Tops of your booths
If your building your booths from PVC or abs panels, do u cover the tops of the booth. I worry about light escaping the booth in low light events if I don't have a top. Opinions. I thought about using shower panels for the top to keep the light inside and help the light reflect the light. My curtains are lined white to help with this as well.
Does anybody use fabric? What does the fire marshal say about it?
Tnx, Jon
Does anybody use fabric? What does the fire marshal say about it?
Tnx, Jon
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Thanks for all the comments so far.
<P>So, Mike, am I hearing you say that if I had 300-400 equivalant watts of light in my top box which measures 11"x 25, that should be enough for my booth that measures 3x5x6.5h? (Too keep this on topic, that would be enough light if I used a reflective material for the top of the structure?)</P>
<P>Jon</P>
When you say 660 watts, is that CFL watts or equivalent watts? IMO there isn't such a thing as too much light, unless your guests can't look at the camera without squinting. It's about quality of light. The "look" of your images will be changed dramatically if you go from 3 light sources to 1.
Top light only will look like top light only regardless of wattage. Not a bad thing per se, but different from what it sounds like you have now.
I have 3 light sources as well using CFL bulbs. 200 (equivalent) watts each. 1 - 10"x 18" box on the floor and 2 - 18" x 24" boxes side by side over the webcam. A wall of light if you will. I find that plenty of light for my MS Lifecam Studio. I don't do video.
So... it sounds like you could cut your light back by about half, but not change the placement.
Again, samples would help us offer opinions.
</div><div>When I did have the webcam I drove my lights with an large AC relay with a DC switch on it. It was controlled via the serial port on the PC (USB on the second one).</div>
IMO, you simply don't need that much wattage. How far are your clients going to be from these lights? Mine are 4-5' and I use a webcam and a total of 360 watts. Keep in mind, webcams are, by design good in low light.
a sample of my lighting
</div><div>I teach graphics and photography. There is no comparison between a webcam and any SLR. Personally never seen a webcam that I like. Tried that as well with my booths and a licensed copy of Breeze....was only after two events I switched to DSLR and will never return. </div>
If you go webcam, there's one that is the best quality... I forget the brand but I can find out for ya.. Logitech 920 I think, on a Mac with Sparkbooth (one strip). And the second picture is dslr with canon t3i with breeze(2strips). Print out quality u can really tell a difference.
<blockquote>And webcams vs dslr? Let me show u the difference.
If you go webcam, there's one that is the best quality... I forget the brand but I can find out for ya.. Logitech 920 I think, on a Mac with Sparkbooth (one strip). And the second picture is dslr with canon t3i with breeze(2strips). Print out quality u can really tell a difference.
</blockquote>
No question. DSLR is better.
BUT... yours is not a fair comparison.
To be fair, you need a booth product that supports either webcam and DSLR, and then compare the output. I believe Breeze is the only one to do that.
Sparkbooth is nowhere near the ballpark. That uses Adobe Air and does not leverage any webcam's full potential. It also limits in it's design the output of the final image. The new commercial version is better, but still not as desirable as the Breeze product which taps directly into the webcam's native driver and uses all of it's capabilities.
The example is this... there are websites that allow you to take a picture or make a video from within your browser. When you start doing this, Adobe's plugin fires up and asks if you "give permission for this app to access your webcam and blah blah"... that is the way Sparkbooth gets to your webcam. Uses the same SDK. His quality can't get much better for that reason. For lots of booth operators, it's more than enough. There are folks who make money using Sparkbooth.
Just want to be sure any of the up 'n comers here have all the information they need to make their decision.
Again... DSLR quality is higher. No argument. I personally don't believe I need that level of quality to run a successful booth operation. The key is good lighting. IMHO of course. YMMV and all that.
You know, I have belonged to an antique tractor forum since 1999, that forum is now one of the largest and best tractor forums in the world. This forum has so many of the same qualities as that forum, great people that just want to help and further their craft. Gotta love it! Thanks for the comments!
Do you have a pic from the point of view from inside the booth looking up towards the top? I don't recall u mentioning if yours has a top or not, just that I had too much light. Was impressed with the pics you posted in one of the other discussions of your booth.
Jon