My Light Box Set Up

Nothing to Disclose

Hello Loves!

Recently, I've been asked a lot about my photos(especially my macros) and what my set up is like. Honestly, I think I finally figured out my best light box/camera/light set up, and it took a lot of trial and error to figure it all out. Especially in regards to color accuracy! It took almost a year of swatching/blogging to finally get my camera to capture the polish correctly without me having to do much editing. By all means, it's not perfect, I'm no professional photographer lol but I hope to continue to learn more about photography to make my photos even better. But for now I am happy with what I have!

Above is a shot of my setup. It's not fancy or crazy expensive. I also love that it's directly in front of where I swatch so I don't have to move much to take each set of photos, just have to simply lean forward.

As you can see, I have a homemade light box which you can find the instructions for easily in a google search. Mine is pretty basic. A box, white tissue paper, tape and a white poster board. Cost me less then $8 to make.

****

As for lighting, you would probably be surprised to learn I don't use a day light bulb...at all. I hate them! When I used them they always made my pictures dark as well as a gave them an orange hue which obviously screwed up the color accuracy of the polishes, And here is where the almost a year of trial and error with lighting came in to play lol. I used to have to edit my pictures in photoshop constantly to correct the color of the polish which was a pain in the butt and then about a month ago my husband and I were trying to figure out the next type of lighting to try and he suggested an LED type lighting. Did some research and bought 2 Husky 800 Lumen LED work lights. (You can see where I place them in the first photo above)

These things are a god send! I got mine for about $40 each at Home Depot. A bit pricey I know, but they were perfect for my light box pictures as well as my video tutorials. One thing I did have to do is tape an index card over each lamp to dampen the brightness a bit, which helped with the white balance of my pics which in turn helped me take color accurate photos.

I think one of my favorite parts about these lights is they don't give off any heat so I can spend hours doing nail stuff without working up a sweat or feeling like I'm fake tanning haha!

The other Lamp(shown above my light box in the first pic) is just a regular desk lamp with a regular bulb. I have it sitting on a box covered in pretty purple fabric lol

****

Now onto my camera. Surprise! I don't actually use a camera, I use a cell phone haha! An Iphone4 a friend gave me to be exact. It's not activated or anything, I simply use it for its camera alone lol I used to use a Kodak Easyshare that was about 10 years old and sucked. It was great when it was first released but now in the camera world its a fossil and the battery life was horrendous and took awful pictures without a flash, and unless you are taking pictures of a holo or chrome polish, flash is no good for nail pictures!

As for my macro shots. I use an Olloclip. It took a pretty long time to figure out how that freaking thing worked. I can't really even explain how I use it really. I just put the lens super duper close to my nail and take the picture lol

****

And lastly, My video setup. I also get asked how my set up is when I do my tutorials and this is how.