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Teppo wrote:
- A light tent for product shots. As for size, is there a disadvantage for shooting small products in a large light tent
As i understand it no, there's no disadvantage. As long as the lights you're using are powerful enough.
are the tents usually lit with a hard flash fired on them, or does one get better results with using a softbox also?
The white material does the diffusing for you, they're often sold with bare bulb lamps. There's nothing to stop you using a softbox, whatever works, but i think you'll find it's not necessary, a little light through the sides and it should work out nicely. I have a DVD produced by Bowens called "product photography" which i believe goes into some detail regarding their light tent set-up. I haven't watched it yet, but if you're in the UK or nearby PM me and maybe i can loan you it or something.
I'm sure someone with a little more light tent experience can answer those questions better than i, but that's the way i understand it.
Also there's an umbrella softbox, which acts more like shoot-through umbrella. How does using these differ from an octagonal softbox?
Neil Turner has a lastolite umbrella softbox on test here, octagonal softboxes give nice round catchlights in the eyes, by the way.
And when should a shoot-through or "normal" umbrella be used?
Shoot-through produces soft light, and you can use it fairly close to your subjects. However the light does have a tendency to go everywhere! Reflecting umbrellas produce far more directional light. Take a look into the effects of different reflective material, as the silver reflector isn't for everyone.
my measly flash wouldn't probably give enough power for it, since it's apparently optimal for 500W/s or stronger units.
Ah but you intend to upgrade sometime, don't you..
perhaps a square or rectangular softbox... but would I really need one in addition to the stuff listed above? Well, if I had another flash, I guess I would. Which size would be the most useful?
All these questions, it's great to see in inquisitive mind at work  . To be honest, i'd recommend that you scrap all of the above and just go with a standard softbox for your light right now.
Lets say you bought yourself a nice lightstand at £30 (i assume you're in or near the UK), an octabox for £60 (check out "Sam's Photoflash" on ebay), a light tent for £40, an umbrella for £15 and a reflector for £15 (just random imaginary prices), you've already spent over £150. Then later if you upgrade to some better lights, will your octabox fit?
I'd really recommend just getting a standard softbox, and accessories that can't hurt, like a light tent or a reflector and seeing what effect you can get. Once you've been shooting with it for a while you'll see the gaps in your setup. The money you don't spend on fancy octaboxes or whatever can be saved for nice new lights..
That's just my 0.00p though.
Is there a downside of using a larger instead of smaller softbox, in addition to losing light power and adding bulkiness to the setup?
Apart from physical logistics (bulkiness, and possibly increased assembly time) a larger softbox will spread the light more, and conversely create light spill. If you look around you'll spot "Strip softboxes" which are very thin designed for lighting a human body with little to no spill. I love mine.
maybe the 120x180cm 5-in-1 reflector... I suppose it should be useful. A small one would probably come in handy in some cases too, like the round 60cm one.
You can't go wrong with a reflector. Great for natural light if nothing else.
Edited on Dec 21, 2007 at 11:13 PM
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Don't know if I'll be any better with good equipment, since I'm not as creative as I wish I'd be. Well, at least I wouldn't need to worry about the equipment, so I'd get equal results more easily, I guess 
