DIY Lightbox

Thanks for stopping by!

After a bit of a slump, I decided I wanted to take some photos. It has been

pretty darn cold out here so I thought it would be a good idea to take photos inside. My solution: a DIY lightbox. If you want to make your own, here is how I made mine.

My box ended up being about 20 cubic inches, but this project is scalable.

I used 3 sheets of foam core, a sheet of poster board, and a load of masking tape. The light sources I am using right now are 4 halogen lamps: 2 are 90 watts and 2 are 75 watts. I also used an x-acto knife and a yard stick.

Instead of cutting all the pieces and piecing them together, I decided to start from the bottom and build up, so I was sure it all fit together.

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First, cut two 20"x20" sheets of foam core. Then measure 4" in from 2 adjacent sides and make a cut between them, making a triangle with two 4" sides and an irregular shape. The two triangles can be discarded.

The two irregular shapes are the sides (left and right).

Then, cut a 20"x16" sheet of foam core to be the base. This sheet will have the longer side (20") along the front edge. One 16" side of the irregular sheet can be fitted to the 16" side of the base. The triangul

ar section missing on the sides should be at the back of the box.

Tape along the seems. It may help to turn the box upside down to tape this junction. DO NOT PUT TAPE INSIDE THE BOX. The inside of the box should be entirely white; tape is slightly yellow.

Now that you have a base and two sides, lets put the back on. But wait! First we need to fill in the irregular angle at the back, near the bottom. This piece is 20" wide and about 5.66" in length. I measured this distance, rather than relying on my calculations. Once that is attached to the base and sides, cut a 16"x20" sheet for the back of the box. It should sit flush with the 5.66" piece and the top should sit flush with the top edge of the sides of the box.

One last sheet of foam core is needed for the top of the box. Make sure the whole thing is taped, and it should stand on its own. (note: I made another angle similar to the bottom because I was running out of foam core, and it worked out fine)

To make the angle at the back of the box more like a seamless backdrop, I cut a piece of poster board to fit inside the box. It runs along the base, then along the angled section, and most of the way up the back of the box.

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Warnings:

I had a problem with junctions not sealing well, so I started using strips of white copy paper between the foam core and the tape to mask the cracks.

The x-acto knife is very sharp. Don't cut yourself!

The lights get very hot very quickly. I plugged them into a power strip and used the switch on it to turn them off whenever possible.

I will post photos very soon. Please let me know if you have any questions or leave comments!

UPDATE: Photos of the finished product are added. Sorry for the poor quality, but my apartment is very poorly lit, hence the reason I built the lightbox in the first place.