Hump Day Hardware: Portable Lighting Studio

Do you have to take pictures of products for use in marketing materials or a Web site? How much time do you spend masking out the product after you take the picture?

In order to save your self time and trouble in masking out the product, you have to take a well-lit photo against a contrasting background. For this, you might want to get yourself a portable lighting studio as they can easily be found for under $100 and sometimes much less.

These studios include a lightbox into which you place your product. Typically you get at least two different backgrounds (light and dark colors), two lights and some sort of tripod for your camera. At right is Digital Concepts PS-101 Portable Lighting Studio and it is currently selling for $35.58 at Amazon.com.

It certainly isn't the only choice in this size and price range. Another option is American Recorder SIB-101CS Classic Photo Studio-in-a-Box which is selling for $59.71. Yet another is Portable Mini Studio-in-a-box which is selling for $72.78.

Maybe you are one of those people who would prefer to make your own. The Strobist blog has instructions for making your own for less than $10. You'll also find instructions for constructing a box on Wikihow. Yes, I agree that using a cardboard box as your base studio is less expensive, but the look and lack of portability would sway me towards paying for a better looking, more portable solution like the products listed above. Not to mention the time involved in rounding up the parts and putting it all together.

No matter which solution you choose, I hope this will help all of you get better pictures of your products that are easier to manipulate in your favorite image editor.

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Do Your Photos Look Fake?

I just read a very interesting story from the folks at Scientific American. It is titled the five ways to spot a fake photo.

Since many of you are in the business of editing photos, I thought I'd pass along the five ways along with a link to the story with all the details. The five ways listed are lighting, eyes and positions, specular highlights, clones and camera fingerprints. For each of the ways listed, the article has examples and diagrams which explain the problem and potentially ways to avoid the problem.

A related article on the site has a slide show showing photo tampering throughout history.

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Mystical Painter Bundle Provides Great Value

The folks at Auto FX have put together a special bundle of products at an unbelievable price. The Mystical Painter Bundle is comprised of six separate software and training products valued at $900. With this special bundle, you can get them for only $349 until August 31, 2008.

Corel Painter X is the centerpiece of the suite. By itself, Corel Painter X has a list price of $429 and sells for $379.99 at Amazon. Even if all you want is Corel Painter X, the bundle is saving you $30! The next piece of the bundle is the Mystical Lighting plug-in from Auto FX. It has a price of $179. You also get the Mystical Tint Tone and Color plug-in from Auto FX. It also has a price of $179. Add to that a training video from Jeremy Sutton on using Corel Painter which sells for $65. There are also training videos for both Mystical Lighting and Mystical Tint Tone and Color. Each of those series is $29 each when purchased separately.

For those who are looking for a way to unleash their inner artist, this special bundle gives you the software and the training you need to "paint" on your computer. Remember, the special expires on August 31, 2008 so don't miss out!

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