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January 8, 2010

DIY Light Box Tutorial

I finally re-shot the video for a DIY Light Box. I know the video is a little dark, but I think you'll still be able to understand how to make this easy, economical light box. I built a large box like this about 2 weeks and it has made an amazing difference in the photos I've taken for my vintage shop (you can see the photos here). Here are 3 short videos showing how to make the light box (the videos are about 6 minutes total combined- I used Flip video and you can only download very short videos to blogger- sorry!):








Materials:

1 box (I would recommend minimum size of 12" x 12" or 30cm x 30cm)
1 poster board
tissue paper or other light-filtering material
scissors
box cutter
tape
double-sided tape (or you can use regular tape and make loops with sticky part on outside)
2 small lights

Instructions:

  1. Tape one end of box closed
  2. Cut off top and bottom flaps from end of box that is open
  3. Cut out windows in both sides and top of box leaving a border (ie: if using 12" x 12" box, cut 11" x 11" window in each side of box- the 1" borders are approximate)
  4. Cover each window with tissue paper or some other type of light-filtering paper
  5. Cut a piece of poster board that is the width of your box
  6. Put double-sided tape (or loops of regular tape) on one end of the poster board and attach poster board to inside top of box- poster board will then curve down the inside back and floor of box
  7. Cut off any excess poster board hanging over the bottom edge of the box
  8. Set up a small light on each side of the box and turn on
  9. Voila! You have a light box!

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing! I really need to make one!

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  2. Thanks for sharing :) It's on my to-do list this weekend.

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  3. Nicely done! I would suggest that you could use either parchment paper, or Frosted Acetate (both at drafting or art stores) for added sturdiness on the windows.

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  4. Jill- great suggestions! I hadn't thought of those but now I might try parchment paper instead of wax paper.

    Thanks!
    Andrea

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  5. Thank you so much for posting! I was going to buy one at the end of the summer. Not anymore!

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  6. This is just brilliant, its on my to do list. Thank you for sharing.
    Hugs
    Bev

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  7. Being a retired old biddy, I do not have a lot of money and this is just what I have been looking for! Thank you so much for this tutorial!

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  8. Great easy to follow tutorial. Thank you! We have posted a link to it via our blog http://biznessbabesbib.blogspot.com/2010/06/photography-diy-lightbox.html

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