Amy Y's Photo Blog

"A good snapshot stops a moment from running away." ~Eudora Welty

How To Make A DIY Lightbox

Ring_5-rev.jpg A lightbox is essential if you are to take well lit macro photos of your products.

Now, you can certainly buy a lightbox, but making your own lightbox will yield you similar results and for a whole lot less money! Although the DIY ones are not as foldable or storeable as the commercial lightboxes.

The materials you need to make your own lightbox are foamboard, packaging tape, and a utility knife.

To make a 20 x 30 x 30 inch lightbox, you will need 5 sheets of at least 1/4″ foamboard sized 20 x 30 inches. What you do is tape it together into the shape of a box with one open side. With the utility knife you cut the 2 sides that are sticking up so you get a box with one open side.

For lights, you can get the clamp lights they sell at Home Depot and such. You will be clamping the lights onto the sides of the lightbox and turning the light towards the inside of the box.

You will be able to put whatever kind of background you like inside this box for you to photograph your products on.

For lights, make sure you get the daylight balanced bulbs. If you are somewhat technical, the specification should be between 5500 to 6500K for the temperature of the bulb.

For a more detailed tutorial with pictures, you can go here.

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Posted in All and Equipment and Tutorials 1 year, 3 months ago at 8:43 pm.

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  1. I have been learning photoshop for the last one month. Recently our tutor taught us how to make a template in photoshop. But as far as slicing the image is concern, the background consist of single color is much more easier than the background having gradient effect.


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