Why YOU Need a Light Box

My light tent/light box arrived in the mail today! Huzzah! I lucked out and won this huge 36"x36" light box on eBay for $20 plus FREE Priority Shipping. I know there are tons on tutorials on how to make your own but I broke down and decided to just buy one. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about DIY but some things I just feel are better when purchased. I tried almost every DIY technique and it just wasn't up to the standards I was trying to achieve, not to mention all the hassle I had to go through to setting it up and taking it down.




This new light box pops up to it's full shape and collapses down to a small 8" circle to fit inside it's very own zippered pouch. It is super light-weight so I can carry it outside or put it on my desk very easily. The only downside to it is that the backdrops are made using a rough polyester material that wrinkles VERY easily. So the fact that the came factory folded pretty much ensures that the wrinkles will probably never come out. I, however, have resulted back to my old DIY ethics here. I plan on purchasing some plain broadcloth in different colors and sewing Velcro dots on the side so I can attach it to the Velcro already sewn to the light box. This way I can iron the fabric, coordinate the color to the item I'm photographing, and perhaps even use a fabric with a pattern to add some swank. Here's an example of some pink wood grain fabric as a backdrop to the new Cd's I ordered from Amazon last week:

I love the black background for this pillow:

And here I am operating the lighting...yes, it just so happened to look as if I was posing for a picture ;)