Tutorial: Simple Lightbox

For me, in my tiny, North-facing apartment, I need a lightbox to take decent photos. Especially when I'm trying to get detailed shots of my jewelry. Of course, I'm not going to spend a ton of money when I can make one for under $3... so why should you? Since I recently made myself a larger one, I thought I'd show it off here - nothing fancy, but extremely useful:

Here's how I made it:

Materials:

large box

tape

exacto knife &/or scissors

white tissue paper

white bristol board

Methods:

Click on this link for step by step photos.

1. Tape open one end of your box. Decide on the bottom & back of your lightbox. Make sure it'll be large enough for what you want to photograph.

2. Cut out rectangular holes in the top & 2 sides of your box. This is to let in as much light as you can. Make sure to leave edges around each side though for sturdiness.

3. Tape tissue paper over the 3 holes.

4. Tape a piece of white bristol board so that it covers the bottom & back of your lightbox. Don't fold it into the edge - you want a clean curve to make it look like the background of your photos fades away into the distance.

And voilà! A lightbox! To use it, just light a lamp behind each of the pieces of tissue paper & snap away. You can adjust the brightness by adding layers of tissue paper.

I often stick a piece of coloured cardstock under the item I'm photographing for a bit of colour.

Do you have enough natural lighting for great photos or do you use a lightbox? Any other lighting tricks you use?