The time has come to buy propper lighting... need your help

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster here.

I'm in the market for a lighting set up, and am completely perplexed by this whole new world of jargon and options.

I shoot products as a sideline to web and print design mainly, ranging from diamond rings to wine bottles to chairs. Most of my products are at the smaller end, though, often requiring macro.

I've got a Canon 350D (Digital Rebel XT to you US folks) with an 18-55mm, 300mm macro and a 35mm-80mm.

I've mostly been using decent household lighting in RAW and correcting temperature in post processing.

I've got a budget of a maximum of £300, that's about $500 US. I don't mind second hand equipment or unusual solutions!

I'd like to get a versatile a set up as possible, if the same lighting could help with portait or room photography then that would reassure me into spending so much money.

I was initially drawn to using a "light box" with 2 triple-bulb continuous 5000k energy saving bulbs with large reflectors which I found on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk …tem?hash=item32​0089842257
...after more reading around this forum though, people seem to suggest flash set ups with "soft boxes" or umbrellas.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

For the small product work there's a thread here

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=281524

you can get some really great results for minimal money spent.
As far as portrait work, it may be worth getting at least a single monolight & umbrella/softbox type set up.

So save money doing the macro work by using setups in the thread i mentioned and use any money for a reasonably good light for your portraits.

good luck

Great, i've just bought some foam board and masking tape to start constructing one.

That'll be good for use here at home, but I'm going out to a shop to photograph products in a couple of weeks time, and want to look professional, what other solutions would you recommend for this purpose?

Well, I suppose if it's a light box/tent you want to take on location and looking pro, then I imagine buying a well contructed one is the way to go

http://store.tabletops​tudio-store.com/
plus they have readily available accessories and from there you can figure ways to get your own similar items for less maybe.
Then again it's not an arm & a leg for these things.

I'm in the UK so would have to find an alternative supplier for that, eBay seems to have lots of them, though.

What do you think of this as a complete package?

http://www.backdropsou​rce.co.uk/Productinfo.​asp?id=574

Price wise it's around $650.

I was at a protrait lighting workshop last month and someone left one of these there for sale. http://www.samys.com/p​roduct_detail.php?item​=8099 I didn't need it, but for $150.00 I figured I might find a use for it.