Have you ever thought about how a professional photographer shooting for the brands takes the perfect product shot? They take the help of a lightbox to have a balanced light on the product.
If you are new to this field, you might find it surprising that a branded lightbox is very expensive, and as a beginner, you would not be able to afford it. But wait, we have a perfect solution for you!
How about making a DIY lightbox at home if you don’t have enough budget? Yes, you guessed it right, in this article we will show you three different ways to make a lightbox at home.
Method 1
Material required:
- Card box
- Two wax papers
- Two aluminum foil papers
- One A4 white sheet
- Glue, scale, knife.
Step one:
Take the start with a cardboard box. Dimensions of the board don’t matter if the product you want to shoot fits in ideally.
Step two:
With the help of a ruler and knife, cut the back of the box and make sure the dimensions are accurate. You can take the use of a market while cutting the card box.
Step three:
Keep the two flaps open that will help you to control the light while clicking product shots.
Step four:
Measure wax paper accurately as the dimensions of the hole you did in the card box and fix it on the spot with the glue.
Step five:
Now take the aluminum foil and cut it according to the size of the flaps on the back. They will aid you in reflecting the light into the box.
Step six:
Put the white paper inside the box that will now be used as the background. Moreover, you can also change the background color by putting the colored paper of your choice inside.
Now you can quickly put your handmade DIY lightbox near the light source to enjoy the perfect product photography.
Instructions to make LED DIY lightbox
The box we made earlier will only work in natural light. But conditions are not always in your favor when it comes to product photography. Don’t worry, our guide will explain each step to make a DIY lightbox with LED in it.
Required material:
- 1.3 mm Perspex sheet
- 1.5V small led bar
- Two velcro strips
- X-Acto knife
Step one:
The first thing you have to do is to cut the white sheet precisely in the above-provided shape. The size depends on the product you want to capture in it.
You also have the option of a card box instead of a Perspex sheet, but it won’t last as long as this one.
Step two:
Now you have to fold it exactly as shown in the above picture overlapping the triangles. The next thing you have to add is an LED bar that a power bank will power.
Step three:
Now all you have to do is put a white paper in the background, and you are all done.
How can you make a white box flash diffuser?
Material required:
- 1 plastic translucent white storage box
- One sheet of white paper
- 2 Speedlights
- 1 Speedlight transmitter
Step one:
Take the storage box and cover its background with a white sheet.
Now put your product inside and adjust the speed lights and exposure.
Step two:
Synchronize the transmitter with the speed lights and the camera. And we are all done!
Making a DIY Light Box in 5 Minutes
You must be wondering how is it possible? It's easy, splendid and quick!
All you need are:
- A Paper Bag
- White Color Wall Paint/ Primer
- White Tissue Paper
- A4 Size Transparent Sheet
Take the paint primer and spread it over the paper bag evenly all over its surface. Now get the transparent sheet or any plastic sheet of A4 size or bigger than that so that your DIY lightbox becomes larger in area. Make holes for the sockets of light or place lamps inside the box. Place your product neatly and fix the sheet on top of it. Place some white tissue paper all over the walls of the box, and turn on your lights accordingly.
You will be surprised to see that how much difference this makes! To make it more effective, you can use different colored sheets for one box instead of using just plain white color. Just pick any color from your wall paint/primer, spread them everywhere so that every corner is covered with it including where your camera is supposed to click.
Voila! This is how you have a very cheap yet effective DIY lightbox ready in 5 minutes!
Making DIY Lightbox Using Window White Sheeting:
You can make a DIY lightbox very easily by using window white sheeting. It is available in stores and is not very expensive as well. You can use one or more than one depending on the size of your product.
Cut the sheets according to your requirement, for example, if you are making it for your camera then cut them so that they are a little larger than the actual size of the camera lens. Now fix these sheets above your monitor, lamps etc so that there is even illumination all over the box. The only catch here is that you have to be careful that no direct lights should fall onto your product or else it will leave an ugly shadow which you won't like at all! So just keep this thing in mind.
Making DIY Lightbox Using Polyfoam Board:
Polyfoam board is another great material that you can use to make a perfect lightbox! It is available on market at a very cheap price. If you don't want to spend your money on this, then you can easily access it from your surroundings. For example - Packing foam makes an excellent light diffusion panel and can be used as a substitute for professional ones, or instead of tissue paper. This also requires little effort and not much time like others. Just take the scrap pieces of polyfoam and stick them all around the box having proper gaps between them for better lighting without any shadows present inside the box; just like we did with tissue paper above.
DIY Light Box Using Styrofoam Bowl
You can make a DIY lightbox using a styrofoam bowl too! [*] Just get the bowl and cut it from inside near its bottom so that it becomes like a half-sphere. You can do this very easily by following the lines drawn on the bowl surface. Now carefully cut out two semicircles and place them back to back, and paint them with bright white color (or you can use the inner wall sheeting method). Fix this newly made styrofoam hemisphere on top of your monitor, or laptop; then take some white tissue paper and fill in all gaps between the polyfoam board and styrofoam hemisphere so that no shadows are present in the final product photo. Attach your camera to one side of the hemisphere and place your product inside the lightbox so that it is uniformly illuminated.
Making DIY Light Box Using Paper Bags
How to make a lightbox using a white paper bag? It's quite easy, just take any paper bag (the bigger size will be preferable) and paint its exterior with a bright color or white color. Make sure that this exterior layer is even everywhere; it can't have rough patches because there are chances of ugly shadows present in the final image if the gaps between different portions of the same surface are greater. Now cut small holes here and there for better illumination throughout the box, but make sure that these holes are not overlapping each other because overlapping creates a weird look which you don't want at all. Now place this even colored paper bag box on any side of your monitor and fix your camera outside it to click product images without shadows or uneven light.
Making a DIY Light Box Using Glass Sheets
Here is a very different and interesting DIY lightbox idea for you. Take two glass sheets of the same size and fix them facing each other with some space in between because you have to place your product inside this box so it should be enough space for a good view. Now take any marker which can draw on a glass surface or go for permanent spray paint - the thing being here, the exterior part of this lightbox has to be bright color so that there are no shadows present in captured images. And now keep one side open and attach your camera with this side! It will capture photos without creating ugly shadows.
Making a DIY Paper Lightbox
Now here's another great lighting alternative you can consider. Take a thin and long strip of white paper and cut small square pieces from this strip so that it becomes like a vase having the same thickness. Now stick these square-shaped papers on all sides of the box one by one very carefully but ensuring no overlap between them to create shadows inside your final product image. You can use double side adhesive papers for sticking purposes, or you can glue the whole thing manually, it's up to you! Just make sure that there is good light spread throughout the box which has a high intensity in the center portion because we'll place our camera at that point only.
This is how we can make a DIY lightbox with very simple and easy methods. Just choose the one which you think is the best and enjoy clicking your product in a professional way!
DIY Light Box: Tourist Attraction or Messy Drawer?
If you are planning to use them as tourist attractions, they will be great for those who want their face online. They love having themselves clicked with such stuff as it is so interesting for them to see their interests on the internet, but if you ask me what I personally think about such things then there seems no need of making something like this when we already have places like a zoo where we can spend our time along with our kids; we don't need any artificial stuff.
We can use them in our house as decor pieces if we don't want to place such costly stuff like aquariums or fish bowls. Otherwise, they can be placed into that messy drawer of yours and forgotten about till the time you need it again.
How To Build A Photo Light Box For Less Than $10
You might think that making a lightbox can be costly. However, we found a video for you, where you can see step by step how to make a lightbox for only $10.
Conclusion
Apart from using the lightbox for the product shoot, it has multiple other uses as well, such as it can be very helpful in shooting still-life photographs. So, in the end, always remember, the most important thing is your creativity and skills. Investing money in the equipment will not make you a professional photographer, but your skills will.