Peace of Mind Organizing

Testing out SHOTBOX, the tabletop photo light studio

10 February 2016

Last summer, I blogged about SHOTBOX, a tabletop photo light studio that was part of a Kickstarter campaign. I purchased one and it arrived in December, just when my puppy arrived. So I haven’t played with it as much as I’d like. But I’m impressed by it.

The photos from last week’s blog post on organizing my coloring supplies were taken using the SHOTBOX and the SideShot, the accessory that allows one to take nicely lit photos from the front.

Here are my initial impressions:

• The packaging was excellent. It arrived safe and sound from China with no damage at all.
• The instructions are good and hardly necessary because the product is simple and intuitive.
• The lighting is really bright (and it’s adjustable). Not only does the box light up, but the inside of the SideShot attachment lights up.
• I was able to get it up and running within minutes.
• The neoprene carrying case is excellent. All the components fit securely in the case and the stored SHOTBOX takes very little room to store. It comes with the Deluxe Bundle.
• I’m delighted that it comes with four different colored backdrops (white, black, green and blue), which are very easy to switch out.

Yesterday, I wanted to take a quick picture of a particular label on a box in my home for my genealogy blog and I was able to pull the SHOTBOX out of its case and take a quick picture. Before, I would have had a challenging time finding some decent light on an overcast day.

Here are some photos created by the SHOTBOX team that show the connectors and also how everything fits into the neoprene bag. They also provided the photo above. (I posted these and the ones below last week on my SHOTBOX review on my genealogy blog.)

Here’s a photo of my grandmother’s autograph book, given to me by my father in December. It’s taken from above.

Here’s a photo, taken from the front, of a small needle-felted replica of my departed poodle, Kirby. (It was created by Janet’s Needle Felting if you’re interested in having one of your own made.)

At $199 for the Deluxe Bundle (which includes the SHOTBOX, the SideShot, the backdrop kit, and the neoprene carrying case), I think this product is huge bargain. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that taking great photos is not one of my strengths. I’m hopeful that the SHOTBOX will mean that you’ll be seeing much better photos here!

Full disclosure: The SHOTBOX links above are affiliate links, which means that SHOTBOX gives me a percentage of the sale, but doesn’t affect the price. And it doesn’t affect my opinion of the product.

Tagged with: blogging, photographs, shotbox

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