Light Tent, EZCube, Shooting Tent...

PerezDesignGroup

So many names yet it's all the same thing. Anyone have experience using these? Any comments or suggestions? Any insight is welcome.

I do a lot of selling on ebay and I would also like to take some nice pics of various things lying around the house.

This is the actual package I'm looking at since I don't have lights.

wxwax

Didja ever get any feedback, or try the system?

PerezDesignGroup

wxwax wrote:

Didja ever get any feedback, or try the system?

Actually I ended up buying this. I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet but I will soon. I had a really hard time closing it. Even with the directions at www.ezcube.com, it takes quite a bit of force and muscle to get it to compress. I guess this is one of the drawbacks to the 24" version vs the 30". Even once compressed it doesn't feel natural. So I left it folded down (but not twisted up) and slid it between my bed's mattress and boxspring to straighten it out a bit. I checked up on it a few days ago and it was looking much better.

The workmanship that went into it was quite respectable. You can tell the nylon is easy to clean and light will soften well through it. Once I get actual pics I'll post them. For now I don't have any lamps to use so I may need to go outdoors and shoot some macros. I don't regret the investment at all. The sweep is great and the construction is sturdy. I was thinking of building one but this was a far better idea.

wxwax

PerezDesignGroup wrote:

Actually I ended up buying this.

I'd love to see what you get using it. Think you can shoot food plates with it?

PerezDesignGroup

wxwax wrote:

I'd love to see what you get using it. Think you can shoot food plates with it?

I'll work on it. I have the next 3 days off and I'll try to post something by Friday the latest. It'll give me a reason to finally go out and get this friggin' lights

PerezDesignGroup

wxwax wrote:

I'd love to see what you get using it. Think you can shoot food plates with it?

Done! I can't thank you enough for pushing me to do this! I went out to Home Depot and bought three 10" work lights for $7 a piece and some Philips 100w Natural Light bulbs. I put lights on the sides and one behind but slightly above the tent. I am very impressed with the quality of the tent, the light diffusion and the overall results I attained. I never knew the A70 had this much potential! Below are the highlights. The full gallery is here. I only adjusted the contrast on the Homer pics. Everything else is untouched and kinda washed out (A70's tend to do that). But I wanted you to get the true effect. What do ya think? Critiques are always welcome :whip

wxwax

Wow. That's extremely impressive, especially with just plain ol' lights. I really like the last shot. The product is well lit, and the background has a nice gradient and isn't too bright.

The middle one has a somewhat obvious dividing line between the floor and the back wall... not quite cyclorama, but I bet a little tweaking of the lights a la #3 might fix that. Also, the light on the subject might be a little harsh, maybe benefit from some smoothing? Overall, it look very close to being a professional quality pic, IMHO.

The plate looks great, maybe just needs a little more light on the plate itself?

It's amazing what a nice job you've done with such simple tools.

PerezDesignGroup

wxwax wrote:

Wow. That's extremely impressive, especially with just plain ol' lights. I really like the last shot. The product is well lit, and the background has a nice gradient and isn't too bright.

The middle one has a somewhat obvious dividing line between the floor and the back wall... not quite cyclorama, but I bet a little tweaking of the lights a la #3 might fix that. Also, the light on the subject might be a little harsh, maybe benefit from some smoothing? Overall, it look very close to being a professional quality pic, IMHO.

The plate looks great, maybe just needs a little more light on the plate itself?

It's amazing what a nice job you've done with such simple tools.

Excellent tips! Thank you very much.

mercphoto

Lighting
Good shots with that light tent! The light was very diffuse, yet effective. I built my own light box and also used Home Depot lights and Natural Light bulbs. My home-made box includes a built-in camera mount that can be rotated and clamped into position. It works well, but the light is a bit harsh. Sometimes that is good, sometimes it is bad. But this was cheap.




On this piece I think the hot-spots caused by the three lights helped with the depth of the piece, who knows. My client was thrilled with the photo, and I guess that is what is most important.

cletus

Great work folks!

I've always enjoyed tabletop shooting. Maybe I need to put together a setup like that.

mercphoto

Flourescents

cletus wrote:

I've always enjoyed tabletop shooting. Maybe I need to put together a setup like that.

I went to the EZ cube website because I like the way it diffused the light in those photographs. I noticed the recommended some color-correct flourescent light bulbs. The only question I have is flourescent bulbs flicker. What is the fastest shutter speed you can safely use with such bulbs? Or is it not the issue I think it is?

REECEPHOTO

Good job perez keep'm comming.
I think the first and last shot could use a little more light to help white out everything. -like in the #2 shot-
If you get the photo bulbs that were discused they are a blue color and only have a life of about 5 hours on average.
"I'v used them befor"

wxwax

mercphoto wrote:

I went to the EZ cube website because I like the way it diffused the light in those photographs. I noticed the recommended some color-correct flourescent light bulbs. The only question I have is flourescent bulbs flicker. What is the fastest shutter speed you can safely use with such bulbs? Or is it not the issue I think it is?

Hmmm, no-one answered your question. Did you ever figure it out?

mercphoto

flicker

wxwax wrote:

Hmmm, no-one answered your question. Did you ever figure it out?

Not really. But I was told that "all bulbs flicker", and I found that I was always shooting with rather slow shutter speeds anyway.