DIY Light Box

Taking pictures for my site and shop is soooo time consuming! I would have to search for backgrounds that I liked, pin up burlap pieces or attempt to find suitable areas in my house to take pictures of my items. This was maddening! At one point I was using the back side of random mirrors in my house (because they were flat black or white and had a wood-grain texture). This wasn’t easy because my favorite mirror to use is as tall as I am and about five times wider, not to mention super heavy. I began looking for new ideas. I thought of building my own background out of old wood planks and painting them, this however, would be too heavy and would also take up too much space. Finally I asked my co-worker, who happens to be a photographer, and she provided this wonderful idea; Make your own photo-light box! Duh!!! This could be done with very inexpensive items and then fold away flat to store. This light box has made a huge difference! So much faster, easier and the pictures come out great!

Materials:

5 pieces of white foam core board

Packing tape

Box cutter

White tissue paper

A ruler

Scissors

In the foam core board I cut out one large rectangle hole (big enough for light to get through, but not larger than the tissue paper will cover). Then covered and taped on the tissue paper. I did this to three of the foam core board pieces. I taped three of the boards together, the two with the tissue paper on the outside and one whole board on the inside.

Example: Board with hole and tissue paper – whole solid board - Board with hole and tissue paper.

The third board with tissue paper is for the top of your light box, I did not attach this board to the rest because I want to be able to fold this box down to better store it. The last solid piece of foam core board then becomes the bottom of the box, again I did not attach this piece.