Sprucing up a lightbox

With this thread, I hope to get some good ideas for different backdrops and "flooring" to enhance my lightbox.

I found an old graphics cardboard box that I loved - however, it had a big emblem on it. I would love to replicate the surface of it somehow. I would describe it as a glossy black material that shows a dim reflection of the item on too of it. Any idea what I could use in its place? I'm thinking that a placemat would be a perfect substitute for a plain white background... With different patterns and glossiness. Any suggestions welcome!

Thanks!

Your box, your mind, your creations.

As I mentioned in the other thread, there are countless items that can be used to provide a background, or be used as reflectors, each providing their own coloration and character.
Sometimes it's obvious what is being used, like the seam or pocket of blue jeans showing, and other times it leaves the viewer wondering if they are looking at wood, fabric, or composite.

Experiment. That's how you got where you are now. That's how you got where you were 4 days ago. That's how you will get where you are 5 years from now.
What works FOR YOU, continue to use and work with it's capabilities. What doesn't appear to work, look at its limitations and decide if it is the arrow or the brave, and if it is worth the time to overcome the drawbacks.

That's the great thing about photography as a hobby at home. There are no rules. You don't have a customer sitting for a portrait that is going to tell her friends that she felt creeped out by the studio lighting using old coffee cans as reflectors.

In another thread, one of the guys used a piece of polished black stone (perhaps Onyx?) as his floor. It provides a beautifully reflective floor surface. The only drawback is the need to work at a high angle because there is no way to smooth the rear edge, so it is really only suitable for small items that don't have a lot of height, and look good when shot from a high angle. It would be okay for a razor, but much more difficult for a brush.

One way to seperate a hard angled floor is to move the background way back and light it seperately. Using a large apeture to control your DOF will blur the edge of the floor, and with the background being several feet away, will be OOF. This works best with your subject near the front of the stage floor though.

As noted, unless you are documenting artifacts, photography is wonderfully fluid. Taking the form of whoever is trying to mould it. Experiment, goof off, don't read rules or "how-tos" because not knowing what it is supposed to look like allows you to make it look like how you want. Do you think Brassaï (Gyula Halasz) knew what the street thugs of the Parisian night life would do when he triggered his flash powder from a dark corner? He often left overblown highlights in his images as stylistic elements. Unable to previsualize scenes in dim oil lit street lamps, he just experimented. Profusely.

Btw, check out olloclip.com, mightbe something you like.


-Xander

Thank you guys for the input. I guess its time to check my local super stores: Walmart, Target, etc. and come up with something of my own.