I tried and discarded the spiffy cube that folded up like a tent with memory wire. Alas, every time I wanted to use it, I had to go to YouTube and watch the video on how to fold it up when it was time to put it away. Also, somehow, the light from my photography lights got slightly yellowed so I wanted to get a different box with built in lights. I've done LED strips on my sewing machine and in my display cabinet so I decided to go with the low priced one on Amazon that had built in LEDs.
As you can see from the above photo, it has a nice porthole on one side so I can use my phone clamp to take the shots without casting shadows. (That's been the problem with just shooting things on the dining room table because we have a ceiling light.) The box is made from sheets of plastic and comes with different colored inserts if you don't want a white background. While this works (see picture below for result of above shooting setup) I cannot recommend the box itself. Pros: It came with a nifty zippered holder, and it does the basic job. Cons: The box was cracked in one corner when I unpacked it. I can fix that with my trusty white duct tape so I'm not returning it but I'm not happy. The LED light strips are coming off of the inside of the box and it's been set up for 2 days. And the LEDs get hot very quickly which is not my experience with the ones on my sewing machine. There were no instructions on setting it up in the box. Not even a slip of paper with a webpage address. The box is starting to sag because there really isn't sufficient support for the weight of the plastic. Also you need to have an extra USB to outlet plug for it unless you want to plug it into your computer. It does what I need but I won't buy this one again.
On the other hand, I really like my phone clamp. I bought it originally to do some videos which I haven't gotten around to yet. It clamps onto the ikea bookcase behind the photo box and allows me to position the phone easily while holding it very steady while I snap photos. Since I'm experimenting with digital collage right now, the ease of taking photos of a whole stack of my marbled fabric, for example, is wonderful. Now I can zip into the bedroom where the small photo setup is located, put the phone in the holder, turn on the lights, position the fabric and snap. It almost takes as long to describe it as it does to do it. This is exactly the improvement in photography that I was hoping for so overall I am a very happy artist.
2 comments:
Hey Liz, it's Kyla. Since you're so happy with it, I'd love to know which phone clamp you got, please!
Hi Kyla, I believe I got the licheer one. The only thing I'd change about it is the width of the clamp so I didn't have to fuss with positioning it so I can see the image I'm getting with the camera. Once it's positioned correctly however, I can snap shots as fast as I can change the art and have minimal cropping to do in photoshop.
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