The overall effect is better, you took on board the comments that I made about the background and base material, and these points were then repeated by other people, and because of this the shots now look cleaner and the product looks more attractive.
But the lighting - which was your original question - is virtually unchanged and, if I wanted to be picky I would say that it was a bit better in your original version, because the lighting angles were a bit better, not that it matters because you've gone about lighting it in the right way and your lighting is streets ahead of most lighting on Ebay and in fact is better than that of some of our own competitors who are selling lighting
Take a closer look at your "STEP BACK" shot. The overhead softbox is positioned perfectly.
The softbox on the right isn't, it's too small (which you can't do anything about) but it is also
a. much too far away
b. At the wrong angle - it should be angled to match the angle of the legs.
Having it closer would have created much larger diffused specular highlights on the legs and having it at the right angle would have created much more evenly sized specular highlights. Correcting both of these errors would have made the product look much more luxurious.
Now look at the reflector on the left.What you actually need here is a second softbox, because a reflector cannot possibly create the same intensity of light that is created by an actual light. But, if you placed it much closer then the lighting intensity would have much more closely matched that of the light, and the diffused specular highlights from the reflector would have matched those of the softbox far more closely. Now look at the reflector again, and you will see that it is at completely the wrong angle, it should have been tilted to match the angle of the legs, in fact it is tilted the opposite way!
These comments are NOT intended to be negative, as I keep saying, you've done a very good job.
At the moment, Lencarta is launching a new lighting video and tutorial every Monday, and tomorrow's one will be on lighting a flash head which, if you think about it, is just like a big fat tripod leg. You'll see from this that I've used equipment that you simply haven't got, although there is a simple workaround, but more importantly I've placed my softboxes at a better angle and much closer. And then, the following Monday (30th November) there will be part 2 of that tutorial, which again uses exactly the same principles and in fact the only real difference is that part 1 lights the sides and one end and part 2, at a different angle, lights the sides and the other end - details change, lighting principles don't.
