How to take pictures of your flight helmets, militaria and collectibles

Each time I took pictures of my pieces, flight helmets, navigation instruments, radios, fuel gauges, aircraft antennas, etc, I always faced with the problem of getting a blank, clear background to the object. I always struggled to find a white environment to isolate the piece from any distracting reflections and, most of times, I was compelled to take pictures on the floor or next to white wall and spend much time in photoshopping the picture to remove any disturbing backgrounds. Until I found the Cubelite. The Cubelite kit comes with a certain number of optionals. It is made by a cube constructed with a special fabric that diffuse the light automatically softening the light and the shadows. The light is also reflect by a silver reflector (positioned on the opposite side of the light source) that automatically pushes light back into the other side of the product, creating the effect of another light. Depending on the intensity of the light, by using also the silver reflector, you can obtain a crisp white background with no shadows around the object. Once you have your box ready, operation is quite simple. You can angle at wish the silver reflector in order to manipulate the light and to create different effects with the lighting. Some need a white flat background with no shadows while others want to keep some shadows around the object to enhance deepness of the photograph (that’s my choice). You need the kit, the constant light source, a tripod and the rest is done. You don’t need any flash.
I found the kit here in Italy just Googling “Cubelite”. The company selling it is Easy Italy. You can find all the information you need, videos, tutorials, FAQ, samples, prices, ordering information, etc. here: http://www.cubelite.it/.
Below, you can find a few examples of pictures I took with the Cubelite and a picture showing my setup.



About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.