Home-Made Photography Sweep

I will show you how to make your own photography sweep out of items you most likely have laying around the home.

Step 1: Things You Will Need

• Paper
• Clear Scotch Tape
• A assortment of K'nex
• Glue, or sticky two sided tape.

Step 2: Find Your Paper

Select some bright white card-stock. You should buy something that will fit your needs.

Get some 12" x 12" sheets if you plan on doing shots of small things, and get something larger like 24" x 24" for larger objects.

You can find paper at the dollar store, or staples. It is very cheap!

I selected 4 sheets of 12" x 12", to double up.

Step 3: Assemble Your Paper

If you get a large and thick sheet, you can skip this step.

I didn't want to make a trip out, so I had to work with what I had.


1. I put 9 glue dots on a sheet, and stuck another one on top. Then I taped around the edges to keep it all together.

2. Then I added 5 on the edge of my completed piece, and attached my 3rd piece of paper to that.

3. Then I flipped it over and added 9 dots to the back

4. Then I added the second piece on top, and taped the 4 sides.

Step 4: Build Frame and Attach Paper

I build my frame out of K'nex, but you can make it out of whatever you have lying around.

It should be fairly easy to follow what I did with my frame.


I then attached my paper using some tape.

Step 5: Take Pictures!

Take some pictures with your new sweep

I used a Nikon d40 with a telephoto lens to take my pictures.

I took the pictures with natural lighting, but I could get better results with proper lights.

(See the intro slide for all the images I took.)

Step 6: Store

The good thing about K'nex, is that you can take it apart easily. I snapped the rails into the K'nex, so it was almost completely flat.

Comments

[uuglypher]

I'm ignorant of this use of the word "Sweep". Looks like you've made a background support for photographing small objects...? I've been active in photography for more than 6 decades and never heard of a "sweep". Clue me in, please?

[yellowcatt]

I have never heard of this described as a 'sweep' either.
Though I have only been active in photography for a bit over three decades.

I made a background for photographing small objects from a box with no top and one side removed. It supports a card background and I clipped lamps onto the box edges.

[maruawe]

This is neat .You can do the same thing with PVC and two 90 degree angles. I did this to shoot pictures of rocks and small animals in the wild. I also made a light box from PVC . Also you can use heavy sheets (Single size)as a background. Light will penetrate the sheets to help with lighting.