Tents for shooting wild flowers

[glen_johnson]

Can anyone recommend a good translucent tent for reducing the effects of wind and harsh lighting when shooting wildflowers in situ? I am familiar with the Calument catalog and their products. I would like to hear from someone who could recommend a specific model based on their field use.

[paul_wilson2]

Have you thought about making one yourself? It shouldn't be too hard.

[glen_johnson]

Yes, I've thought about it... and I might just do it. It could be done fairly easily. Simple white bed sheets would probably be an adequately translucent material. a frame of 1x2 pine would probably be adequate as well, although it would be a pain to take on hikes. My application is in my wife's wildflower garden, so it may be that making one would be the way to go.

 

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My low pod question was for the same venue, and making an adequate support for a ball head really wasn't that big a deal either. Really, the only advantages of commercial gear are that it is generally light weight, and reasonably strong. It is nearly always expensive.

[barry_crowder1]

White garbage bags are translucent, block wind, are light, don't take up much space in your bag, are cheap, and can be used for a variety of purposes (like waterproofing), should the need arise. Just a thought.

[paul_wilson2]

Response to Glen...

 

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You might want to go to the local hardware store and see what kind of aluminum or brass rods they have. This would make a lighter and more compact frame than wood. You might also be able to make the thing fold up if you're careful with the design(ever brazed anything?).

[frank_kolwicz]

I use home-made diffsion screen for studio work, the same material

should work just as well for a flower tent. There is a very white

rip-stop nylon fabric that I got from a couple of fabric stores

(so it is pretty available) that has minimal color shift, is light

and very sturdy - I don't know the name, but you can tell by the

whiteness and the small squares woven into the fabric. It gives about

1&1/2 stops light loss which is about what you need for good diff-

usion. Look through it at the lights, they should barely show.

[duane_galensky]

For supports, I'm toying with the idea of some long knitting needles attached to a long strip of material at each end. A couple of loose ones that can prop up the middle part, and you can imagine a very flexible arrangement that can change shape readily: just stick the two end needles into the ground as far apart as required, and pull the slack out of the way with the loose needles. I'm not yet clear on how long this strip of material might need to be to allow it to be positioned far enough away from the subject to get it out of the image.

 

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If building a larger diffuser, I think that a frame made of small diameter PVC pipe might be easy to build, cheap, and light weight. I believe they sell large diffusion panels (like six feet tall) manufactured in this way.

[kaetheko]

At the risk of sounding like the queen-of-improvise, I have used two inexpensive white umbrellas from the local discount store with the handles sawed off. I usually do not run into a shadow problem from the ribs, they balance well in the field, and can be combined with a photoflex diffusion screen which can be fastened to the umbrellas. They also do a great job of wind screening and they are quick to set up. kaethe

[jakub_jasinski]

About two years ago I read PHOTOGRAPHING WILDFLOWERS: TECHNIQUES FOR THE ADVANCED AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL by Craig & Nadine Blacklock. They sell a diffusing tent for $40 which proves to me that there must be some inexpensive way to make one myself, especially that I already had fiberglass poles from an old dome tent. For the "fabric" I chose a plastics dropcloth from a paint supply store. The key was to sand both sides of it with medium sandpaper. It took me 40 minutes to do 10x12 ft sheet.

 

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To set it up I stick the poles' ends into the ground to form semicircles crossing at a right angle. Then cover them with the dropcloth. The tent is large enough for the flower, tripod and myself. It gives no color shift. Creates a very good wind block and good light diffusion. I took many very satisfying, long exposure wildflower pics in windy conditions.

[les_saucier]

I made a tent from an Army surplus suppy parachute and fiberglass tent poles. It worked well for a few years, but I was always limited to a downward shooting angle. Now I use a flower choker, it works much better than any tent.

[curt_weinhold]

How does one set up a tent around a wildflower and then succeed in photographing the subject without having the lower tent or its poles in the picture? Seems to me it would limit composition. Great windbreak though.

[gary_duvall]

I built a rectangular frame using 3/4 inch PVC pipe and fittings.

It's not easily drawn here using ASCII symbols, but it has a sort

of barn-roof top, and four legs about 2 feet long. The whole thing

can be easily taken down for packing. I cover it with clear

polyethylene sheet held on with large bulldog clamps. This has

saved the day on numerous occasions, most recently when I was on

a hilltop in Eastern Washington, in a ferocious wind, photographing

a very uncommon flower (Talinum Spincscens) that I finally found

in bloom. We had to weight the edges of the plastic down with rocks,

and my wife had to hold the tent down to keep everything from blowing

to far points unknown. The photographs were fine. With a little

imagination, you can tailor such a system to your own needs, and

the cost is trivial.

 

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Gary DuVall