How to Make a DIY Light Box For Photographing In Your Own Mini Studio

Have you ever needed a photo for Ebay but you wanted to make it look more professional than just a “snapshot” or you just wanted a photo of any objet with a clean background that looks professional. It is EASY to make your own little studio for photographing whatever it is you want to photograph and everything you need is probably just laying around the house. Even if you have to buy the supplies, they will only cost you a few dollars.
Here is what you will need.

• 1 cardboard box – I used 18”X18”X16”
• Some tracing paper or tissue paper . . . something that is white and will still let a good deal of light through.
• white poster board
• tape
• a box cutter

That’s it. The light box is pretty self explanatory. Here are some photos of mine after it was completed.Cut out one side of the box completey so you can place the box over your subject. Three of the sides are cutout with the box cutter and then covered with the tracing or tissue paper. I left two flaps on the top of the box to control how much ambient light is let in and to just give the box more stability.
  

The idea is to use the poster board as the background so you have a nice smooth white background. You can then light up the box with desk lamps, a flash or two, etc. For mine, I use my sb-700 Nikon flash and I also use the built in camera flash although, I make sure to tone it down a lot. Here is a photo of my setup for the photos I took in this post. Depending on what you are shooting, you might want more than one flash/light. You can play around to get some really nice affects. This can also produce some nice shadows that are soft and diffused. If you want edgier shadows, just crank up the flash a bit.



It’s not a professional studio, but for a few minutes and a couple dollars, you can get some pretty nice photos.