Tech Olive

I love to see pictures that others have taken, be it of a portrait or just an object. It’s sad however, to see this beautiful shot ruined because of a spare sock in the background or incorrect lighting. We can eliminate both of these problems with a quick and easy photo booth. You can spend hundreds of dollars on photo paper, reflection glass and prop boxes or you can easily find them around your house – a white bed spread, 5-inch square piece of plexan, and cardboard!

On top of the above items, you’ll also need a milk jug, push pins, some weight, (optional) black folder, scissors and tape.

Start off by finding a nice wall, you’ll only need about 3 cubic feet of space. Tack the sheet to halfway up the wall with the push pins, letting the other end of the sheet fall to the ground and extend out loosely. Next take the cardboard box and place it underneath the sheets, giving yourself a mini table. I found it helpful (I was using a fitted sheet) that putting some extra books as weight on the corners gave the sheet more shape. Next, place the plexan (gives us our reflection) on top of the sheet and on top of the box. You now have yourself a  quick simple and cheap photo booth.

But wait, my shots are still ugly and what do I do with that milk jug? We’re going to cut up the milk jug into 10 pieces. The first 5 are about 1-inch by a half-inch, just enough to cover the pop up flash on your camera. This is acting as a diffuser to lessen the strength of the flash in a way.

The next 5 are going to be 6-inches by 4-inches to add on to your diffuser. You’ll bend them into a semi circular shape, add tape to make it hold, then mount it on top of your camera. This will spread out the light from the flash.

You’re done! You’ll need to take several different pictures to find the “sweet spot” on your settings, but I prefer to shoot with an aperture of 3.5 with a 1″ shutter.