Does Anyone Know Where I Can Get A Light Tent in the UK?

[Dave-M]

Hi,

I'm looking for one of those light tent things, and I've seen a few on fleabay, but all the sellers have got horrendous feedback and it's debatable if the item is in the UK etc.

So, I need an 80cm (ish) version, or thereabouts from somewhere in the UK.

Prices start around £15 on fleabay and over £10 of that is "postage".

Anyone know any reputable sellers with half decent products for not too much money?

P.S. - I have already built a nicely working light box from a cardboard box and some paper, but I need a more portable one :)

Thanks.

[sando]

Keep the box!

[tdodd]

I bought this item from this trader last July. Delivery was a little slow (I think) but it does exactly what it says on the tin. Product quality seems fine.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/80cm-Photo-Soft-Box-Light-Tent-Cube-4-Colour-Backdrops_W0QQitemZ150222127688QQihZ005QQcategoryZ 3860QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

Feedback doesn't look so bad.

[MarkEvan]

There are several on Warehouse Express from the likes of Lastolite and others. Heres a link but your best going through them all to see which you want.


http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1011573




They are all under background in the flash and studio section.

[Shingle]

Dave, maybe you should check these out as they are currently half price.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=38260&criteria=studio&doy=5m3

Quite a few people have used them with success. A good starting point for just a tenner.

Cheers

[Dave-M]

Thanks for the replies :)

I've gone for the fleabay one, simply because it is the right size and price - slightly worries about the amount of negatives the seller has, but we will see.

Thanks again!

[tdodd]

I bought that Maplin one and returned it to get the eBay 80cm tent instead. Here it is (was) in action....

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=3601159&postcount=993

The Maplin one was not constructed properly and did not work as effectively as it could have. It was basically stitched together wrongly and I did not want to pull it apart and start again. All the copies in the store were the same :( It was also £9.99 last July, so I guess that half price offer is lasting well.

[Dave-M]

tdodd,

Do you have any pics handy that you've done with the 80cm tent please? :)

[tdodd]

I'm afraid I never got around to using it. Other than popping up and down a few times for the practice I have not had the need to use it since I bought it.

Maybe there are some examples in the instructional video at the bottom of this page....

http://www.alb.co.kr/html/eng/reflectors_lite_tent.htm

[tdodd]

OK, I thought I'd give it a try. Here's the set up....

[tdodd]

Here's the result. I know focus and DOF could be better, and I could have cleaned the shaver first too, but you can't blame the light box for that :) If I was doing this for real I would obviously take more care. For a quick set up and first test I'm very happy with the result.

The lamps are 2 x 150W work lights from B&Q - not those monstrous 500W fire risks that a lot for people use.

[tdodd]

You may need to refer to the folding demo for the Cubelite here....

http://www.lastolite.com/video-demos.php

unless you belong to Mensa. I seem to need to check back there every time I try to repack the thing.

[Dave-M]

That's perfect, looks just like what I'm looking for, thanks mate :)

I notice that you used paper as the background? Are the supplied backgrounds a bit rubbish, or have you lost them? :D

I have a pair of the monstrous fire risks, and I agree, they are just that, and mine make everything look very yellow. I know I can adjust the white balance, but that and the heat are a bit of a turn off (heh).

I have seen some lamps called daylight flourescent, but they are quite expensive, yet the bulbs are only about £8.50 each - they just look like energy saving bulbs. I'll look into that a bit more :)

[tdodd]

I have the supplied coloured backdrops but once they're folded up they do get creased and need a good ironing before use. I bought a roll of plain white wallpaper to use as a backdrop and already had a handy length cut and stashed behind the sideboard :)

My first shot was yellow. I just used a single click on the background and set a custom white balance in my remote shooting software, sent that to the camera and all was good from that point. I shoot in raw anyway, so it would have been no sweat to fix the WB in post. For stuff like this, tethered shooting simplifies things no end.

If you're careful then the 500W firelighters should be fine, but apart from the potential risk of melting something, they are just so damned hot to work with. 1 KW of extra heat in the room is not amusing when it's already centrally heated. They're not much fun for summer shooting either :(

The great thing with these fully enclosed cubes is that the light is reflected everywhere and gets thrown back onto the front of the subject. The 150W lamps seem perfectly dequate. The final shot was at 1/3 second, f/14, 800 ISO. A lot of setups seem to have insufficient front lighting and need fiddling with to supply a bit more.

Here are the shots I took, fiddling with WB, DOF and exposure. See how bad that first one was - a couple of clicks and everything was set...

[Dave-M]

Ironing? What is this ironing thing that you speak of? :D

Thanks for that, it does help. I have been using adobe camera raw to do any post processing, but as I'm still learning the shooting and the software side, it can get a bit hectic.

I'm getting the hang of it slowly.

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg231/dave_em/before.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg231/dave_em/after.jpg

I think I overdid it slightly.

I see what you mean about the front lighting, so doesn't the flash come in handy there?

[tdodd]

With the enclosed box the light reflects aroud completely inside, and instead of escaping out of the front, like it would with an open box, it bounces right back inside and onto the front of the subject. I didn't use the flash at all. Didn't need it :)

Also, if you try larking about with flash you'll get a different colour temperature compared with the tungsten lamps - unless you use a coloured gel over the flash. Avoiding flash altogether is so much simpler.

[Dave-M]

Ah I see. Thanks :)

I've just set myself off thinking how the light can get into the box, but manages to reflect round inside without coming back out again.:confused::-)

[tdodd]

Light hits the side of the box from the lamps. Some gets reflected back to the outside and some passes through to the inside of the box and is diffused by the material, so it scatters in all directions within the box. Let's say (keeping things simple) 50% of the lights is reflected and 50% passes through.

So now there is some light travelling inside the box and it hits another surface inside the box. Once again, 50% passes through to the outside and 50% gets bounced back and scattered inside the box. This keeps going and the light bouncing gets weaker with each bounce- but you're blasting more light in from the sides and so the cycle continues.

Because the lights illuminate pretty much the whole of each side of the box the light is evenly spread everywhere within the box and the front and back of your subject get as much light as the sides.