Everyone here knows my project pictures suck.

 

A couple of weeks back, in the Wednesday's Wisdom For Woodturners post, we added an entry from Mike Peace about his shop made light booth (https://youtu.be/waJ00FWTzHk). Also, @Gerald has a great 2 part blog on photography-  https://thepatriotwoodworker.com/blogs/entry/24-lets-talk-photography/ . Using both of these resources, this is my interpretation.

 

For me, one of the most important requirement was the thing had to be able to be broken down and easily stored. There just isn't any space left to put stuff. And just as important, because I'm cheap, it had to be inexpensive. Mike Peace's video mentioned the Dollar Store as a source for materials- Great Tip!! 

 

So, foam board and strapping tape in hand (shop light was already here)-

 

 

 

I made the bottom and back double layers- white and black- and hinged them to be reversible-

 

 

 

One extra piece of foam board to shield the light-

 

 

A piece of white and a piece of black heavy construction paper taped together as a backdrop-

 

 

A test setup-

 

Mike Peace mentioned a cheap reflective element to help illuminate shadows. Of course, I'll need a better display stand.

 

 

 

Broken down and folded. Should fit nicely into a large trash bag to protect it from dust. 

 

Some test pictures from my phone; no tripod

 

 

 

All together- less than $10. My kind of project!!

 

 

Lew that stand may not work for all turnings. I prefer no stand on bowls and I can see that the stand does rais the piece so there are fewer shadows behind it. However no shadow also reduces the depth of the picture.

    Another thing to look at is the darker piece has adequate light all around but the first seems dark on one side maybe not enough reflected light. Since we are doing digital we can make slight changes and then decide which we like best. So if the photo is important make many pictures and pick the best by your perception of it.

    A trick for the stand is to use a mirror but this is a difficult one to pull off.

@Gerald is giving you some tweaking instructions to use and I'm seeing a major improvement without.   

 

Also thanks Gerald for your input and sharing your knowledge.  I should get to work on a booth as well and follow along.

I will add this to my 3 lifetimes of stuff to make.  Really I need to find some wealthy relative.....

3 hours ago, Woodbutcherbynight said:

I will add this to my 3 lifetimes of stuff to make.  Really I need to find some wealthy relative.....

If the relative shows up, don’t forget your favorite TPW electrician from NE! LOLOLOLOL

Cool idea Lew. It definitely beats the dining room table which is where I usually end up for pictures of turnings. I will try it next time. I have some 1/8” melamine that’s been sitting on the rack forever which should work. 
Paul

Just reading a recent Popular Woodworking Magazine and there is a article about shapes. He notes about using a curved background make the object look like it is floating. This makes the background go on indefinitely . Similar to the image of my old setup the background curves and gives the object a floating appearance as seen in photo blog Photography 2- Lighting

 

Which results in the subject looking like the photo below

 

 

Thanks for the additional information, @Gerald. I really appreciate the help!