Here's the trick to setting these up easily... First make sure the height of the stand is shorter than yourself.. Seems obvious right? Next, when you're on the LAST ROD lower the stand, sit down in a chair, and stick it in. Sitting while placing that last rod in makes all the difference I am not kidding!! I spent so much time trying to get that thing in standing up it was a nightmare. Just try it. =)

Now for the review.. These are great lights. I have really enjoyed using them over the last couple months and they are VERY bright. I have recommended these to friends, and I would get them again. I will be adding a picture later.

If this is your first time purchasing soft boxes and you don't know much about lighting I would suggest googling 3 point lighting and learning about that, and I would suggest buying grids to go over these as it will create more beautiful focused lighting that doesn't spill everywhere. If you use these without one they work just fine but you'll get better results with them!

I am an actor who uses this set up for self-tapes (auditions) and photography. Overall, I like the setup with a few exceptions. A piece of the pole that my overhead light is attached to broke off and now the light cant be used because the pole won't extend and lock into place.One half of the pole slides into the other half. Also, the piece that surrounds the light bulbs - it is one of the individual pieces within the four slotted light bulb section of the light (it is tan colored) - broke in the bag; it cracked into several pieces. One of my diffusers also has a tear in it - so the material isn't the strongest. Disappointed with those aspects. The setup can be obnoxious to install and break down. Otherwise, I am, for the most part, happy with the piece; it serves its purpose. Is this the highest quality setup, no. Does it work, yes.

Ok, so I'm giving this a 5-star rating because once I got them assembled, they've been great. This is my first lighting set so I don't have much to compare them to, but I've set up a home studio to take photos for my blog and it's working great! I love having overhead lighting, plus two soft-boxes left and right of where I'm shooting. I've been getting some wonderful, true-to-color photos now that I've used this lighting set.

Assembly instructions were a joke and actually made the whole process more difficult. Trick if you get this set - leave the Velcro unattached while you put the metal poles for the frame into place. Once the frame is in place, then close up the Velcro. They tell you to do the opposite and you'll be fighting to get things in place the whole time.

I am very impressed with the lighting. Product was well constructed and setup was super easy. For the price, you can't beat it! The photo attached was shot with a portrait lens f1.8 200 ISO. This photo is unedited.

Before purchasing this item, I read the other reviews and so was interested to see what my experience would be with assembling the units. I was able to put the entire thing (all three lights) together in just over an hour the first time around and I think it would go faster now that I've done it once. The most difficult part, which isn't really now that I've done it a couple times, is attaching the black fabric and supporting frames to the light heads. I think the instructions actually describe the process in such a way that makes it more difficult to assemble. I found it easier to loosely apply the black fabric, then put the metal rods in place and, one by one, after inserting each rod, unfasten the velcro at the light head and slide the end of the rod into place at the box corner. By the time I inserted the last rod end, none of the velcro was fastened and it was much easier. The other thing that took trial and error to figure out, but that isn't a big deal going forward, is which direction to attach the box so that it would be vertical when the light head was attached to the stand. The actual direction of the light head on the stand makes the box attachment direction counter-intuitive (for me, anyway). All of this, however, is minor and what I would consider to be part of the learning process. All-in-all I am VERY pleased with this product. The quality of light and the ability to aim and shape it, as well as tone it down by turning off one set of bulbs in each head, is FANTASTIC. Thank you so much!!