Lighting tents provide a reflective surface that surrounds the object you are photographing, eliminating shadows and enhancing details. Whether you're a professional food photographer or you're taking photographs of items for an online auction, you can benefit from a lighting tent.
Instructions
1. Choose a portable lighting tent if you will be transporting it to different locations. Collapsible models, made of lightweight materials, are available, allowing the photographer to shoot on location while using his own equipment.
2. Look for light-permeable sides to allow soft directional lighting from an outside source. Some items require more illumination on one side of the object. With light-permeable fabric, you can adjust your light source while retaining light diffusion.
3. Pick cool lights to prevent food products or fresh flowers from wilting. The heat from incandescent or halogen lights can turn your dish of ice cream into a milkshake within minutes.
4. Purchase a lighting tent with alternate-colored backdrops if you will be editing the item in a graphics' program. Just as television weather forecasters film before a green or blue screen in order to overlay their image on a weather map, so does an item photographed in front of a similarly-colored background allow the photographer to easily move it into another scene without edge distortion.
5. Consider making your own low-cost lighting tent if you need one in a pinch, By painting the inside of a sturdy cardboard box white, cutting out large holes on each side and covering them with white fabric, you can make an inexpensive model quickly. (See Resources)
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