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Lightbox suggestions, anyone?
 

I'm making the leap to more professional photo's. Can any of you guys recommend a good Lightbox kit in the $50-$200 range for small items? (<16").

I know how to make one myself but I want my pictures to be as good as possible, so I'm willing to spend the $ on something decent. I was browsing around just now and a lot of the kits come bundled with multiple cheap China LED's as the "light source". I've heard 100W Daylight incandescent bulbs work best though and would rather avoid LED chips - unless one of you thinks those LED lights are better for this.

Aside from product recommendations, any other suggestions (lighting, item positioning, editing, etc.) are welcome. My photos don't look crappy now, but they don't have that perfectly white background + perfect lighting. It's time to upgrade my photography techniques in order to stay relevant. :peace:

Re: Lightbox suggestions, anyone?
 

I'm a photographer and I actually find myself "dumbing down" my photographs because I often get the comment "do you have any actual photos of the item" on certain selling places.

But I guess it really depends on the product.

Honestly, you dont even need extra lights...depending on how the room that you'll be taking pictures in is lit.

Sorry I wasn't more help lol

Re: Lightbox suggestions, anyone?
 

But basically, you just need even lighting to eliminate shadows. It gets a little tricky with white items, and not blowing out(over exposing) parts of the item, while trying to get the background bright white. It's easier to just get "close" on the exposure, then photoshop it the rest of the way.

Re: Lightbox suggestions, anyone?
 

There are some tuts on youtube for DIY lightboxes. Depending on what items you sell some might do the job just well. If the light conditions are good you can take the pics under natural light. Otherwise maybe get one or two cheap speedlights.
Also there are some proper videos on youtube about how to make good product pictures. Try to find the videos of actual photographers and not those of ebay sellers :)

Re: Lightbox suggestions, anyone?
 

Thanks for the tips guys. In the past I've used a folded poster board and natural lighting.

The reason I'm wanting the Lightbox is to make editing photos easier. I've read it's unrealistic to expect a perfectly white background just by using good lighting and a lightbox. From the limited research I've done, I'm expecting to get a gray background which is uniform and therefore easy to remove with Photoshop.

I made my own setup yesterday using 3 lamps and a few poster boards, but the resulting pictures were not evenly lit enough for me to easily remove the background using "magic eraser" or "background eraser" in PS.

I always put plenty of pictures on listings. When this is all said and done I plan to have one perfect, stock looking, White background photo as the primary photo for each listing, and then regular unedited photos for the rest. That way I'll have nice Google-friendly images on display along with images which clearly aren't stock photos for those who think I'm dropshipping.

Re: Lightbox suggestions, anyone?
 

You need diffused lighting(this is what the mesh lightboxes do) to eliminate the harsh lighting conditions(highlights and shadows). Think of an overcast day, versus shining a 10 million candlepower spotlight on something in the dark.

I was going to recommend an easy way to just edit black backgrounds, but I viewed a few of your listings and see that you've been experimenting with that already.

My very first lightbox I made myself about 10 years ago. Foamcore board, with square holes cut into the sides of the "box". Taped printing paper over the holes to diffuse the light, and used halogen worklights to shine light in from the sides. It worked, and was cheap, but also was not the ideal setup.

Re: Lightbox suggestions, anyone?
 

I'd say you probably want some shadows because if the whole backgrond is whit it's going to look like it was a either a ****ty cut-out job in photoshop or ithe item is flying somewhere in white space (which you might consider if you sell hover boards or jetpacks tho). So a little touching-the-ground-shadow should be ok.

Don't light your stuff directly with the lamps. try to diffuse the light with an umbrella or a softbox. Check out this video of the DIY lightbox and how she uses the lights in the end.

Re: Lightbox suggestions, anyone?
 

Wow, thanks @dachilla for sharing the video its really great video and also to know how can we build a picture on the light box.