A Homemade Lightbox

Warning! This will be a long post! Scroll to the end to see photos of the results.

I recently decided that it would be time to invest in a lightbox- It would be great for my craft/miscellaneous photography.

Now, when I made this decision, I had no idea that a good (or even not so much) lightbox was going to cost me anywhere from $30 to $170 dollars! Now, $170 dollars is insanity. I wouldn't even pay the $30.

Then I thought, how hard could it be? A lightbox is both conceptually and technically simple to make... or so I thought.

And for the first time ever, I was right! (about something being really easy to make, I mean. I think I've been right about other things before...)

TA-DA! My lightbox!

This is really actually quite amazing. The lightboxes I saw for sale were made with white fabric, which I didn't have enough of on hand. I did, however, have really big white paper, which (now obviously) seemed to work.

Here are the steps to making one:

1.Find a box. It does not have to be a fancy box. The box I used was an old moving box that was in decent condition. The more square (squarer?) your box is, the better.

You'll also need either a yard or two of lightweight white fabric (depending on the size of the box) or some large white paper. The last thing you will need is a lamp (not pictured). I'm not sure how to best describe this, but your light should give off strong, white light. I think mine is LED.

3. Cut off the top of the box, and cut out big windows in the front and sides.

4. Cut your paper to fit the side and top openings. Tape/glue/tie/sew/nail/adhere to the box somehow. The top paper filters and neutralizes the light, while the side papers reflect it.

5. Drape the paper into the inside of the box on a slant, so there are no seams in the background of your photo. This step is kind of hard to explain, so refer to the picture. I drew the rest of the box clear, so you can see how the paper inside goes.

Your finished lighbox should look like this:

Here are some photos of the box (and one very ugly shot of the lamp):

And now for the photo results!

Taken in the same room, before lightbox...

After lightbox!

PERF!

Some random jewelry shots...

And a donkey!