MicrostockGroup

With my newfound microstock enthusiasm (29 dlds in less than 2 days on SS with a portfolio that averaged maybe 15 pics and all of that on a Fri and Sat) and feel ready to invest a little more in stockphotography.
My still lifes and pics of "stuff" actually sell pretty well and are easy to do so I want to buy a some lighting equipment to go with my shooting table.
What do people use and recommend?  I need to keep it reasonable pricewise but my attempt to use the hotlights sold at Home Depot/OSH etc failed miserably - too dark,  too yellow, too uneven.
Some people here suggested Alien Bee flash units to a related post I put up a week or so ago and I am looking into that - any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Tina

You can buy a light tent on eBay for about $20. Or else if you can find where to buy thin white plastic sheet.

Go to an arts store and buy sheets of thicker plastic sheet to bend and use as a continuous backing.

Then hit the hardware store and buy a cheap set of construction lights. I got a set of 2 x 500watts on a tripod for $25.

I have a Canon, and the Auto white balance is pretty ordinary, so i put the white balance to Tungsten and get better results.

Good luck, and you are doing well

i use both hot lights and alien bees. AB's are great but you can make the hot lights work also. With the yellow tone have you tried to change your white balance to the lights? To help with the darkness you need to keep the lights as close as possible and have a good quality lens that will allow f2.8. depending what you shoot the light tents help to spread the light for smoothing coverage. Softbox or a home made light panels work also.

here is a great web site for lighting
http://strobist.blogspot.com/