Light Shaping Tool
At some point, as photographers, we are going to want to sell off old gear that we no longer use or have upgraded. Certainly lighting this for postings can be challenging. Product photographers know this and have all kinds of methods for enhancing what they are selling or adverstising. In addition to selling gear, there are probably times when you have other items, not related to photography, that you want to sell on popular auction sites like eBay, Facebook Marketplace or even sites like Etsy or Pinterest. Many times the difference between making a sale and not selling is how well you represent the item. Enter the V-flat light shaping tool. A genius little device created by Karl Taylor who is a an absolute master at product photography. If you have time to take one of his courses I highly recommend it, you will learn a ton.
You can use any type of lighting, but once you drop the cone over your item, it’s almost magically illuminated. With its 360° diffused light quality, shadows are opened up and reflections are rendered soft, smooth, and glowing. This version of the Light Cone has a base diameter of 20″ for large items, is 18″ high, and has a 5″ diameter hole at its top for your camera. I have found this very easy to use and does exactly what is says. Here is and example using a highly refective metal coffee maker.
You can certainly see how the glare and reflections are gone creating a smooth even light that better showcases the product. It works wonders for small objects and I have even used this unbuttoned as more of scrim to reduce harsh light on larger items. I wanted to pass this along so you can use this as a tool as well. As photographic gear goes, this is relativley inexpensive, made to last and very versataile.