Photography Equipment - Apple boxes

Sure, they look like something I made in my garage, but in fact, they’re an item that is a "film-industry" standard piece of photography equipment.  You can go anywhere in the world and find these little boxes at any film lighting or photography equipment rental places and they’re all standardized.  They’re called apple boxes.  And you can probably guess where they got their name.  The big box is called a “full apple”.  The next largest largest piece of photography equipment is called a half apple, the next largest is a quarter apple and the smallest is called a ….  Go ahead, guess…  Nope, it’s called a pancake.

Photography Equipment - 4 different sizes of apple boxes

Notice how the hole in the full apple is off center.  It’s that way so that you can carry two in one hand.  Pretty good idea, hey?

BTW - My damn ipod stopped working and I was getting the "sad mac" logo, so I gave it a wack, and it's working again. Sometimes ya just get lucky... :+)

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The use of apple boxes as photography equipment

You can use apple boxes for a million different purposes.  Shooting people, they can be used to boost up a short person or you can use a few to rise up a desk or table.  Because they’re of various heights, different combinations of boxes can be used to find tune the degree of lift that you desire.  Of course, you need to have on hand more than one box of each dimension.  In my studio, I normally use nine of these boxes on pretty much every table-top shot.  I use eight to hold up the table and one to hold up the prop stylist (or me).  Sometimes I will need to use a couple to hold up a piece of formica background that extends beyond the table’s edge.  I use them for all kinds of stuff. I own about twenty full apples, 8 half apples, eight quarter apples, and four pancakes, and there are still times I wish I had more.

If you’re thinking about equipping a photography studio with photography equipment to shoot any type of commercial photography, these things are a good investment.  They make a very strong base for a tabletop shoot or even make the base of a stage that can support multiple people.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a location photographer or a studio shooter, if you're assembling photography equipment, ya need a few apple boxes. 

Here's a typical use for appleboxes photography equipment.  This is my normal configuration for my tabletop height.  If I want the table higher, I just flip the bottom boxes on their ends, or if I want the table just high enough to clear the camera stand legs, I take away the top boxes and flip the bottom ones on their sides. They're very versatile.

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Photography Equipment - Where to get Apple Boxes

There are various places to buy these things, but if you’re handy or know someone who is, you can make your own.  I had a guy downstairs of my studio (furniture maker), make mine for me.  He did a really good job.  One thing you might need to do though is give your box maker a reference.  You might even want to rent a set of these from a rental company, if one is near.  If not, print out the attached picture and let him or her get a look at what they’re making.

Photography Equipment dimensions are:

Full apple – 20 x 12 x 8

Half apple – 20 x 12 x 4

Quarter apple – 20 x 12 x 2

Pancake – 20 x 12 x 1 

If you would rather just buy your apple boxes, you can find them at B&H Photo.  And if you’re going to buy a set of this piece of photography equipment, I’d really appreciate it if you’d use the link below.  If you do, the small commission I make from this affiliate program helps motivate me to continue writing these little articles.  :+)