A Simple Fold Away Light Box
One of my favorite home studio instruments is the light box. I like it for several reasons. First, I like it for the light quality that it produces. It produces light that is soft and even very much like a light tent. Only instead of lighting it from the outside, you push light from the inside.
The "walls" of the light box reflect the light source, and making it bigger, however the light quality is a bit harsher than the light tent, especially if you are using a semi reflective material such as foamboard. Light boxes are also commonly used with worklights, which are a personal fav of mine due to their low cost.We had a light box featured on DIYP, in the very early days of the blog. It was a wooden large model that took your relationship with your significant other half the living room.
So how about this light box from Amy Kingman: It is big enough to accommodate 2-3 worklights. It is made from foamboard (cheap, cheap, cheap) and nicely folds away for easy storage.
Oh, and here comes the good news, it takes only an exacto knife and 10 minutes to build one of those.
See full instructions and samples at Drawings In Motion and an improved version (with with fluffy backdrop) here.
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Comments
Light Box
I like the construction Idea with the cutout for the sides and how well they fit together easily. I will adapt mine.
I used semi-clear Coroplast (they really don't make a clear) sheets which will allow some light through and if you cut large parts of each side out you can then replace with thin Mylar sheets which are even better at transferring light.
I describe setting up a Home Studio in this article and building a similar box with those sheets.
http://niels-henriksen.blogspot.com/2010/03/10-great-photography-project...
Niels Henriksen
re: Light Box
Hi Niels,
If you are having issues with light transferring materials, you should try sketching paper, it is thin enough to pass lots of light while providing great diffusion
Light box
I don't know how you call it, but mylar sheets look quite like parchment paper (quite unexpensive). Is really Coroplast that bad difussing light that you have to cut it out? Because the structure of the light box will be much more solid if you don't cut out pieces. Just asking because I want to make one this week and I'm considering all the different options.
lght tent
I built a coroplast light tent and I love it. I am considering cutting out the sides to replace them w/ some more transparent material. this immage was taken at f22 1sec iso 400.
so its a long exposure but I dont mind.
http://www.diyphotography.net/create-a-flat-fold-light-tent-using-coroplast
http://taintedelephant.blogspot.com
Hmm
For what I see, the foam light tent is made for shooting light inside (with working lights or flashes) and the light tent you built is used shooting the light through the sides, am I right? if so, the foam light cube can also be cut out and your light tent can also be used by putting the light inside.
Great, thanks for the info :)
Funny thing, i have posted
Funny thing,
i have posted today an article on by blog about my "styrocube", build with plates of styropor and a sheet of paper (din a2)
here is the article : http://www.sypke.de/2010/03/23/diy-produktfotografie-der-styrocube/
I do a lot of alternative processes which involve contact printi
I am building a new darkroom/ studio and I need a UV Lightbox. I can't seem to find anywhere that sells these so I may have to construct one myself. Keep in mind I am not an electrician and I have no idea how to do this. Where do I start? Where can I purchase all the necessary products? Is there somewhere I can buy one for around $100? I need it to be about 16x20! Thanks!
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