Crazy idea? Giant light tent.

[Greg Stout]

Can't really find much discussion of people doing this, and thought it sounded like it could work, so I thought I'd ask.

The light tents that people build for product shots tend to work very well. Everything is so perfectly evenly lit that you wonder how the lousy object you just bought ever looked so good.

As I've been checking out all the options for lighting a large greenscreen, I've been starting to wonder if it might just be easier and cheaper to do something radical:

Create a giant light tent.

If one's goal is supremely even, soft, diffuse light everywhere, a perfect key, etc... they you'd want light as diffuse as possible, right? Well since the greenscreen has two stands already to hold it up, what about getting two more stands, and putting them so you now have one stand at each corner of the screen on the floor. Now just stretch white diffusion fabric across the frame, and you've created a light tent. A couple bars between them would let you do the same on top if you want.

So... is this a crazy idea or not? Seems to me at first glance that it would really even things out in the max possible way. It would be a very unrealistic light, but since that's what I'm going for anyway...

I understand you'd need some more wattage to make up for the screen... but in a sense, it's just replacing the diffusers on the front of softboxes anyway, right? Ok, so still more wattage, but not unworkable, right?

Thing I'm not sure of though is whether it would exacerbate the green spill. Would more green get bounced back after the light hits the greenscreen, then reflects off the tent's side?

Oddball thought, maybe, but possible also the answer to my particular needs.

Thoughts? Anybody know of anyone who's done something like this? I'm not just talking about stringing a bit of sheet here or there, but actually boxing the space in so it's max diffusion and the light bounces off all the white walls so you get that reflected from all the walls too... so REALLY diffused.

This idea wouldn't necessarily be ONLY for greenscreen. I just toss that bit out because I'm wondering if the green spill would be more of an issue in that case.