Using a light box/tent

Here's a little bit about lighting and photographing small objects. For Christmas my DH gave me a light box. It is really just a collapsable tent. Kind of like those sunshades that you put in a car and then you twist them into a circle for storage. Before this I used a cardboard box with the sides cut out and tissue paper over the cut outs. This worked very well, but tended to rip alot when I stored it.

Above: Inside the light box is a sheet of scrapbooking paper. I love this paper, it comes in all sorts of prints for just a few pennies, on sale. I also hung a white piece of fabric, held in place by sewing pins, taking care not to tear light box. On either side of box are spot lights. I believe these were purchased at Lowe's home improvement. I also placed one above the light box. This one I "borrowed" from my son's closet.

Above: Here's an object place into the tent with all of the lights on. The inside of tent may look as bright as the above picture, but in the above pic I used the flash and on this pic I didn't.

Above: I didn't use a flash or turn the lights on. The doll may look really good from this angle, but look at the shadows and my camera had a very hard time focusing on her, so pic came out very blurry. This is not good if you are trying to photograph something you want to sell.

Above: Doll came out very stark! I don't like using the flash. I think it makes things look to washed out and other things too bright. But you can see the detail in the white fabric.

Above: This one is better. Image is still too dark for my tastes. Doll is not blurry. I have also found that it is more difficult using a white background than a colored one. I am working on taking lighter photos, but not bleached out ones. I think that I need more powerful spotlights. The ones that I am using were inexpensive and it is hard to position them.

The light box that I made was very easy to make. Instructions are online, just google "Light tent out of cardboard box.". That should pull up some tutorials.
**Disclaimer-please note that I am not an expert. I am still very much in the "learning" stage and hope to progress quickly, as the pictures that I am taking are not up to my standards yet. Please shoot, no pun intended, me some tips if you have any (comment section below will be fine).

Happy crafting,
Holly