Show me your light box set up large enough for taking pictures of a rifle.
I checked the pinned thread but not much there.
Not looking to do a large investment, but more of a DIY configuration.

Most of my lighting stuff (other than necessary hardware) is DIY to save costs.  The important thing is to make sure you have control over where your light goes, how soft it is, etc.

-If you want a white background, the easiest method is (and I'm not kidding here) a decently cleaned white bathtub with your flash bouncing off the walls.  Just have to tweak it in post a bit here and there.  They do make kind of a 'half bathtub' looking thing for product photography though.  Literally picture a bathtub cut in half long ways, just out of molded white acrylic so you can shoot straight into it instead of from above.
-Worst case, you can make a rifle sized whitebox out of foamcore, hot glue, and posterboard for $25-50 at most.  If the posterboard inside gets oily/gross, you just buy 2 new $0.75 sheets and call it good.  I've been trying to work out an idea for making a magnetized and modular but inexpensive one.
-For black, I hang a sheet of black felt on a wall.  Rifle is positioned how I want it several feet in front of the wall, and bounce the flashes off the ceiling.  Black cards to control light as needed.
-Reflections are pretty easy too, just a sheet of clear (with white or black posterboard behind it) white,or black acrylic.  Just watch your angles so everything doesn't look weird.  Worst case, you can do a pretty convincing job of reflections in post as well.

I don't use a light box, as I find them to be a pain in the butt.  I just lay out a couple of sheets of white poster board on my living room floor.  I "feather" the venetian blinds so I get a nice soft light in the room.  Since the walls in my living room pretty close to white (off white, really), the whole room basically becomes a big light box.  For these shots, I use a small aperture (for large DOF), long exposure times, and a good steady tripod.

Best photos were taken out on my patio using backdrop of white poster board. I'm no photographer, but I think they turned out well that I like to show. . This is a photo of my K2 Daewoo.

Any lights/flash used?
What camera settings were used?

On a different note, the tub thing won't work for me. Lets just leave it at that.

I’ll see if I can snap some photos of the DIY setups I have.  It’ll probably be a day or two as there’s a lot going on over here currently though.

I’ve used foam board before and built a box out of plywood and painted it white.

Please suggest what lights I should buy.

I built a light box and it was OK on the patio, but I want to use it indoors and am a little overwhelmed when looking at all the choices available online.

I am ready to invest $200 to $300 in lighting.

Thanks

I use a 1/4" sheet of 2447 acrylic. I put on light under it and one above it. I would look into a used pair of Alien Bees.

I dig the rapid box. I just wish I had more use for mine.

I use a white room, then point a bright LED white lite towards the ceiling with a 7 dollar clamp on shop light from lowes... Then white poster board.

And my phone.

Where did you purchase this stuff???
From what I am seeing a 48x24 piece is over $70.

I picked up THIS light from Home Depot.
3600 Lumens

Placed it on top of saw horses pointing down toward the white board.

Here are results. Better than what I previously had but still want something even better.
As you seen see with the Thompson, the front and rear aren't getting enough light.  

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It was in Canada for $70 CAD. You could look for companies that have remnants.

Amazon occasionally has some solid pricing on white or black acrylic.  On the other hand if you check locally at hardware store, sometimes you can find a sheet of clear for a song.  I need to dig up a new one as my current is scratched to hell, but I got a 36x36" sheet of clear for $15 or so.  I just put white or black poster board under it if needed.  Ideally I'm going to just build a light table at some point, but $$$ and space.

@griffin86

Is THIS the same stuff? Best price I could find and wanted to make sure.

Also, what light setup are you using on top and bottom? How many Lumens for each?

Yes, that's the same stuff. All I do is lay it on two saw horses.

I use two Profoto 500w B1s. The bottom one is at 8/10 power I believe and the top is something like 6/10. Not sure what the stops are.

What does the photo look like before processing?

I tried it using f10 and 20 seconds it was almost like staring into a white light.
Tried f10 and 10 seconds. Still very washed out.
Have not attempted any post processing yet and it still appears extremely washed out.

What’s your ISO?

20 second shutter time
f10
ISO 100
Using the light from my phone.
It definitely does take some practice.
From the photo it is obvious I spent a lot of time on the center of the rifle.
The ends look great so need to focus on less is more.

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For simple white back drop / high key, I do not use a light box. I setup the object on a table top or some other method by which it is propped up with any wall remotely white. Then I go two light: one light overexposing the wall and then one light for the object.

I don't do it perfect most of the time due to space constraints, but the goal is to have the backdrop exposed at least 1 f-stop more than the object. That way I can use the Lightroom whites or highlight adjustment brush tool to 'paint' the white backdrop pure white.







Obviously, this post-correction method doesn't work if the object itself is white or has a lot of specular highlights on the edges, and will require a lot more care in properly lighting both the item and the backdrop.

As far as laying an object on a white board, if the goal is pure white, this becomes a lot more difficult simply because you won't be able to make the board completely white without overexposing the object. Trying to post-correct, you will struggle with edge separation of the white board and the object.

If you are studio constrained, you can always just shoot long focal length and wide aperture for 'portrait' gun photos. Just use a backdrop that will look good when bokeh'ed out (e.g. foliage) and you will have good photos.

Lots of ways to skin a cat.

It's been 8 or 10 years since I took these, but I didn't use any strobes, hot lights, LEDs, flashlights, dark rooms, picture stacking, or anything else.  Just indirect window light, a steady tripod, and a few sheets of white poster board.  A big  4 x 8 sheet, as suggested by EdwardAvila, would be the cat's ass, though.  If anyone is interested, the exif is attached.  But basically, I'm at base ISO,  f/16 or so (for max DOF), and 1-4 seconds on shutter speed.  Yes, I cleaned up the white background a little in Photoshop, and  there are a dozen ways to do that.  Google "cleaning up white background in Photoshop", and you will find a bunch of Youtube videos.









Oh, and get creative with your camera point of view, and the angle you lay out the subject.  Adding something with a little color to the picture, can help, too.

For softer light, move the soft boxes closer to the subject. A large light source will yield softer light.  A small light source will result in a harsher light.  Think of the difference between a spot light, and a flood light.   If they are too bright, dial the power down on the flash units, stop down more on your camera, and make sure you are at base ISO.

Very nice work, and have fun with the experimenting!

I hate wasting time in post cleaning shadows so as already shown in another posters pics, I use high key ( low contrast ) . Two ways to do this

A)  You can get a white sheet....it can be all wrinkly etc because you are overexposing the backdrop / blowing out backdrop you will not see wrinkles

Hit it in front with strobe or even cheap "slave strobes" that screw into lamp works fine . I use some old studio strobes set to slave trigger

Slave Strobe

Problem with this method is you need enough room to put sheet, then lights then your subject and finally camera

b) get a "front diffuser " from a softbox. Having said that, replacement front diffusers are at least $20 . You can buy a whole rectangular softbox for as low as $40 and you can use the softbox

Light diffuser from the back ( so towards camera )  with slave strobe / flash

I do this for small stuff since it less hassle to setup

Either way background is blown out and no shadows









The only time you need to put it into a "box" or shooting tent,  since guns are relatively 2 dimensional ( so lighting form one direction is ok ) is if you can see the surroundings in reflection

When I shoot pictures of wine bottles for my wine blog, the bottles often reflect all the crap in the room I use for photos. .  When you use tent / box it will eliminate that

Although white foam board to make background works fine,  you will always have shadow if your light source is only in front of subject ( unless background is really far away ) .

To eliminate that, just overexpose background with a flash / strobe .

Only tough thing is you have to figure out way to hold up rifle . I have had many guns precariously balanced on a table . For smaller items I sit them on blocks of white plastic . When properly exposed the white blocks disappear into the background

I ended up hacking a part a magazine to attached to cheap tripod to hold it upright

High Speed Sync

If you have speedlight already, and you are looking for non white background, you can use the technique called "high speed sync"

Essentially you set exposure variables so background is underexposed . Pic below was taken daylight mid day,  outdoors against a green hedge .  You use the the speedlight in high speed sync ( since SS will be much faster than typical sync speeds of 1/250 sec ) to properly expose the rifle ( or person etc ) .  The key is keep your subject away form the background so the flash does not spill over and light background . You are making use of the inverse square law of lighting .

Its more for creative photos . I like this style for portraits .

Not a great example since I was fooling around with CTO gel and white balance in post