You take photographs? In this day and age? And you use LIGHT to do it? Are you crazy? What are you going to do when we run out of light? There are much better, more earth-friendly ways to make representations of objects. I like to use a pencil and paper, but you can also use lead paint, horsehair brushes, and canvas stretched on frames made of the bones of dead Tibetan monks. Also, some people like to gather pebbles and use them as a low-tech pixel arrangement (some call this mosaic, but I prefer the original cave-man term pochunkaluss). This site used to have much better suggestions than this, like the William Gibson laptop bag. If you're going to continue to have suggestions like this I'm going to have to unsubscribe from your web site and start reading some other site that's better and has more useful suggestions that I can actually use and not scoff at.

@Red

*that* was funny.

Red- knowing some of the useless rants that commenters have done here, I have to agree with Michael--your comment is great. Thanks for the laughs.

This post makes me want to make a few homemade reflectors and, er, stop being such a crap photographer. :) The day when I finally got a universally-liked cam (Lumix DMC-ZS3) and STILL made mostly terribly shots was a humbling day.

This is pretty neat. I've got a hobbyist interest in tabletop photography -- love this simple approach. Like teensy little C-stands, you could use them to configure all kinds of elaborate lighting setups that would still be really manageable.

I discarded my homebrew light tent (box + cut up pillowcase) in a recent move and I'll be interested to incorporate these handy tools into my next micro studio.

Small and simple, these clips look like photo gold.

When I assisted a professor with high-end furniture shots we spent 5 minutes moving the big light and 30 minutes taping small reflectors to the floor and light stands to add a highlight on a corner or a piece of fabric.

So as much as I like the clips I think I appreciate your approach more. I wish I had your method in mind when I was working on a recent food shoot. Used to photographing people I ended up using three lights - total overkill.

Thanks for the tip.

Thanks for the great tip.
@Danilo, I found what I think is a great way to make a homebrew light tent. I had looked at those which used cardboard boxes or other things and they weren't quite right for me. But one day I really needed one and this worked really well using items that I just happened to have hanging around the house although if you bought them new you could probably get all of them for $10.

Take a translucent plastic file box, put it on its side, drape a white cloth or sheet over it and clip it to the front edge of the box. If you put part of the cloth inside the box you can make a seamless background with it. If you leave the bottom of the box un-draped you get a nice subtle reflection of the item you are photographing below it. When you are done using it, the cloth and clips can be stored in the box along with other photo gear.

The one drawback is that you can only photograph from the front. I suppose you could put it upright or cut a hole in one side if you wanted other views.

I'm embarrassed to say I'm a studio photographer and I have never used these. I've got all sorts of clips and clamps and, funnily enough, I was just considering reconstituting my stock of reflectors for small tabletop product shots. I've yet to find the perfect reflector-holder solution, and apparently this is it. Thanks for this.

are these clips strong enough (or big enough) to hold up a small notebook? While typing, for instance.

@jak: Only hanging. The clip is pretty strong, but it's too light to stand on its own and hold much weight.-es

That's a terrific cool tool. That $10 (plus some gruntwork to arrange the reflectors) will improve your pictures far more than any pricey new camera or hours on post processing will.