Portable Light Studio

While at the local club meeting one of the guys told me about something he saw at the local Wal-Mart. It was a portable light studio! This was a bit intriguing since I do a lot of photography for people wanting pictures of their models. This looked like a great idea so after the meeting I headed over to Wally-World and found it in the camera department.

It is marketed to people selling things on Ebay but the 16 X 16 X 16 inch collapsing box is perfect for 1/35 armor, figures 1/48 scale single engine planes and lower scale models. It this kit was really easy to set up and literally took minutes. I was ready to take photos in no time. I thought the table top tripod was a little lightweight for more professional digital cameras but for the average pocket digital cameras that most people have.

The two 20 watt portable lights are really neat. The legs are stowed in the base and are spring loaded to splay out when pulled from the base. You also get a backdrop that can be used on the blue side or the dark gray side. You can also place any back drop you wish along a Velcro strip in the back top corner of the light box. The whole thing collapses into an easy to carry briefcase. 

The nylon diffuse screens do a good job with light but after some experimenting I found I got better results by another light source from above not supplied in the kit. There is a little two page foldout that gives you some basic lighting tips and specs of the lights, bulbs and warranty info.