Homemade Mini-Lightbox How-to

I tried to make my own lightbox and I am pleased with the result that I decided to share how I did it with you. Actually, my 4-year old daughter helped so I have to give her credit, too. ~smiles~

A short disclaimer before I begin: I am NOT an expert photographer. I just own a point and click camera and use the automatic settings most of the time. The procedure below was how I did it and I am hoping it would give you an idea of how easy it is to make one. If you want a more "professional" tutorial, there are many around the web. Just search for "homemade lightbox" and pick one to follow.

Anyway, here's how I (or we) did mine.

Materials:

• Cardboard box
• Cutting tool/Scissors
• Pencil
• Ruler
• White paper and/or black paper
• Glue
• White cloth
• Adhesive tape
• 1-3 Lamps (Daylight)

1. Remove the flaps from the top of the box. This will be your  opening.

2. Make sure the bottom is closed or sealed. (I also removed the inner flaps at the bottom of the box. This make the insides seamless and prevents shadows.)

3. On three sides, draw a rectangle to mark what you will cut off. (Make sure you leave enough border so that the box won't collapse when the cloth is put over it. I left about 0.25 to 0.5 inches all around.)

4. Cut off the rectangles with a cutting tool. (First, I punched a hole with a cutting tool and then used the scissors to cut it off.)

5. Lay the box down on the remaining intact side. Now you have a box with the top open and its left and right open, too. The bottom will serve as the backdrop.

6. Prepare the backdrop and base of the box. Use either white or black paper depending on what your subject will be. Do not flatten the paper along the top/bottom corner. You must allow the paper to curve so that the crease will not show. (I have yet to buy a longer sized paper to cover the entire inner box, though.)

7. Measure and cut the cloth enough to cover the three openings you just made -- left, right and top openings. (I used my baby's cloth diaper for this purpose. But I used ordinary white paper in the photos here.)

8. Secure the cloth with tape. (Or just draping it over is quicker.)

9. Put a lamp at the top and two sides of the box. (Since my box is small, one lamp placed on top was enough.)

10. Done! You can start taking pictures. The picture below was taken using the Macro setting (with no flash) of my camera.

I plan on making one more lightbox using a much bigger box. I will show you pictures when I do.

I would love to see pictures of your lightbox - purchased or homemade.