I began this journey first looking at several tutorials on how to get excellent product shots. Of course you can go purchase a light box and expensive lighting and be done but where is the fun in that. Below are several tutorials I found for creating your own light box on a budget. The only thing that troubled me was that we really don’t have much room to have a box sitting around. So I came up with a way to create a collapsible camera light box.

The tutorials I found:

Macro Photo Studio

Light Box Tent

Inexpensive Light Tent

How I approached the collapsible light box

Materials needed:

• (2) tri-fold display boards, I used 28in x 40in with a white inside
• (1) poster board that will curve inside the box
• (1) foam core, I used a 32in x 40in
• Velcro straps (you can do other ideas here)
• (1) while translucent shower curtain or white sheet
• Also used a small velcro tab for inside curved poster board
• (2) home depot can lights
• (2) bright bulbs

Tools needed:

• Duck tape
• Glue
• Scissors
• Xacto knife or blade to cut foam core
• Ruler
• Pencil or pen to mark areas

Step 1

Use duck tape to tape the ends of the poster boards together so that the newly formed box is still able to fold.

Step 2

I measured the size of the box over the foam core and cut it. Now it was exact but that is okay it’s main purpose mainly for support. I then attached four velcro pieces to each side of the foam core, and glued a middle foam core piece to support the folding parts of the box once it will be attached.

Step 3

I cut a foot square out of the middle of the display board on two sides of the box. I made sure to cut the sides of the display boards that do not bend. I then cut a piece of the shower curtain to tape over the square hole.

Step 4

I ducked tape the other velcro sides to the outside of the actual box. I cut the poster board to fit the width of the box. When you place the poster board inside the box make sure it has a nice curve with no creases so you can have a seamless shot. You can use clear tape to tape the bottom of the poster board but I used white velcro tabs to go underneath the poster board. You don’t need to do anything to the back of the poster board as it will naturally curve and sit on the back.

Now I just used a regular light from home depot with the brightest bulb I could find. Place each light to each of the cut squares.

Now after you have the box up it is easy to disassemble by just removing the inside poster board, the back foam board and fold the sides in.

I still have to mess around with the white balance settings and will probably run fstop on the next shots a little hotter. You have to compensate for the yellow overglow from the lights. Below are the shots after editing. The last two I posted the before and after and took a little extra time washing out the few background.

So there you have it. This was a fun project to work on and I am going to start shooting shots for my new blog design (which I know is behind schedule now). Leave a comment or idea if you would or did something different with your light box.