Tent lighting for Ebay...........

[skip_converse]

I am thinking of selling small items, ie, cameras, handbags, briefcases on Ebay

and am wondering which light tent would be best and what size. Impact makes

several sizes, and I was thinking of getting the largest 24x24 so I would have one

large enough for larger items in the future.

 

Also, do I need a micro/macro lens to make the images for Ebay using the lighting

tent? And what size should the final image be in order to post on Ebay?

 

Warm regards,

Glen

[craig_supplee]

I can't help with the light tent, but as far as picture sizes, I just shoot at large fine (3000x2000) setting, and then use the large picture upgrade option on the ebay listing setup. It will automatically size your photos for their format. Using a fine setting allows for very clear shots when people click on them to enlarge.

[ronald_moravec1]

Just use a cardboard box lined with white paper or make an open front box from foam core.

 

Oldlensbank uses the open white box, small flash, Gary Fong diffuser. One light and the white inside is the reflector fill. Don`t know if any of his stuff is still up.

 

He uses a D80+ 60 2.8 on full auto with the Nikon flash off camera and Fong diffuser.

 

I am not old lens bank, but I know him.

[pge]

Hi Skip

 

I would even suggest larger than 24x24 given that you mentioned briefcases.

 

As for image size, if you are going to arrange image hosting yourself then consider 800 pixels wide, that is large enough to give a good view but small enough that most people won't have to scroll sideways to see the whole image.

 

You do not need a macro lens for this type of shooting. The items that you mentioned are not tiny like jewellery, and there is so much crop room with any digital camera these days that you will be fine.

[g._armour_van_horn]

In general, light tents don't do a very good job, but they're actually very good for this specific application where you want "good enough" in the least possible time. If you were to rank product photos on a scale of 1 to 10, using a light tent probably means you'll never have any pictures that would rate an 8 or 9, but you could rapidly get a lot of shots that were 6 or 7 and never have to worry about anything much lower than that.

 

I have a 30-inch cube that I bought on eBay several years ago, and though I can do better work without it, that's because I've bought a hell of a lot of other modifiers since then. Just throw as much light as you can at both sides, have a dark area behind you, or at least nothing really prominent that might reflect, and you'll get most shots as easily as you could ask for.

 

Van

[hjoseph7]

The light tents work great, but they dont solve everything, however for what you are doing I would say anything larger than 24X24 would work. The reason why I say that is because I have a 24X24 and sometimes depending on the size of the object, the lens catches the sides of the tent which makes for an ugly picture. If you are shooting highly reflective items such as metal or glass then yes, a tent is recomended, but for anything else it's over-kill.

[steven_moseley1]

Hi,

 

These light tents are expensive and you do not need one...check out this old thread, where I posted about FREE DIY table top photography:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00OVKc

 

cheers Steve.M.

[steven_moseley1]

Further:

 

"Also, do I need a micro/macro lens to make the images for Ebay using the lighting tent? And what size should the final image be in order to post on Ebay? "

 

You need to know how much room you have in front of the set up. You need to work out your largest item you may shoot and using, say lens A, can you actually get far enough away from it to shoot it? The amount of room you have dictates what focal length lens you can use. My simple DIY daylight studio is in a spare room with only about 5 feet to manoevre...so I use an APS DSLR with a 60mm macro lens..this works just fine with cameras and bags.

 

I shoot on the full 10MP and then resize so they are only 30% of the original size to load onto ebay..larger ones will load very slowly on listings and bidders will get fed up.

 

cheers.

[steven_moseley1]

Negatives of light tents:

 

1. Expensive if you buy proprietry one.

2. Limits you on subject size.

3. Need to use expensive flash heads with it.

4. Bulky

5. Cannot get much modelling on the subjects, because by their very nature, tents do not produce shadows..this can often be bad for product photography.