DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Product photography lighting: how to make a cheap and lightweight DIY softbox

Mar 8, 2018 by Dunja Djudjic 2 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Product photography can be really creative and fun. We’ve often seen it related to interesting DIY solutions, such as the “IKEA lamp hack” or my all-time favorite “garbage can hack.” This time, Eric Strebel shares with you a DIY solution for product photography lighting. It’s a cheap and super-lightweight LED softbox. It’s detachable and adjustable, so you can adapt it to any studio setup you use.

Eric starts by cutting and bending an aluminum sheet to form a box for the lights. He uses a press which most of us doesn’t own, but the good news is that you can bend aluminum without it as well. Here’s a DIY solution I found:

When you bend the aluminum to form a box, you need to glue the edges together with some epoxy.

As for the light, Eric adds LED strip lights to the aluminum box. He covers the entire surface of the aluminum with the LED strips and solders them together. He disassembles a track light so he can adapt it to his track system and use the wires to power the lights in his LED softbox. He adds a laptop power supply for the 12V, to power the lights. You can see the process from 3:02.

Eric adds some magnets to the light head and to the aluminum box. This allows him to make the softbox detachable, adjustable and versatile for his studio set up. Finally, he adds some diffusion material to the softbox In his case, it’s a sheet of vellum paper he glues to the aluminum box.

The finished light weighs only 716 grams (1,5 pounds), and here is how it looks:

You can attach the softbox to the modified light head with the magnets, or you can detach it. You can rotate it and make it horizontal or vertical. It takes some work, but if you’re willing to spend some time on this DIY project, you’ll get a cheap and versatile DIY lighting.

[Product Photography LED Soft Box Build take better video and photos | Eric Strebel]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

A Big, Cheap, Solid And Foldable DIY Softbox Transform Your Lighting With This Cheap And Easy DIY Lighting Trick Make a cheap and easy DIY turntable for 360° product photography and video DIY Easy Product PhotographySuper Easy and Cheap DIY Product Photography Setup

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: DIY, DIY light, diy lighting, DIY project, Eric Strebel

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« Here is the list of all the fashion magazines and how to submit work to them
Here is how to tell a real BlackRapid from a fake one »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • SpaceX shares unique view of Earth in latest video
  • Get ready to photograph two total solar eclipses this year
  • How I started (and succeeded) photographing space from my backyard
  • Insta360’s new teaser says they’re entering the gimbal market
  • Users report blurry photos from Samsung Galaxy S23/S23+ cameras

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy