V-Flat World’s Aqua Tray Lets You Easily Create Water Scenes in a Studio
V-Flat World announced the Aqua Tray, a shallow and transparent acrylic tray that lets studio photographers easily use water as a prop. It is, basically, a shallow plastic bucket, but it does take the guesswork out of trying to build a custom solution.
Much like a lot of V-Flat World’s products, the Aqua Tray isn’t so unique that an industrious photographer couldn’t make one on their own — it’s a simple acrylic tray and nothing more. What it is, though, is a simple off-the-shelf solution that allows studio photographers to easily start working with water as a prop indoors, which is typically a not insignificant annoyance.
Water rarely likes to play by the rules and can quickly get messy. Even good custom solutions can spring leaks and there are fewer more dangerous places for water than in a photo studio filled with electronics, power cables, and lights. That perspective explains V-Flat World’s marketing pretty succinctly.
V-Flat World published a video on Vimeo that goes over how a studio photographer might use the Aqua Tray, including what is a surprisingly detailed walkthrough of how to construct a beach scene for a perfume bottle to rest in using sand, water, soap, and a blow dryer.
“Say goodbye to mess and hello to creativity with The Aqua Tray. Perfect for capturing stunning product photos with water, sand, or powder—no cleanup required,” the company says. “Capture the elegance of items in water or create a serene beach scene with sand. Durable and crystal-clear, the Aqua Tray ensures your products shine. Enhance your visuals with the Aqua Tray and bring your creative vision to life. The Aqua Tray keeps the chaos contained so your creativity can flow. Elevate your product photography to new heights.”
The Aqua Tray comes in two sizes, 24×19 inches and 16×12 inches, and is — of course — water sealed. Both options are a scant two inches tall, so neither is meant to hold that much water, but just enough to craft a scene. The larger size weighs 4.2 pounds while the smaller option weighs in at 1.2 pounds.
The smaller Aqua Tray is available for $40, the larger costs $70, and a kit of both is available for a slight discount of $100 directly from V-Flat World’s website. Could a photographer build their own for less? Very likely, but V-Flat World is aiming this at the less industrious photographer who wants a simple, out-of-the-box solution.
Image credits: V-Flat World
