Making a light box

In my previous post I mentioned making a light box in fruit and vegetable week of the photo a day challenge. A light box is often used by photographers for product photography as you get a bright crisp image with an infinite white background. I didn't realise how cheap and easy it would be to make one at home until I googled "DIY light box". There are quite a few ways you can make one, but I went for the cheapest options using things we had around the house. I was amazed by how easy it was to achieve stunning, professional looking images.

So if you are not sure what a light box is, it's basically a box placed on one side so that the opening (top of the box) is facing you with a solid bottom and back and windows cut out of the sides and what is now the top. These windows are covered in a light coloured material (usually white) which allows light to pass through. You put white material or card inside and curve it from the top at the back to the bottom at the front. Place your light (or lights) next to one or each of the windows and the material defuses the light, which then bounces around in the every direction in the box.



To make my light box I used:

A cardboard box
Some white material
Electrical tape (masking tape might be better)
White paint (optional)
A desk lamp with a strong fluorescent bulb
Scissors (to cut out the windows)

I won't go into detail about how to make it, I found plenty of blog posts that do that, but I would recommend masking tape as the electrical tape was very sticky and hard to work with; a good strong box since cutting the windows out reduces it's integrity; bright light weight material like cotton or some tissue paper.

I know, it looks like a bit like Evil Edna from Willo the Wisp! The 'ariel' you can see in the picture above is actually nothing to do with the box and just some canes that are in a plant pot behind it.

Here's the finished product in use, the first thing I did was take a picture of the brightest, most colourful vegetable I could find....



And the outcome, taken using my iPhone


And my favourite:


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