Light Box Perspex question

[thunderchildobs]

In an light box article it mentions "Opaque Perspex sheet " for the defuser screen.

Are there different types for the Opaque Perspex sheet?
Is there a particular type / name of Opaque Perspex
that is best to use or avoid?

Brendan

[Dennis]

Hi Brendan

The Perspex of choice is the milky white stuff that you cannot see through, but tends to diffuse the light. I got a small cut off from a place at Slacks Creek. There should be an outlet in Ipswich I reckon? If not, let me know and I’ll try to find the details of the Slacks Creek place.

But…..why do you want a light box for your 30 sec galaxy supernova search images? Are you getting a bit creative or trendy? LOL!

Cheers

Dennis

[thunderchildobs]

Hi Dennis

Yep

Brendan

[h0ughy]

you could use drafting film - might be cheaper - especially if you are experimenting Brendan

[Bassnut]

Get it as thick and opaque as you can (mines about 6mm), and mount the lights in the front corners faceing the back, and sheilded so the cam only sees relection off white painted sides/back, not directly from the lights themselves. Fit a dimmer, it will save a world of pain getting the right exposure times.

[thunderchildobs]

Thanks for the info.

Haven't actually thought about installing a dimmer switch.

Brendan

[Bassnut]

Brendan

Im not sure how much youve gone into this, so sorry if Im teaching grandma to suck eggs :D. Dont use incandescent lamps, big mistake I made, far too limited colour range output. In the end I used 4 off 15w halogen (with a tranformer and suitable dimmer), but I think some have used white leds with success. Too much brightness is actually a pain with a CCD, the exposure times can get to less than a second, so go for dense perspex and small lamps for even low level smoothness.

A flat box is a nice piece of kit to have, very convienient .Dusk/dawn sky flats are good, but a pain to capture reliably without full obs automation.

[petal666]

Any idea of where this place was? I'm looking for some perspex or acrylic for a floor/background when doing product shots.

[Dennis]

Hi Ben

The shop was in Moss Street, Slacks Creek, Brisbane. I’ve forgotten the name and haven’t been able to trace it either via a web search or in the paper directories.

Here is a screen print of the approximate location.

Cheers

Dennis

[petal666]

it'd be mr plastics then. Thanks