant

So I was trying to take a photo yesterday to enter Breyer's "Picture Perfect" contest. Granted, the toddler's "assistance" didn't help any, but still. I ended up skipping the contest, because this


was the best picture I ended up with, and it's out of focus.

Part of my rant is that Breyer's directions weren't clear about whether I had to use all of the props from the kit. Because honestly, that paper fence is crap. The little cross-feet that it "stands" on are hideously hard to disguise, and the fence isn't nearly long enough for those of us who are cursed with rotten lighting conditions. Thanks to my lighting (hah!) setup, I have to have about a foot between the horse and backdrop - otherwise, shadows on the fence and backdrop. So, the short fence and small poster didn't work well. Neither did the lovely creases in the poster, for that matter.

The backdrop is actually pretty nice. I just wish it hadn't been folded. If it wasn't two-sided, I'd get it mounted on foamcore. I may anyway, when I decide which side I like better. The flowerpot is also pretty nice. And the horse is really good; I like the dun color they used, and while peanut rollers make me twitchy and Zippo's head is too short, he's a versatile sort of OF horse for the Western classes.

But the fence is still crap. And what's with making the deadline fall on a Sunday?

Pegasus & a Palouse

Two new horses in the mail today. UPS delivered my Pegasus


and USPS brought the Iskitpe Palouse I bought on Ebay last week.

Also, two new SMs from Target over the weekend, the red roan Peruvian Paso and the bay/buckskin (haven't decided yet) Highland Pony.

Plus, I'm spending the day working on a photo for the Picture Perfect contest. Having left it to the deadline and fighting with their sorry fence, I may skip the contest.