Making your own light box, for cheap

Last weekend I attempted and with mild succcess, built a light box using materials I had in my house and a laundry bag from Ikea.  I went to Ikea to find a white laundry bin/bag, per the suggestion from Johan von Kronow's website.  If you missed the post, I mentioned him earlier on the blog because he made a fantastic Laser-Cut gingerbread house...here.  While Johan suggests his own materials and way to build an affordable light box, I improvised to make mine even cheaper!

I purchased a laundry bin from  Ikea (selecting the model in the picture above becuase the one Johan used was out of stock!).  I knew I had a bunch of white pillowcases at home already.  I had a few desk lamps and edison bulbs hanging out, so I used what I had. 

My first attempt at using the light box, note the differences in the pictures depending on the time of day that they were taken.  These pictures were featured in a previous post called Favorite Winter Accessories:

  


Taken with natural + artificial light during the day

 









Taken with only artificial light in the evening

As you can see the quality decreases in the photo as more artificial light is used. At least this is the case for me taking pictures in a make-shift light box.

Conclusion: This was a fun project that cost less than $10. I know that the quality of the photo depends on using less artificial light (and perhaps my light sources are to blame *note* two other lamps I used were not shown in the top picture). I know I can produce mid-quality photos (see the hat photo) if I take the time to set everything up correctly during the day. I would suggest following the diagram (above), or Johan's instructions to build something like this for yourself. I'm sure there are better ways to do this and I am completely open to suggestions as long as it doesn't involve buying a pre-fab photography light-box!