Tell a Story with Easter Photographs – plus how to tie-dye eggs

Easter egg dying is a fun family tradition and a great photography subject. This post will provide examples of how to tell a story with Easter photographs, and as a bonus, will include how to tie-dye your own Easter eggs, courtesy of a set of directions hand-written by me as part of a second-grade school project (and yes, my handwriting really was that awesome).

Plan Ahead

First, think about the story that you want to tell beforehand. For this series, I wanted to capture the process of dying and tie-dying eggs. I also wanted to focus on hands, partially for their storytelling power, and partially because the rest of my extended family was feeling a bit camera-shy about the whole thing.

Think about the scene and the lighting. The process shots were taken at the kitchen table, next to a large window that allowed for significant natural light. Natural lighting is always preferable with this kind of lifestyle photography, and a bright sunny day should allow you to easily shoot handheld without having to raise your ISO above 100.

Think Through the Story

Every family has different traditions, methods, or strategies when it comes to Easter and Easter eggs. Anticipate what those moments will be and how to capture them. For these shots, I knew that I wanted to capture the entire process from start to finish of dying and tie-dying. So, I made sure to arrange and take some intentional set-up shots showing each different step of the process.

Try to capture some before and after shots to show off the transformation. (Read more on doing the 'after' shots and see some examples with a bowl of Easter eggs in the article Easy Photography Upgrade: the tri-fold board.)

Bonus Feature:
DIY Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs

Want to create your own tie-dye Easter eggs? The supplies and process are simple, and the results are always interesting and unexpected.

What you need:

• Eggs to dye
• Your preferred dye
• Cups to hold dye
• Six-inch squares of thin white cloth
• Small rubber bands or twist ties

That's it! You can use hardboiled eggs or blow the whites out of raw eggs, if you want to keep the tie-dyed eggs from year to year. (You may want to dye the raw eggs first and then empty the insides, as an empty egg shell will need to be held down in the dye.)

Wrap the egg like a cylinder with the cloth square. Twist the ends closed and secure with rubber bands or twist ties. Choose two different colors of dye to use. Dip the egg and cloth entirely in the lighter color of dye for about three minutes. Be sure that everything gets covered in dye.

After three minutes, carefully remove the wrapped egg. (You may want to squeeze excess dye out of the edges of the cloth.) Then dip the wrapped egg into the darker colored dye for a minute and a half to two minutes. Remove from the dye and squeeze out the edges of the cloth. Place the still-wrapped egg in a carton or other container, and store overnight in the fridge.

The next day, when the cloth is dry to the touch, you can unwrap the egg and reveal the tie-dye pattern. You can even run the cloth wraps through the washing machine and reuse them year after year.

Tie-dye Easter eggs are a fun activity, and the surprise of the reveal is always exciting. Do you have a special Easter egg family tradition? Share a link or photo in the comments below.

Want more great ideas? Follow Boost Your Photography on Pinterest: Boost Your Photography

Series of Posts on Light Tents and Product Photography

All four articles of mine on light tents and using light tents for product photography are now up and available between here and Digital Photography School. This post provides a quick overview and links to each post.

How to Use a Light Tent

This article, How to Use a Light Tent for Small Product Photography, provides a step-by-step how to for shooting with a light tent, and these directions and recommendations are applicable whether you are shooting with a commercially available light tent kit or a DIY version. Find out how best to shoot with a light tent, what kinds of light and lighting to use, and post-processing considerations for getting the best photographic results. A great starting point for anyone interested in light tents and product photography.

DIY Light Tent

This post, Foldable DIY Photography Light Tent, has quickly become the most popular and most viewed post on Boost Your Photography. From basic supplies that you likely already have in your home (or will only cost you a few dollars to go pick up), you can build yourself a functional, serviceable light tent in less than half an hour. This tent design also has a few extra features, including clips for securely holding backgrounds in place and the option to fold it flat for easy storage and reusability. Why make excuses when you can make a light tent?

Light Tent Kit

This post is a detailed Product Review of the Square Perfect SP500 Light Tent Kit, which I own and use for my personal photography. Find out all the details about this all-in-one kit and its ease of use. This post also includes a selection of recent photographs shot using this light tent.

DIY vs. Light Tent Kit: head-to-head

The final post, over on DPS, is Light Tent Comparison: DIY vs. Kit Tents. See how the DIY light tent (built using the specifications in the article above) matches up against the smaller light tent from the Square Perfect Light Tent Kit (above). See direct head-to-head comparisons of photographs taken using each light tent, and read the analysis of the relative merits and disadvantages of each version. This post will help you decide whether a DIY or light tent kit might be right for you.

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Foldable DIY Photography Light Tent

A light tent is an extremely useful tool in photography, particularly for product shots, close-ups, and any time you want a consistent white (or even colored) backdrop and even lighting. This article will explain the simple steps behind creating your own DIY Photography Light Tent, and, as a bonus, this version will fold flat for easy storage.

Supplies for Your DIY Light Tent

You only need a few basic supplies for building your own light tent, and you may already have them all in your house. The most important thing you will need is a sturdy cardboard box, at least 12 inches square but a bit larger will work even better. The one I used was a 10 x 12 x 18 inch shipping box, scavenged out of the recycling bin.

The rest of the supplies you need include tissue paper, a roll of shipping tape, scissors, and an x-acto or utility knife. A cutting board and clear ruler are also helpful. You can use duct tape, if you wish, but I prefer the clear shipping tape, as you do not have to worry about it blocking any of the light from your final product. After you have built your box, you will also need a sheet of bright white poster board (or any other colors you might want) to use for the backdrop.

Supply Summary:

• Cardboard box, at least 12 inches square
• Tissue paper (2-3 sheets, more for larger boxes)
• Clear shipping tape
• Scissors
• X-acto or utility knife
• Sheet of white poster board

Useful but not required:

• Cutting mat
• Clear straight-edge ruler
• Pencil or marker for drawing out lines
• 2 small binder clips
• 2 posable light stands with lights

Building the Light Tent

The whole process of constructing the light tent should take you under a half an hour from start to finish. (Mine took significantly longer since I kept stopping at every step to take these pictures. But even with that, I was done in less than an hour.)

The first step is choosing whether you want to use the flaps on the 'top' of the box to extend its depth. Since my box was only 10 inches deep, I chose to tape together the flaps on both the inside and outside, as shown. This gave me a final depth of 16 inches. If you are using a deeper box, you may choose to simply cut off the flaps.

The next step is to determine which side will be the bottom of your light tent and then to measure in at least one inch from all edges for the remaining three sides of the box. (An inch will give enough room to hold the tape without any tape showing, but you may want to extend it to an inch and a half for increased stability.)

Use the x-acto or utility knife to cut out all three sides, being careful not to cut through to the other side of the box. I used a self-healing craft cutting mat at this step to protect the underside of the box and a clear ruler to guide the knife. You can discard the cutout pieces.

At this point, you can stand the box up and have a look at it. The original bottom of the box will now be the back of your light tent. Do not tape down the bottom/back just yet, if you want to be able to easily re-flatten your light tent for easy storage.

One other feature I decided to add to my light tent was a slot for a binder clip. Use the x-acto or utility knife to cut two small slits out of the top of your light tent along the back side, one near each corner. This will allow you to clip the binder clip around the back of the light tent from the outside to the inside, as shown. You will then be able to use these clips to hold up your poster board backdrops with a minimum of fuss. (Confused? Keep reading; this will make more sense later when you can see them in action.)

The next step is cutting and taping down the tissue paper. Cut the tissue paper about a half-inch shorter on all sides than the actual box. This will give you a gap of cardboard to attach the tape to, as well as room to wrap the tape around the sides. If you have not yet taped together the back of the light tent (formerly the bottom of the box), then you can wrap the tape around and inside the bottom flap only, as shown. This will allow you to flatten and fold-down the box later for easy storage.

You should have tissue paper around the two sides and the top. At this point you can lightly tape down the back of the light tent. (I recommend using a big piece of tape inside to hold it too.) Congratulations!  You have just created your own Foldable DIY Light Tent!

The last step is to create the background for your seamless backdrop. Take a piece of white poster board and cut it to the final width of your box. Slide it up inside to the top, and use the two binder clips to hold it securely to the box. (See how handy those were?) Push the poster board in until you have a smooth, even curve along the back, and avoid bending or folding it in any way. You can either trim the board at this point to match your box size (and attach at the bottom using two more binder clips), or you can leave it extending from the box. As shown, I chose to leave mine extending out, which will give a little more of the white foreground to work with.

When you are finished using the light tent, all you need to do is gently slice through the tape holding the back of the box together, and then open the back flaps and lay the box closed as shown. The tape will be flexible enough to allow itself to be folded. Now you can easily store it somewhere out of the way, like under a bed or behind a book case.

Lighting Your Light Tent

You can use your light tent in daylight to diffuse incoming sunlight and eliminate harsh shadows. Simply place your light tent in a well-lit spot near a window, with the back of the tent toward the window and with both sides evenly lit.

Depending on the angle that you want, you can rest your camera directly on the table top or use a tripod to hold it steady. This arrangement will allow you to capture evenly-lit shots, and the light through the top panel can even create an interesting reflection, if you are using shiny poster board.

Nail polish photographed using the set up above exactly as shown.

The alternative way to light your light tent is to use two lamps, one on each side of the box, which will balance each other out and create even lighting.

Pay attention to the style of light bulb you are using, as many bulbs are designed to impart a "warm glow" to our interior lighting, but this warm glow can translate into a yellow-ish hue in your shots (as seen above). Read the packaging of your light bulbs carefully, and you should be able to find the color temperature (in K for Kelvins) of the light. You can set the white balance on your camera to try and match the temperature of the lights, if known. (For example, the daylight white balance setting matches 5400K, fluorescent matches 3800K, etc.) If you shoot in RAW, you can adjust your white balance in post-processing.

Example of the same shot, adjusting the white balance from the RAW file.
Originally shot using compact fluorescent bulbs.

DIY Light Tent Summary

A light tent is an incredible useful tool for taking high quality photographs of smaller items and objects. It is particularly useful if you want crisp shots of products for sale and for instructional photographs on a blog or web site. If you want your creations to look their best, then use a light box.

This post has covered the basics for creating your own foldable light tent out of everyday materials. The next posts in this series will cover How to Use a Light Tent for Product Photography (more detailed advice and how to), a Face-Off: DIY Light Tent vs. Store-Bought, and a product review of the Square Perfect SP500 Platinum Light Tent Kit.

Have you built your own light tent? Post a picture or comment below and share your results!

Want more great ideas? Follow Boost Your Photography on Pinterest: Boost Your Photography

Not sure you want to go the DIY route? Read the Product Review of the Square Perfect Light Tent for a kit option.

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