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We bought a cheap light box off eBay but have never set it up. It takes up a lot of room and seems cumbersome. I feel we have a good set up using natural light.
If you use a light box to take photos of your items, do you really love it? Is your photography set up in a permanent location so you never have to move it?
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I bought one and I use it sometimes. I like it for little items like jewelry and such. I’ve noticed that the pictures turn out richer looking. The one I bought folds up into a small bundle so if I’m not going to take pictures for a few days, I fold it back up.
I saw that Martin (from Canada) bought one a while back and he uses it quite a bit.
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I have a large light box I purchased on Amazon and I use it for any item that will fit in it. I have a standing desk/platform that I work on and I just leave the light box in place at all times. I have a couple of clamp lights with 100 watt equivalent LED daylight bulbs, one on each side. I also invested in a Canon 70D DSLR camera and pay $10/month for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to quickly process and improve my photos. I’m not a photography expert and just use the auto settings, but my photos generally turn out pretty good. Certain items are more difficult to photograph than others, but I think the light box always helps. Occasionally, if I have a really expensive item, I will import the main photo into Photoshop and remove the background completely so it looks really professional.
I feel that good photos can really drive sales and differentiate you from the competition. I think people will also pay more if the item is presented professionally. You have to catch a person’s eye as they are scrolling through hundreds of items on their mobile device. On vintage/unique items, people want to see every angle clearly. If I’m looking at two similar items and one has really good photos on a clean white or black background and the other item is just sitting on a table, I’m probably more likely to pick the item that was on a clean background, all other things equal.
Frankly, I usually only write one or two words for my description. For my condition description, unless my item has some important flaws worth noting, I usually just say “Some wear. See photos.” I rarely have returns, and I attribute most of that to the thoroughness and clarity of my photos (and the fact I don’t sell a lot of clothing).
http://i.imgur.com/DNAaAES.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UBs8h5n.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ry3BsYp.jpg
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Your photos look awesome. I agree that good photos are the key. We also have cut down on long descriptions since the photos should tell the story. The text we include usually just state what any labels say.
How large of items can you fit in that box? It looks like it’s about big enough for a pair of shoes. Anything larger?
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My new house has weird lighting. Clothing is ok, but smaller things are especially hard to shoot. The shadows are all screwy. So last week I made my own light box. It was a very simple project. All I needed was a square cardboard box, tissue paper, white posterboard, a ruler, and a box cutter.
This is what I referenced. I just bought a couple of desk lamps, so tomorrow I’m going to officially fire it up. But my initial test shots were good enough to use in a few listings. And it was super easy to make, even for an unhandy man like myself. If I can do it, anyone can.
*Paul*
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If you have a chance, I’d love to see a photo of your set up. Just post a link here and it’ll embed.
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Let’s see if this works:
http://i.imgur.com/HGpgLzo.jpg
In addition to the two desk lamps, I have an overhead lamp as well. Pretty rudimentary, but for now it’ll do. Eventually I’d like to get something a bit more sophisticated, like those soft box lights; something I can just turn on and start snapping shots.
*Paul*
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I am researching light boxes. I’m considering a small one I found on Amazon that has built in LED lights that you can power with your computer or a phone charger via usb cable. I usually use natural light but with the winter’s shorter days and a lot of overcast days lately I don’t have enough good light. The box is not very big so I would be limited to doing smaller items when I used it. Any thoughts or experience with this type?
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I was just looking at that same box yesterday. I have a bunch of lego minifigures to photograph and was thinking about getting a small light box.
The problem is that the minifigures is pretty much all I’ll ever photograph in it, so is it really worth the cost?
So…I did a quick experiment during my break. I just stuck two sheets of 11×17 paper together and pinned it to my cubicle wall. Here is the picture of the setup and the results. The only lighting is overhead florescent office lighting.
So in closing, I won’t be wasting money on a photo box.
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Nice picture! I agree you don’t need a lightbox. I decided I’m going to build my own and use an LED desk lamp that I have that can be over the box. For 19.99 it’s cheap enough that I may still go that route. I have a really old house and in my workroom there is no overhead lighting. All I have in there are lamps which cast shadows. I either need to fix my lighting issue or get something like this lightbox which give me a small space with excellent lighting. Hmmm. Or maybe I can just stick small items under my desktop Ottlite. Back to the drawing board to see what works.
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A fellow seller who was active in the Ebay forums before Lithium took over several years ago and made them useless, developed this cobbled together lighting setup:
Probably hundreds of us followed that basic blueprint to come up with our own version. If you decide to buy the light fixtures, make sure they’re the ones with a cord.
Mine uses IV poles for hanging the lights. I’ve been using this setup for several years and have never even had to replace a bulb. IV poles can sometimes be found at thrift stores, although I bought mine new one time when Vitality Medical had them on extreme discount. I ended up paying about $25 shipped for a pair of them. Before I bought the poles, I actually attached the lights to one of these cheap Walmart clothing racks that I already owned, one on each side:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Honey-Can-Do-Garment-Rack-in-Black/15641246
Not exactly the perfect setup because you have to remind yourself not to trip over the horizontal bottom bar and you can’t control the distance between lights, but it worked until I found something else.
Hanging on one spare bedroom wall, I have both light and dark felt backdrops. Bought the felt by the yard at Walmart and attached it to the wall with 3-M velcro strips along the top. I just roll the lights back and forth depending upon which background will work best.
For table photos (i.e. shoes, knick knacks), I just roll the lights over to a long table I have set against another wall in the room. I use white or black foam core board with one piece flat on the table and another against the wall behind the table.
These lights can easily tuck into a corner or a closet and it’s very freeing, not to mention much more productive, to be able to take photos at any time of the day or night and not be dependent upon natural light.
I’ll dig up some photos and figure out how to post them here so people can see an example of the final product using this setup.
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Failed attempt to post pics. Tried Imgur and one showed the photo and the other showed a link. Tried to correct that and things went from messed up to really messed up. I’ll try again later.
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Gray felt background example:
My dark felt is navy blue but it ends up looking black in most photos, which is fine:
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I bought a light box when I started with eBay. It had several LED lights on big stands and it was pretty unwieldy and I kept bumping into the lights. I replaced it with a lightbox that has dozens of built in LED lights in the top so there’s no need for lamps or stands or anything extra and it can be picked up and moved easily if needed. Here’s a link : http://www.ebay.com/itm/StudioPRO-Studio-All-In-One-LED-Product-Photography-Light-Box-Tent-Kit-24-Cube-/261751649276?hash=item3cf19d33fc:g:ux4AAOSw6BtVUoOv
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Unless everything you sell is about the same size, I’m not a fan of light boxes. I have three. A giant 4 foot one, a 2 foot one and a 1 foot one. If you put a small item in the giant one, there’s not enough light getting to the item. If you’re shooting costume jewellry all day, a light box might be great.
Personally I have shoot-through umbrellas. They are more flexible to use. They do take up a lot of room. I’m a bit of a photography snob I guess. I tried shooting stuff w/ my old iphone 4 and thought the quality was terrible (for what I was doing / that’s just me).
No matter what camera you have, using a tripod will dramatically improve your photos. Yes, it’s a pain compared to being able to move all around holding the camera.
Is it worth the hassle to try to take really great photos? Who knows. Probably depends a lot on what and to whom you are selling. I sell custom, refurbished, vintage video game consoles. There are plenty of other people that sell the same types of items I do, but I’m generally able to charge a much higher price for mine (up to 50% more). I attribute a lot of that to the fact that my photos tend to be the best in my category.
On the other hand, I did this experiment. I found a game for sale on ebay w/ horrible photos, bought it, took better photos and tried to sell it back on ebay at a profit. It didn’t work.
Draw your own conclusions and do whatever works for you!
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I have two light boxes that came with mini lights on stands. I use them daily but have noticed that the lights give off too much yellow. I use the camera’s white setting to offset the yellow but I know there are whiter bulbs out there. What kind do I need to buy to get truly white light?
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I made a light box out of tissue and a cardboard box that worked much better than the nylon light box I eventually bought. Unfortunately my daughter was living at home at the time and her cat(part Maine Coon) thought that the light box was a perfect place to sleep.
Now I have lights on stands with umbrellas which take up a lot of room but the photos are better. If I could just learn to use a tripod to keep my hands from shaking I could take better pictures.
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