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How to construct the world’s most well built and best looking DIY light box

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It’s always interesting to see how those who have some kind of actual construction skill tackle photography related projects. For example, if any of us needed a lightbox for a small product shoot, we may typically venture off toward Amazon. Or we might be impatient and want to build our own, so we grab a cardboard box, and start hacking away at it with a knife.

For a woodworker, though, like Glenn Scott at DIY Creators, a cardboard box just isn’t enough. After recently requiring a lightbox to shoot some small products, Glen decided to build his own. He uses common woodworking techniques to construct it, and the result is just magnificent. A purpose-built wooden lightbox that looks like it fits right in with your furniture.

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Product photography is way more creative and exciting than you think

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My first paying photo gig was a product shoot. It ended up turning into a regular thing for a couple of years. It wasn’t what I was passionate about, certainly not as passionate as Peter McKinnon is in this fourteen and a half minute video, but it was a lot of fun. It taught me a lot about light, shadow, reflections and perspective, and I’m so glad I had this opportunity early on in my days with a camera.

It turns out that product photography was Peter McKinnon’s first photo gig, too, and his bread and butter for several years. And it’s something he’s very passionate about. In the video, Peter walks you through his thought process and how product photography allows him to get creative. He also talks about potential ways one can monetise product photography, too.

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DIY product photography hack with $10 IKEA lamp

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Dustin Dolby from Workphlo is known for his product photography tutorials that give professional results without too much fancy gear. In his latest video, he shows you how to shoot small products using a $10 IKEA Melodi lamp. This time, you won’t need an IKEA lamp as a light source. Instead, it serves as a sort of a light tent for creating soft and even light. Dustin guides you through his setup for this shoot, but also through the post-production process.The entire setup is pretty affordable and gives great results, so take a look.

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How to photograph glass perfume bottles with one light for compositing

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Photography Dustin Dolby is a great source of information for creating small product photography. Especially with minimal kit. He often uses just one or two speedlights to create multiple lighting setups, and then composites them in post. In this video, Dustin goes into a lot more detail about the actual shooting process and how he uses the light to build shape and form.

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Super Easy and Cheap DIY Product Photography Setup

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Everyone needs to photograph products once in a while.

Whether it’s for an etsy shop, ecommerce retail, eBay, a Shopify store or just for the occasional Craigslist sale; it’s really handy to be able to do your own high quality product photography.

In this article, I will show you a super easy, low cost, product photography setup that anyone can use to create very high-end looking DIY product photography.

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Use Photoshop’s Lighten blend mode to shoot high end product composites

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Shooting product photography is a whole lot of fun. Often, though, it can require a surprisingly high number of lights and modifiers to get the job done in a single shot. But what if you don’t have a ton of gear? What if you just want to give it a go without having to spend on a bunch of new flashes? Compositing is the answer.

In this video, Dustin Dolby from Workphlo uses just a single speedlight to show one process for creating composited product photographs. It’s a great technique for creating product composites with a perfectly clean white background with whatever subject light you need. As well as the basic shooting process, Dustin also goes over his entire post workflow.

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How to take product shots with a single light and DIY modifiers

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Getting professional-looking product shots doesn’t need to require you to have a studio and tons of expensive gear. With some DIY magic and good will, you can get neat product photos without too much money. Photographer Brandon Adam shows you a setup for product shots using only a single light source, a few DIY modifiers, and some cardboard.

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How to photograph watches with only a kit lens and a speedlight

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Shiny male watch on a black background will certainly catch your eye in a catalog or in an Instagram feed. You can also create this kind of look, and you don’t even need an expensive studio gear to do it. Photographer Dustin Dolby shares his workflow that will give you the stylish, catalog-worthy photo of a watch, and all you need is a camera with a kit lens, one speedlight, and a few modifiers.

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How to fake a softbox by light painting with tubes for product photography

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Softboxes are wonderful tools for product photography. They allow you to get nice soft shadows, and beautiful edge highlights to make your product shine. But if don’t own them already, and all you plan to shoot are a few photos for eBay, it can get expensive. There’s light stands, flashes, the softboxes themselves, possibly reflectors and other doohickies.

This video from commercial photographer Leo Rosas shows a fantastic technique to create an “invisible softbox” using lightpainting techniques. Using a long LED tube, Leo recreates the look of a large softbox over his product, without actually having a softbox. It’s a very neat and versatile technique if you’re limited on gear.

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Make a simple and versatile product lighting setup for under $50

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We’ve featured several great, budget-friendly product photography lighting setups. And if you ask for such a solution for video, Caleb Pike from DSLR Video Shooter demonstrates one in his latest video. It’s easy to set it up, allows plenty of variations, and it costs less than $50. And while Caleb focuses on shooting video, you can, of course, use this setup for stills as well.

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