Photography for Crafters; Portable Lightbox Review

I ordered this contraption ie. Portable Lightbox a couple of days ago and it came through the mail yesterday. I quickly put it to the test and thought I'd do a quick review on the product.

I ordered the 40cm x 40cm x 40cm size.

Plus points:

• It comes with a bag.
• It has led lights
• 2 backdrops in black and white
• Fully collapsible so it's space saving

Minus points:

• not so sturdy but it gets the job done. It's held together with magnets and they're not so strong.  You have to bend the flaps out so that it sits up better.

Below is my first shot with an iPhone6. No touch up. The lights gives a blue hue to the white background. That's OK. Good thing for me, I'm a sucker for photo-editing. It's made even easier though a mobile phone apps.

I use Snapseed to correct the white balance, adjust the lighting, ambience and add some saturation to the picture.

Next I opened it in PicLab to add the text and it's done!

Since we're already on the topic, I would also use Canva to edit my photos for my estore.

So the verdict; I'd give it a 3 out of 5. It is suitable for small items like a small purse, a wristlet, keychain and the likes. If your products are bigger, it is better to set up a small place for photoshoot or take your merchandise outside for an outdoor photoshoot.

I like it because it soften the dark shadows so I don't have to think about bouncing light with a reflector to reduce the dark sides. I used to be so obsessed in not having shadows on my product pictures but then I realised that it actually adds dimension to the photo. So, shadows are OK. just not too dark.

I think I need to add a disclaimer here. All opinions are my own. I am not an expert in the field of photography but I do have keen interest in them. I started my photography journey because I admire the photos in other craft blogs. They look so fresh, crisp, bright. I started with grainy photos from my mobile phone, to a cheap compact, then to a micro four thirds camera and now mostly with iPhone. I find that mobile phones nowadays produce exceptionally good photos; well good enough for social media posts and it's convenient to edit the photos with photo editing apps compared to photoshop.

So, there you have it; my take on the portable lightbox. Maybe in not so distant future, I'd cover a bit more on photography for crafters, say outdoor photography? yay or nay? Let me know, OK.