DIY - Budget Light Box/For Pics

So I have been on a quest lately to take better pics. I remembered reading, some time ago, about setting up a specific, lighted area. From memory, I tried it the uber-cheap way first, without a box. It didn’t quite have the quality I was looking for. Here was my initial setup:


^ You can see a white table-cloth draped at the top, and two flashlights on tripods mounted with painters tape. ^

A pretty lame setup…I know…but I was able to get some OK close-ups like this:

…and this:

However, any shots taken further away had pretty bad shadows that just weren’t acceptable.

So…I watched a few youtube videos on cheap lightbox design, and decided to try my hand at an ultra-cheap version using about $30 worth of items:

1) Cardboard box with top flaps cut off.
2) White duct tape.
3) Tissue paper (large sheets as used in gift bags).
4) White poster-board.
5) 2 x clamp lights with LED bulbs.
6) Painter’s tape (optional, for tacking tissue paper down on the outside of the box, or at hidden areas).

Here is what the process looked like:


^ I started this project by trimming the box up a bit. As you can see above, my cardboard box has windows that I cut out on three sides (Left, Top and Right). ^


^ Above, I used the white duct tape and attached it to a long side of one piece of tissue paper.^


^ I then attached the tissue paper to the upper left corner of the box, and laid another piece of tissue paper along the bottom. I folded the ends of the tissue paper to the outside of the box, and attached it there with painters tape…which allowed me to remove and re-attach if necessary. ^


^ Then I just repeated the process for each interior side-panel of my box. ^

The youtube videos I watched stressed how important it was to have a curved back surface, which helps diminish unwanted shadows. I decided to cut a slit into the top/rear of the box, and feed a trimmed piece of poster board into the slot, then simply curve it toward the front:


^ Cutting the poster-board slit. ^


^ Feeding the poster-board through slit from the outside. ^


^ Poster-board peeking through the inside of my box. ^


^ Poster-board completely fed through and curved. ^

Next, I mounted the lights on the outside left and right side of the box. The clamp lights work great, and you can clamp them in place to any solid object:


^ Right outside. ^


^ Right inside. ^


^ Left outside. ^


^ Box pretty much complete with both lights on. ^

I’ll be experimenting with this box in the next few days. Unfortunately, the pics I have taken so far are way too yellow. I’m not sure if it is a white balance issue, or perhaps too warm a tint on the LED bulbs. I’ll swap them out and try some different bulbs and see how that works.

I hope this helps anyone that is considering building one :slight_smile:

Any advice from shutterbugs is always appreciated!

Thanks,
krono


^ Too yellow! ^

G'Day Krono,

Which camera are you using, and what settings did you use to take the pics?

From what I can see & without further info, it would seem to be an issue with how you are taking the pics, & white balance being one.

Thank you Very Much,

George

Howdy KG :slight_smile:

Pics were taken with a Nikon Coolpix L330 on automatic w/no flash. Not a great camera.

But I agree with you…it is likely operator error. :person_facepalming:

I’ll dicker around with the white balance and see how that works.

Thanks for the info.

Better after white balancing, auto settings, no flash.

With flash…too blue.

Your lightbox looks good. It’s all camera settings from there. Longer exposure times, manual white balance tweaks, etc. And forget the flash.

A couple more with additional light directed into the top window:

EDIT- Using a different camera. Kodak Max Z990 on auto with varying degrees of light:

Increase the exposure time and it will really pop.
I can tell you are using automatic exposure because it is dividing the difference between dim enough to see the background and bright enough to see the flashlight. More exposure time will over-expose the background to a excellent white, while giving the flashlight more detail and brightness. Shadows will be preserved, so it will still look real.

Well, there is some blue near the shadows in those last two pics. Is the ‘additional light directed into the top window’ a cooler tint than the two on the sides? Increasing exposure as Joshk suggested may help that, too. But, it might still be better to get cooler lights for the sides. If they’re regular home lighting bulbs from a Lowe’s or Home Depot, they’re most likely very warm. The coolest I’ve found at those places is 3500K temp. Those pics of your set-up in the OP are what 2700K lights look like to me in real life.

But, I want to say that overall, your set-up looks good, and your Kronos K70 looks well-lit.

OK, I’ll give it a shot.

The ISO options on my Nikon are:
80
100
200
400
800
1600

Image mode options are:
20m* 5152x3864*
20m 5152x3864
10m 3648x2736 (currently set on)
4m 2272x1704
2m 1600x1200

What do you think the best settings would be?

I would probably go with ISO 400 and leave it there, then adjust the shutter time (exposure time) down from say 1/32 of a second to a longer 1/2 of a second (fiddle as needed). Then snap a picture and adjust from their. The trick is to forget dividing the difference between seeing the background and seeing the object. Learn to only judge the object. Once you learn to do that, you’re basically a pro.

I’m looking for exposure time setting…but it doesn’t seem to be adjustable on the Nikon.

I’ll look on the Kodak.

OK…Kodak has ISO, exposure time and fstop. What setting for that?

Thanks David. Yes…the blue was caused by using some other cooler flashlights to add additional light inside the box :blush:

If it appears to not be adjustable, the dial on top is probably not in manual mode. I would need to be in manual mode to adjust it on my Cannon too.

The Nikon does not have a dial on top, and apparently does not have a manual mode in the menu section.

The Kodak does, with fstop, ISO, shutter speed, flash compensation and white balance…among other things.

Bummer is that the white balance only has these options:
Auto
Daylight
Tungsten
Fluorescent
Open Shade

So on the Kodak, I should set it at:
ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: .5”
White Balance: Tungsten?
Fstop: ???

Well done on the lightbox :+1:

What I would do if it was me using that setup with the Coolpix L330

Assuming that the camera is on a tripod.

Same lighting for all lights and use auto white balance.

If you can alter the quality of the jpg put it into highest quality.

Lowest ISO, for best quality.

Fstop as required for depth of field/focus.

Let the camera work out the shutter speed, if it is to dark/light use exposure compensation, speed is unimportant on a tripod.

Nearly forgot, turn VR off when on a tripod with exposures longer than 1/25sec.

If you can alter the quality of the jpg put it into highest quality

While any resolution will do the job, personally I always use the highest, you can down size with a small increase in quality but any up-sizing kills quality.

There is more but this is a good start :wink:

Cheers David

Set Fstop to smallest fraction for best depth-of-field (f/32 for example)
Pommie is right, a low iso is best, but you might run into issues with your other settings maxing out if you go below ISO 400.
You will have to see what white-balance looks best. Mine can be set manually to 4000 or 4100 for example.
Shutter speed is where you will spend the most time fiddling. Longer time open (like .5” instead of 1/60”) will brighten image. When set right the flashlight will look great. The background will go whiter.
And same color light in all directions. Don’t worry about how bright it looks in real life. Shutter speed (long exposure) will decide this.
You will definitely need a tripod for the long exposure.

Joshk, have a look at the specs of the Nikon Coolpix L330.
He cannot adjust the speed except for using exposure compensation in programed auto.
Using ISO400 on a sensor that small introduces a lot of noise and should be avoided, also with a max shutter speed of 1/1500, ISO400 could possibly be unusable.
Using f/32 causes blurring/softness due to diffraction and should be avoided, even if available, unless you really must have an max depth of field.
Please understand the sensor in this camera is not much bigger than in the latest phones and as such amplifies all the effects of the settings on a full frame or C-crop sensor, ie:- a setting of f4 will be the same as maybe f12 (guessing) on a full frame.

Cheers David :beer:

His Kodak has the setting it sounds like, no doubt he will give it a try. I’m not sure why you mentioned the insane max shutter speed. He needs to adjust the shutter speed as the last setting, to whatever looks good. No doubt my example of .5” is not exact because we don’t know how bright the scene is in real life.

Cheers

All the best on the new hobby krono. The higher the ISO setting the grainier the pictures become. Practice will let you know what your camera is capable of. The higher ISO allows for quicker shutter speeds.
A full manual camera with a rigid tripod allows you to do lots more than a camera that is a point and shoot without a tripod.