Recommended Material for a DIY Light Tent

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WhiteLight

Senior Member
So i decided to go the route of making a Light Tent myself as i couldn't see anything online that seemed 'right'
Anyhow, i have both PVC & Aluminium pipes and the necessary joints, T's, elbows & caps...

Am not sure what material i must use for the sides...Paper or Satin or just any white cloth? Shower Curtain or Vinyl?

Any recommendations on the size or would any size do in terms of light distribution and stuff?

Also if anyone has any tips, it would be great..
i know i ain't making a Gyroscope here, but any advice is always good :)
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
Nylon is good. Linen too. The Ebay nylon tents are hard to beat.

Note the purpose of such a light tent is really NOT about lighting. You can do lighting better without it, using standard lighting, like softboxes and umbrellas. The purpose of the tent is to present blank white featureless walls completely all around, to prevent visible reflections of the room objects in shiny subjects. The shiny subjects only reflect featureless blank white nothingness, same everywhere, nothing recognizable as such, not even as lines or edges.

If you put your piping bars inside the tent corners, those are features which could reflect. For example, putting a blue or red flooring apron inside will have outer edges on it, which lines are features which could reflect. To avoid that, you want featureless white everywhere inside. Including a white front curtain with a slit for the camera lens (which is still going to reflect and show).
 
Ijustwant1

Ijustwant1

Senior Member
I made one out of a cardboard box ! Not very flash but works ok for me, I have white plastic cut outs on the sides and top and doors at the front with a hole for the lens , first thing I needed to do was a preset white balance (following camera instructions ) by taking a photo of the inside of the box with all the lights on ( three 45w globes ) and a lot of practice !
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
I built one MANY MANY years ago out of white Styrofoam used for insulation. Light would pass through it and then bounce around inside. Worked good. Think I would use a white cloth of some kind if I were going to do it again.
 
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Ironwood

Senior Member
I just used some white synthetic type cloth that my Wife got at one of the sewing shops. While its not perfect, I think it does the job quite well.

I tried many other things, including the white styofoam, white garbage bin liner, a diffuser for a florescent light. They all caused more problems than the white cloth, so I have stuck with that now.
 
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