what is the best tent/cocoon for product photos?

I manufacture images onto ceramic tiles from 2 inch square through 12 inch, some 12x18. sometimes there are larger items. I need to photo so they look good on the web and in catalogs. thank you
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good luck and enjoy,
Gadget

Why do you think you need a tent to shoot them? They are highly reflective?
Making a tent is easy with white sheets.

In my experience, they all work OK. But after you gain some experience lighting products, you'll probably find that you can do better without them. However, they ARE a good starting point if you're a beginner.
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Regards,
Paul
http://www.bangbangphoto.com

My suggestion would be to light them with a softbox at an angle. Watch for reflections off the surface of the tiles. (A tent might actually produce reflections, so that's why an angled softbox would work better.)

Hope this helps.

-john

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good luck and enjoy,
Gadget

Yes, it should be fine. Angle it enough so you don't get reflections in the tiles, but not so much that you get light falloff across the tiles.

-john

This is not absolutely necessary but I have noticed that when I use a grey card to do a manual white balance things come out much nicer. This is if you want to convey as much tru color and balance on the web. Also, if nothing else, use a Q-card (white, neutral, black color card) in one image. Then you can set up photoshop to applythe color balance to all of the remaing images. This will work perfectly since you will be shooting each tile with the same lighting.

Just my $0.02
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I've tried the tents (EZ-Cube) and have had mixed results. The biggest issue I have is that the tent is really too small to work in, even the 24" model that I have.

A simple and free solution to diffuse the light that many people overlook is to bounce it off the ceiling. Here's a sample using this technique.

Lighting is with 2 SB-800 strobes left and right of camera pointed straight up to the ceiling. I pulled out the little white reflecting panels to get a bit of direct lighting. These are set at +0. Behind the subject a 3rd SB-800 is firing straight forward though a white diffusion panel, set at +3 stops to blow out the background. In front of the diffusion panel is an old glass window frame with the starfish leaning up against it. Lens is the 80-200 2.8 lens which creates the nice smooth bokeh that I was looking for. This particular shot is f2.8 at 120mm. Flash exposure is i-TTL using the Nikon CLS system.



I think the key to good-looking product photography is to have a LOT of light sources and modifiers at your disposal. It's not like portrait photographs which can look good with a single light source. Experiment with positioning until you get the look you want. The Nikon CLS system is awesome for this.

I have two SB 800's, i do have a shoot through umbrella and a reflective umbrella and reflectors.....I do not own a softbox but would get one if necessary.....also would get diffusion panels if necessary. I know i just have to experiment and get the experience...
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good luck and enjoy,
Gadget