Search for stock photos, illustrations, video, audio and editorial photos
Photos, Illustrations, VideoPhotos, Illustrations, Video Posted Thu Nov 8, 2012 5:21AM | Hello everybody, I have always been amazed how high the pricing on most of the photographic related equipment is. Recently I was looking to invest in a good quality, rather large shooting table for isolations, by large I mean 24" by 30 " so it can accommodate most of the subjects including some small pets, but I have been turned off by a huge pricing ( 900-1700 US dollars ) definitely not a price for a hobbyist or 5 pounds of aluminum tubing with a regular plexi glass. So, I have decided to take a project upon myself and try to build it. I got a couple ideas of how it might look from the stores I browsed while searching for it. All of the tables I have seen are made out of aluminum or steel tubing, big deal, still made in China...lol, so I decided to use maple wood since it is strong and very stable and relatively cheap for what it offers. I have purchased 25 feet of 1"x2" maple lumber-cost 25$, for base I got the 24"x36" solid pine board used to build table tops-cost 19.99$, legs are just regular portable foldable picnic table legs that you can purchase separately from US store Lowe's for a stunning 18.79$, screws to hold a plexi glass 2$, and last the 1/8 24"x48" plexi glass-cost 25.99$, also I needed the nail gun borrowed, air compressor borrowed, miter saw borrowed and two hours of my time. Oh, forgot about the drill and drill bits :-) Drilling in the plexi was a little tricky but I did practice on a small piece, you have to drill on highest rpm's with no or little pressure using metal drill bit. After a little bit of work, this is what I have come up with, I am sort of proud of myself since the total cost was 102 US $ including taxes and it works like a charm. I just thought I share my creation. https://www.dropbox.com/s/hwa802k50kux89j/Homemade%20shooting%20table.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/s/jpfs4ophunbwf6y/Homemade%20shooting%20table%201.jpg Regards Chris (Edited on 2012-11-08 05:22:56 by CHBD) |
 Posted Thu Nov 8, 2012 5:34AM | And where do I put an order in for one? |
Posted Thu Nov 8, 2012 5:55AM | lol....I'm sure I would be able to help you with it,winter is comming and boredom gets quite frustrating, the only problem would be shipping, the legs are foldable but that is about all that folds in this table  |
 Posted Thu Nov 8, 2012 6:10AM | Ooops! I should have read your postl better.. I thought you were looking for a suggestion for a shooting table.. Although you could still use the Saw horse and just sit the top structure on them thereby having the ability to raise and lower the table for different shooting heights. (I don't crawl around on my knees as well as I used to do.) Your table is very nicely done. If you are handy. I use these all the time because they are light weight and they are adjustable in height. If I have a high camera angle I use them at their lowest and if I have a low camera I use them at their heightest. Then I have a piece of 1/2 inch plywood that I have framed up with 1" by 3" pine with the 3" inch side verticle to give it strength. I made it wide enough to sit down onto the top of the saw horses. You could make it 4' by 6' feet and it is still light enough for one person to handle. You can get the saw horses I use here.. http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hardware-Tool-Storage-Saw-Horses-Workbenches/h_d1/N-5yc1vZc2g3/R-100626317/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#.UJuuCaWjRSU (Edited on 2012-11-08 06:16:17 by billcourtney42) |
 Posted Thu Nov 8, 2012 6:25AM | You,ll get problems from white reflections off the surfaces of your subject. |
Posted Thu Nov 8, 2012 6:51AM | ^ I'm not sure what you mean by it ? Care to elaborate, maybe I can correct some things, any suggestion will be benefitial. This is the table that served as an inspiration http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/109415-REG/Kaiser_205930_Shooting_Table_Kit.html Edited to insert the link. (Edited on 2012-11-08 07:02:59 by CHBD) |
Posted Thu Nov 8, 2012 7:37AM | If you have (say) a red object on the table and you surround it by a well lit white background, you will get lots of white light reflecting off the sides of the object into your lens. Red light plus white light equals less saturated color. You see lots of examples of washed out isolations in the database. One way to compensate this is to surround the red object with red card, but you still get some washed out color on the edges. It becomes very fiddly, and you need to match up different colors to different surfaces. You can also try a polarising filter set to different angles for the different surfaces then do a comp in Photoshop. I used to have a light table. |
Posted Thu Nov 8, 2012 8:15AM | Oh, I see what you mean, I definitely keep that in mind, so far I think I had a very good results ( at least I think I did ) Haven't try anything colourful yet, so I'll see how that will play out.Here is one of the first attempts, hoping it is going to be up to standards. Still waiting for approval with my fingers crossed https://www.dropbox.com/s/w6auk1ifrt16102/stock-photo-22114590-alarm-clock%5B1%5D.jpg I"m thankful for your input, never used a table before so it definitely will help me to battle some of the issues. Regards Chris |
 Posted Fri Nov 9, 2012 9:27AM | Posted By lucentius: If you have (say) a red object on the table and you surround it by a well lit white background, you will get lots of white light reflecting off the sides of the object into your lens. Red light plus white light equals less saturated color. You see lots of examples of washed out isolations in the database. One way to compensate this is to surround the red object with red card, but you still get some washed out color on the edges. It becomes very fiddly, and you need to match up different colors to different surfaces. You can also try a polarising filter set to different angles for the different surfaces then do a comp in Photoshop. I used to have a light table. This is very interesting information; can you refer me to a resource where I can learn more, please? Regards |
Posted Fri Nov 9, 2012 9:43AM | ^ Lucentius pointed me to this book ( thank you ) for more information, they have a kindle edition on Amazon here http://www.amazon.com/Light-Science-and-Magic-ebook/dp/B002ZJSVE6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352479195&sr=8-1&keywords=Light%3A+science+and+magic it has a lot of good information. Regards Chris. (Edited on 2012-11-09 09:44:15 by CHBD) |
Posted Fri Nov 9, 2012 9:51AM | Here is a trick used by Dean Collins. Granted this will not work with everything but will work with many. Get yourself a piece of clear plexi ,the thicker the better, big enough for your set. Drill a hole in the middle and fasten a rod to it that sticks out on one side a foot or so. You could use a piece of threaded rod 1/4 or 3/8 inch in diameter with a nut and washer on each side. Attach the item you want to shoot to the end of the rod with hot glue. You may have to put something on the end of the rod to give you more area to glue to. Naturally this won't work with everything.. Now the item will not be resting on the table it will be floating above it.. As long as the item is big enough the rod will be hidden behind it. You could use a thin piece of metal or plexi and make a shelf to fasten to the end of the rod to sit the item on and with a little higher camera angle the shelf would also be hidden. |
 Posted Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:52PM | Very Cool. Show us some photos of the table in action. |
Posted Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:14AM | I neglected to mention in my post that you stand the plexi up so the rod is pointing toward the camera. You just need a couple of uprights on the table or stands nexto to the table to clamp it to. Collins actually used a piece of plate glass |
Posted Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:11AM | Posted By TexPhoto: Very Cool. Show us some photos of the table in action. Thanks, here are some first shots accepted, got many more to be approved, I just went wild with a teddy bear and different character setups ....lol.... starting simple I know that some of those shot do not require a table but it is for sure nice to have both hands free and full control over the enviroment. Thanks guys for looking. |
 Posted Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:57PM | Very interesting design and construction. So the idea with this table is to physically isolate the object from the bottom, and to flood the background and the space below with light so as to avoid shadows? A couple of other lights are still needed to illuminate the front and side too, right? |
Posted Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:10PM | Actually, there is a softbox on the back of the table, the plexi surface is higher so when shot at eye level you don't have to illuminate the bottom that alone isolates the subject by shooting into the light, for the subject illumination I'm using another softbox and reflector. You will get a reflection at the bottom of the subject that is easly removable by doging, but I prefer to have it so it grounds the subject. So two light sources will do the job. |
Posted Thu Nov 22, 2012 9:47PM | Interesting. Thanks. |
Cart 
