SHOTBOX can turn your phone into a scanner
I blogged last week about SHOTBOX, a tabletop photo studio on my genealogy blog, because I’m so excited about how it can help digitize documents and images with a phone. It occurred to me that the readers of this blog would also benefit from knowing about it. So I’ve adapted that post here.
This portable lightbox makes it easy to use your phone to take good-looking, well-lit photos of three-dimensional objects, which is great for those of who blog. It would also be really useful for folks selling items on eBay, etsy or craigslist. And as a knitter I think I’ll be able to take better pictures of my finished projects to upload to Ravelry or share on social media.
What’s great for the genealogist or the scrapbooker, though, is that it provides the ability to easily take well-lit photos from above, which can be very useful for digitizing documents or photos (or photo album or scrapbook pages). If you have delicate documents you wouldn’t want to put through a sheet-fed scanner, or if you don’t have a scanner at all, SHOTBOX might be the tool you need to use your phone to digitize documents without risk of damage and without shadows.
Right now, SHOTBOX is running a Kickstarter campaign while they work with the factory to finish the manufacturing and ship by October. I pledged and pre-ordered the SHOTBOX plus the SideShot Kit (a lighted attachment to hold the phone or tablet steady for photos taken from the front), for a total of $149. Once the product is in production, the anticipated retail price will be $149 for the SHOTBOX and $89 for the SideShot. [Note: The Kickstarter campaign is over, but you can now pre-order directly from the SHOTBOX website.]
You can see examples of photos taken with SHOTBOX on their website.
I’m really excited to receive my SHOTBOX this autumn and put it to use. Maybe you’ll notice an improvement in the quality of the photos appearing on this blog!
Comments
Amy, thanks for your comment. My Shotbox arrived yesterday and it came with four backdrops, one of which was green. So perhaps your concern has been addressed! (The other three were blue, white and a sort of grey linen.)
Janine Adams December 16, 2015 06:29 PM
About Janine
Hello! I’m Janine Adams — a certified professional organizer based in St. Louis, and the creator of Peace of Mind Organizing®.
I love order, harmony + beauty, but I believe that the way that you feel about yourself and your home is what truly matters.
If you’re ready to declutter with a purpose and add more ease to your life, you’ve found the right blog — and you’ve found the right company.
read more »Links
- NAPO St. Louis
- Shannon Wilkinson, life coach
- Organize Your Family History
- Ravelry
- Institute for Challenging Disorganization
- Are you interested in becoming a professional organizer?
- National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals
- Getting to Good Enough podcast
- Metropolitan Organizing
You know what this really needs? It needs a green-screen version as well. Whether for photoshop, artwork, film – being able to capture an object (especially one you are just borrowing for a moment to do this) is a valuable ability.
This looks otherwise good for Etsy and Ebay, but since most copiers are also scanners and the photos taken by phones are adequate to transfer text and images pretty good as they are, I think the convenience yet image quality used for cut-and-paste images and images to post for sale is a lot more marketable. I would make them in white, green and then a retail red or retail tan.
Amy B. Reineri December 16, 2015 06:07 PM