V-Flat World’s New Lighting Tool Looks like a Dog Cone of Shame
V-Flat World has launched a new series of 360-degree diffusion Light Cones for product photography in partnership with Karl Taylor. This new set of lighting modifiers may look like a dog cone of shame, but demonstrations show they work remarkably well to eliminate reflections.
According to the V-Flat World — which is best known for making portable and multi-functional lighting and photography accessories — the Light Cone is designed to make life easier for product, e-commerce, and catalog photographers by leveraging an incredibly portable and simple design that it argues make it easy to evenly and properly light products that otherwise would be an exceptional challenge. With the new light cone, photographers can control those difficult-to-photograph subjects easily and quickly.
Along with the products, V-Flat World and Taylor (who has over 25 years of product and studio photography experience) have released a series of instructional videos on how to capture evenly lit “no cut out” white backgrounds with no shadows or unwanted reflections using the Light Cone.
Taylor says he designed the Light Cone to have the correct optical density properties for perfect gradations and easy control of light in multiple sizes to suit a variety of products. This includes a “smartphone” size (1.5 by 12 by 14 inches), medium size (5 by 12 by 13 inches), and large size (5 by 18 by 20 inches).
The cones are made of rigid polypropylene that is heat resistant (meaning lights can be placed exceptionally close to them) and they weigh a mere five ounces for the Phone and Medium and 10 ounces for the Large. The company says assembly is easy since the cones snap together in seconds. When disassembled, they can be rolled up or laid flat for easy storage and transport.
Taylor says the cones can be used with any form of lighting, from strobes to simple desktop lamps, to provide a highly effective and incredibly economical form of lighting control “that will make your life easier and those difficult to shoot subjects look better.”
Below are some before and after examples provided by Taylor using the same lighting setups with and without the Light Cone.
The Light Cone X Karl Taylor from V-Flat World are available for $34.95 (Phone), $49.95 (Medium), $69.95 (Large), or as a bundle that includes all three for $139.95.
