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Hi people.

Thinking it's time I get an actual lightbox to take decent pictures.

Since I know virtually nothing on the subject, I was wondering what you would recommend ?

Thanks for your time and advices.

Stick "light tents for photography” into Amazon and see what pops up. Different sizes, features.

I have one from LimoStudio. It was a gift, so I didn’t do any comparison shopping.



Side lamps were included, 4 different backdrops, small tripod with phone attachment, fold up nice. Costs less then a Tactical Squad. I think it was around $50, about 6 years ago. I like it, it gets the job done, but I’m no professional.

Things you want it to do:
Multiple lights from multiple angles. Being able to move them is a nice feature, to help eliminate shadows. Built in has the form factor, simple. If it doesn’t come with lights, you can just get some with some good bulbs.

Folding: Unless you have a large dedicated space, you probably want one that folds up. One perk of not just getting a cardboard box, cutting out parts, and using parchment paper to defuse the light.

Be big enough for what you do. I think mine is 16”, which is plenty for troopers, but getting a good shot of a flying hive tyrant or a stormraven was twitchy.

Backdrops: I just use a basic white one for everything. Other people change theirs. Options are a good thing.

This is the same mini/lights with different colors behind him:


Getting a lightbox helped me a LOT with my pictures. I don’t need to white balance them anymore, the only post production I do is to crop and stitch into composites. 2 big things are getting enough light and brace your camera. Once you do that you can play with fancy photo stuff like depth of focus, but a point and shoot camera (or modern phone) will do all that for you.

I've been using a Foldio, and I'm happy with it. It's easy to use and folds up for easy storage.

I’ve got something very similar to and soon and it works quite well. The only thing with mine is that the lamps are halogens and therefore get super hot. I would recommend an LED version with super bright leds of you can find one.

In general terms making light softer is done by making the light source, relative to the subject, bigger.

The tents/boxes work by putting a barrier between the light and the model which enlarges the area - instead of the tiny bulb in the lamp; now its the sheet of paper that is the direct light source to the model. The paper being much bigger, scatters the light more and creates many more angles of approach, which softens the edge of shadows on the model.

You still can want some shadowing for contrast to make details stand out; but in general a nice big surface area works well. So a larger box can give you not just more room to work with and space for bigger models; but also improved performance for smaller ones and bigger ones alike.




I do second the view that finding one that folds down easily can be a big thing if you don't have room to just leave it setup all the time. That said I'd also say that, from my own experiences, its one thing to not have room to leave it setup all the time; but its another if you have to make room to set it up every time. So try and find that happy middle ground where you've an easy space to put it when you need it that doesn't need a lot of cleaning or moving stuff around. That way you've mor echance to actually get it out and use it