ALZO Digital

TENT APPLICATION GUIDE

There is no actual bottom of the tent cube but it should set on a table with Velcro strips in the back corners, at the top of the unit.

Attach the two paper grips to the upper edge of a paper sweep about 6" from each end. With the Velcro sides of the grips facing the back of the tent, position the paper inside the tent and fasten the paper grips to the Velcro tabs.

The upper and side Velcro strips inside the tent allow for adjusting the position of the background paper.

Paper installed in tent

The front cover with lens slit can be Velcro fastened to the front of the tent when shooting highly reflective objects and you want to avoid mirroring (seeing the camera and photographer in a reflection on the subject). Start by attaching the cover bottom edge and then the top edge. Now with the zipper open and one hand inside the tent, attach the sides of the cover.

The top-to-bottom zipper on the cover allows for a variety of camera lens angles and positions as shown in images on left.

Depending on the subject, 1, 2 or 3 or more lights can be used. In addition, the distance of the lights to the tent can be varied to create different illumination effects and shadows. Typically more lights reduce shadows.

The lights are typically aimed at the sides of the tent and could include an overhead boom mounted light. For the best shadow reduction set the position of the lights as high as the tent top and vary the distance of the lights from the tent until an even light is spread across the sides of the tent. Assure that no light enters the opening in the front. You can also position the lights to control the shadow of the object.

Varying the position of the lights will effect the subject reflections and shadows. The further to rear of the tent the lights are positioned, the less reflections will be visible on highly reflective subjects.

OVERHEAD SHOTS

When shooting objects that require an overhead camera position inside the tent, we use our ALZO Horizontal Camera Mount and a 13" color TV/Monitor. The ALZO Horizontal Camera Mount when attached to the adjustable riser on the camera tripod, allows for the overhead position of the camera inside the tent. In this position, the camera's LCD is not viewable so we use the camera video output to connect to a TV/Monitor like the SANYO unit pictured above.

All of our FUJI cameras provide a "live" video output that can feed a video monitor TV and are perfect for this application.

STORING THE TENT

Although we do not recommend storing the tent in its collapsed form (we store ours folded flat to reduce fabric wrinkles), to completely collapse the tent for storage in its bag follow these easy steps:

STEP 1. First remove the background paper, paper grips and front cover and place the tent on a table, open side facing forward. Pushing on the top right edge, down and to the left, fold the top and right side of the tent in on itself to form an L shape. Now fold the L together and the tent should be in a flat square form. (This is how we store our Tent).

STEP 2. Now grab the two opposite corners and twist with rotation. The tent will try to form into a mulit-layered disk. You will need to coax it into a tight multi- layer disk for insertion into the zippered carry bag.

Always store the backgrounds rolled in the supplied cardboard tube.

CORRECTING A TWISTED TENT FRAME

Occasionally the metal frame in the edges of the tent will get internally twisted and cause distortion of the tent. Although it is rare, this can occur when the tent is opened from its compacted form.

This can easily be corrected by first locating the twisted section of the metal frame (usually in a corner). Grab the metal frame in the middle of the twist and push in and up with a jerk.