Hello tech lovers, Mark here, nice to see you again Today we're gonna take a
look at this, this is the Folio foldable photo studio. So this is for product
photography, I've been working on a little side project, I'll put a link to it, where
I've been needing to take product photos and I started to make use of this. I do
have a light box, I've got the Amazon light box, but it's absolutely massive.
While the Amazon light box is fantastic at the larger items it is it is big and
actually for jewelry photography and small item photography this is much more
compact much easier to use and you can take it out and about.
You can see there's really not much to it, it's plastic and it has a very clever little
magnetic system that allows you to open it up, like so, I'll come back to these bars in
a moment, and open the side bits out and then it just locks itself into place
your can see this is super easy to use. On the
inside there are light bars already attached so this comes with lights
already built in. There you go how quick was that and that's the studio ready
we're going to need to add a backdrop and add the power for the lights and
here's the power it comes with a range of different power types so I've got the
UK one on but there's a couple of others in there for different countries and
that plugs into a control unit, this control unit allows us to adjust the
light level and also has an additional slot for accessory the Halo bars which
I'll come back to later. This just plugs in the top and then it's simply
controlled by this little control unit up or down
there's the lightbox. So we need to add a background it comes with two backgrounds
one is a white one, one is a black one we use the black that's probably a little
easier to see on camera. So you put a magnetic strip on the top and that
should hold it in place, like so, and then that comes
down and again magnetic strip on the bottom so just as demonstration here are
some coasters that we are selling on this websites just a very nice simple
coaster unique design and because it's white it'll stand out really nicely on
the black backdrop
Arrange them however you like you can then add the light and then
it's just a matter of taking a picture with your phone I'm just using a OnePlus 6
and I'm just using the standard app, the camera app that comes with it.
Now what you might find on objects such as these is they can be quite shiny and
so they reflect a little bit of the light so this is where you need to start
to have a little play with just how much light is required, get the angle correct
now I'm doing this at an angle if you want to do a direct top-down shot there
is a hole at the top allowing you to put your camera straight above the item and
take the shot. Orangemonkie, the team behind this, also provides other
accessories so here we've got the Orangemonkie tripod which you may have seen on
my recent video with the Canon M50. This is a brilliant little tripod comes with
a standard camera mount on top so you can easily use any camera you like on
there and it also comes with a mobile mount as well so you don't have to use a
fancy camera you can just use your phone. What I really like about this as well is
it extends out and it can actually be quite a tall tripod you've got the
option to have the ball head rotating and get that's in the right position as
well and it's very light so it's very easy to carry around if you are out and
about and think you might need a tripod. There's another accessory that Orangemonkie
didn't send me which I did see working at The Photography Show and that
uses a mini tripod like this and then you have a rotating display unit which
allows you to take 360 degree photos of your products and that can turn them
into animated gifts when you put them on the website
they can be rotated around. That kind of set up is really great
what you want to see around an object you've probably seen it before when
you've been shopping for shoes online for example you can normally rotate
around and see our view of all the product. The folio bar accessories are a
really clever little addition if you think you're going to want more light, if these lights
aren't quite bright enough for you or you want lighting to be cast in a
slightly different way. Really nicely done they are magnetic so they can
attach to the box and they simply come with a two in one cable, that just plugs
in to the control unit, so it's all controlled by the same unit, plug that
into the light bars and now you've got one control unit that will do the light
bars and the lightbox and the magnets are strong enough to hold these on the side.
So instead of it being directs down you've now got it's being side lit or
you can have it fully lit or you might want to start playing around and having
light bars at the front or maybe light bars at the side depending on what
you're taking photos of. So the final accessory to show you is this foldable
plus this attaches to the front of the studio but it still allows you camera
access and this would help keep some of that light in it would reflect the light
back in on the products and still gives you access both top-down and straight in.
I think I think you've done a really good job with this it has become my
favorite little photo studio because as you can see it's the perfect size just
to throw items in take a few photos and then collapse it back down. It's a pity
it doesn't come with some sort of case just to keep everything together because
otherwise you end up with the wires and you have to kind of re-box it back up
in all the packaging that it came with which is always quite complicated to do
but if you're going to leave it set up at least it doesn't take up a huge
amount of space. If you want to learn more about this product I will put links
in the description below my thanks to Orangemonkie for sending me this to
review if you haven't already click Subscribe during my tech tribe and I'll
see you on the next video.