A Question

My Olympus died recently, thank the Lord, and I've got a new Fuji 16 MP point and shoot being delivered Monday or Tuesday, a combo late birthday early X-mas gift from my wife. Comes as a kit, tripod, case, 8 gig card.
My question is this. I want to step up the shot quality a bit, and have been wondering about a small light box/tent that's fairly inexpensive. Any suggestions?

There really are many inexpensive brands out there, especially if you want one small enough to shoot watches. 16 X 16 will do the trick. I got one from ebay for about $30, including four background colors and, obviously, two lamps.

A couple of old white t-shirts diffuse light as good as any tent and a couple of wire coat hangers make a fine frame. With proper camera settings most any normal light bulb works fine.
All that fancy stuff really isn't needed.
It's all about the end result and not what the set-up looks like.
You've taken some decent shots and I'm sure with a little ingenuity you can save a lot of money.

Watch the deal of the day sites. They show up there often.

or

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=photo+light+box&_sacat=See-All-Categorieso

Thanks guys. I've used the tee shirt deal, but lately I haven't been satisfied with the results. Fog, thanks for the compliment. It means a lot. My thinking is that if I can come up with an inexpensive($50 or less) answer I would rather have that than the mess I have to deal with now. I've looked at the eBay offerings in the link provided, and I believe a solution within my budget can be found there. I'm still open to further suggestions though.
BTW, run screaming from Olympus point and shoot cameras, especially their more expensive ones. They are not user friendly, require too much interfacing with a computer, and though you can eventually get a few good shots the number you go thru in the process just isn't worth it.

Randy, I wanted to thank you in particular. I followed the link you provided and found a pretty nice one for $36. My new camera and it should be here at about the same time. Thanks again.

RaiderFan wrote:Randy, I wanted to thank you in particular. I followed the link you provided and found a pretty nice one for $36. My new camera and it should be here at about the same time. Thanks again.

You're welcome. Glad I helped.

Please realize I always try to be helpful regardless of whether we "agree" on other topics. I try to never make it or take it personally.

Plus, it was your picture at BDWF years ago that convinced me to but my Accutron VX200 chrono. Your pic:

Datsun240Z71 wrote:

RaiderFan wrote:Randy, I wanted to thank you in particular. I followed the link you provided and found a pretty nice one for $36. My new camera and it should be here at about the same time. Thanks again.

You're welcome. Glad I helped.

Please realize I always try to be helpful regardless of whether we "agree" on other topics. I try to never make it or take it personally.

Plus, it was your picture at BDWF years ago that convinced me to but my Accutron VX200 chrono. Your pic:

I always separate political debate from how I feel about people in general, at least I try my best to. Agree or disagree about the path, I think all of us have the same goals in mind and heart. The rhetoric can cloud issues quite a bit, and I dare say that if we were better at expressing our views a good bit of the disagreement would begin to fall away. If nothing else we share a common interest in watches, so it ain't all bad.
Here's my favorite pic of the VX200. I took both shots at about the same time. I can send you some others if you want.



Here are a couple more. The VX200 lends itself well to being photographed.

Get a room already you two!

:mnljkk:

Datsun240Z71 wrote:Watch the deal of the day sites. They show up there often.

or

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=photo+light+box&_sacat=See-All-Categorieso

Just make sure you get one of the larger ones. It is worth the extra few bucks. I purchased one of the smaller kits seen on the link above and in the end regretted not getting a considerably larger light box and realized quickly it was just to small to have any other props or items in the same pictures. The larger boxes give you much more flexibility IMHO.

I went with a mid-sized one. I rarely use other props when I'm shooting indoors and even when I do they're fairly small. Of course one reason I went with a fairly inexpensive one was to limit the damage to the wallet if I find it does happen to be too small. I can always pick up or build a larger one using this one as a model.