Reddit mentions of Westcott 26 inch Octagonal Rapid Box

Hey, I've been shooting some of the cassettes with /u/killallmusic above. Heres some tips. First, as others have said, OFF CAMERA FLASH IS ESSENTIAL. That goes for any product photography. By far, the best bang for you buck is the Yongnuo IV and the wireless trigger to make it sync here. They are fully manual so no TTL (which is a feature of more expensive flashes that auto set the flash output to the available light) but I'm a big fan of learning strobe photography with manual flashes. You'll get way better way faster and there are a MILLION places online to read flash tutorials to get you started and plenty of video guides to get these flashes synced with the controller. On top of that, another absolutely essential part is some sort of diffuser. Softboxes are most often recommended. I use the following with my shots. These are both very nice pieces of gear and you can definitely find cheaper options that will do just fine on eBay and Amazon. You can get away with 1 for sure but I usually end up using two sources, one for a key light and one for a fill to add texture back to the shadows. As for actually shooting cassettes, your biggest problem will be glare. Any light hitting at a 45 degree angle to your lens will cause a flare so just adjust your angle of the tape or flash until you get rid of the glare. Last tip, when it comes to light, the closer a source is, the softer the light will be. That might sound backwards but its true. So get that flash all up in its business as close as you can to the product. Check out the Strobist blog for an amazing flash primer course. Trial and error is the name of the game. You can see some examples at http://killallmusic.storenvy.com. The Coutoux and Jay Pray tapes were shot with the exact gear and method I listed above. Happy shooting!