It is important to take good photos if you are a blogger or if you sell products online. Making a DIY Photo Light Box will help create some natural light and help you avoid the steps of using Photoshop. You can get some awesome product or food photos with some materials that you may have around your house or costing a few dollars to make.
How to make a Photo Light Box
Materials Needed
- Large Cardboard Box
- White Tissue Paper
- White Poster Board
- Clear Tape
- Box Cutter
- 2 Lights
Directions
1. First cut a square out in the sides and the top of the box leaving a 2-inch margin.
2. Add the poster board to the inside of the box where it is not cut out and tape it to the box at the top. Make sure the poster board is curved at the bottom and not taped. You may have to cut the poster board to fit inside the box.
3. Cover the sides and top that are cut out with tissue paper on the outside of the box. Tape around the tissue paper square on the outside of the box using clear packaging tape.
4. Next, use 2 lights you may already have in your home and set them up on each side of the light box close to the tissue paper. I used a lamp without a lampshade on one side and a strong flashlight on the other side.
Be careful about leaving the lights on for a long time as they get hot and the tissue paper is thin.
In this pictures you can see the natural light coming in the box with the white contrast and the light reflecting off of the tissue paper and poster board. You may have to adjust the lights after you get your product in the box to avoid any shadows and to get a good lighting on the product.
Make sure to leave the flash off when taking the photo as it can create shadows and make the product looked washed out.
In the photo above you can see where I took a picture of the same products with the Photo Light Box and without the Photo Light Box. You can see how much brighter and clearer the photo is with the Light Box than without. The product is also presented better and will be more noticeable to your customers or readers.
In the 2 photos above you can see how close I was able to get to the product to show the details. Customers and readers love details of the products up close especially if they are buying the product.
Instead of buying an expensive photo light box or photo lights you can make your own for less and take some amazing photos. It took me about 5 minutes to make my Photo Light Box and I use it often.
If you are not up to making your own Photo Light Box you can check out the ones on Amazon.com.
Suzanne Lamoutte
Love this idea. 🙂