How to make a still life photography studio for under 20 dollars

A light tent is nothing more than a frame where you can drape different colored coverings over it, then shine light into it using any type of light source. Little cheap desk lamps that are adjustable work great. You can make a light tent out of just about anything from a cardboard box, old lamp shade, branches from your trees, to PVC pipe like I did.

If you are only going to take photos of say jewelry you will not need a very large tent. But making a medium size tent will be better when you need to take a photo of larger items like flowers in a vase. I made mine around 24 inches wide, by 20 inches deep, and 16 inches tall.

I made my tent out of 3/4 inch PVC pipe because I had a lot of it lying around the house. Using 1/2 inch will also work just fine. Here is the list of materials and tools you will need to make a PVC light tent.

Building Materials:

• PVC pipe Around 12 feet.
• 4 each 90 degree elbows.
• 4 each T's.
• 4 each caps for bottom of legs. (optional)

Tools needed:

• Hacksaw or better yet a tubing cutter.
• Measuring Tape
• Felt tip marker
• Sand paper
• PVC cement if you want to glue it together. (Optional)

Remember to measure twice and cut once.

Below are the lengths of pipe needed. When buying the pipe you can ask them to cut it to these lengths if you do not own a hacksaw or tubing cutter.

• 4 each 2 inches long to connect T's to 90 degree elbows.
• 2 each 17 inches long for the top frame.
• 2 each 15 inches long for the top frame.
• 4 each 13 inches long for the legs.

If you want the tent to be a perfect square, make 4 each pipes the same length instead of the 17 and 15 inches like I did. Or if you want just a little tent change the pipe lengths to the size you want.

Now that you have all the lengths of pipe cut, take the sandpaper and sand all the outside ends of the pipes and inside all of the fittings until they slip together with just a little force. This is a very important step. Sanding all of the pipe and fittings will make them slide together easier and it makes it much easier to take them apart or fold up for storing. I just turn the legs up like a card table for storing mine.

Now just put them together by looking at my photo. By building a PVC tent you can also cut different lengths of pipe and change them out making the tent any size you want. If you should want to glue it together just pick up a small can of PVC cement. To glue it together you still need to sand the parts so they go together all the way. If you glue it together you will never get it apart again… It really does not need to be glued.

With the frame all together it's time to cover it with some cloth or whatever you might have. You can buy different colors and types of covers and backdrops. I just use a plain white bed sheet, but you can use any color you like for different effects or backdrops. I put the white sheet on the sides and top, and a darker color for the bottom and background. Or you can use white for all the sides. You can just drape the cloth over the light tent frame like I do, or attach the covering to the pipe with shoe laces to whatever you have.

Changing the backdrop is fun and will make your photos more interesting than just using the common white. Here is a link to a web site showing how the different backdrops will improve your photos. [1] (http://www.ezcube.com/documents/ezcube_backgrounds.htm) And this page [2] (http://tabletopstudio.com/) helps explain all the different lighting and how to set your camera for lighter or darker exposures. If your photos come out to dark or light, you do not need different lights you just need to adjust your camera. One more fun thing to do is to paint with light. Place your subject in the tent, lower your light down some, and then take a long exposure and use a flashlight to paint light onto your subject. This takes some practice but the results are great.

Now all you need to do is place your desk lights on each side of the tent, or point them down from the top, place your subject in the tent, put your camera on a tripod or something to hold the camera steady and start taking photos. Remember to check you white balance and exposure settings. Your camera should be placed right at the edge of the tent. You can also pull the covering around the front to each side of the camera. This is optional and depends if light is shining into the tent without being filtered.

This photo I just draped a sheet over the light tent. Taking the time to make the sheet smooth and adding a backdrop will make your photos much nicer.

This is a photo using the light tent with just the light from a open window. Notice the bed sheet has filtered the light where there are no shadows at all. I took this photo hand held and without much planning. Setting the shot up will give you much better results.

By Alan Linn