Whether you like to take photographs of your work as a means of recording your progress as a woodturner or for something like a website this easy budget photographic backdrop might be of use to you. The advantage of using a backdrop is that it eliminates any background clutter from the photograph and the eye is focused on the work and nothing else. Portable table-top mini studio kits are available on-line at various budgets but this one is inexpensive and easy to build. The dimensions of mine are 600mm wide and 500mm high, but depending on what you want to photograph the dimensions can be altered to suit.
Basically all you need is a cheap white “blackout” blind available from Argos or the larger DIY shops, some metal tubing and two clamps. The tubing I used was 10mm diameter aluminium which was simply cut in half to give me two 500mm long sections. Internally the tubing is 9mm which was the perfect fit for the bars of two mini-clamps. The great thing about this setup is that the clamps simply attach onto any table-top and the tubing slides over the upright bars of the mini-clamps. A simple cross piece of softwood doweling with two turned end-caps is glued onto the ends of the dowel. Each end-cap has a 10mm stopped hole to slip over the top of the aluminium tubing. To keep the blind from getting damaged or dirty a cardboard postage tube is perfect for storage.
As you can see it’s simple to assemble; fix the clamps to the table with the bars facing upwards, slide over the tubing uprights, the length of dowel goes through the centre of the blind, then fit the rod and blind onto the uprights and unroll the blind….job done.
This is an example of a bowl being photographed, only using sunlight and a LED video light to light the picture.
Leave a Reply