My Homemade Light Box

Good Morning! One of my best blog buddies, Colleen of Dietrich Designs, asked me to photograph the light box that my husband constructed for me. The whole thing is really easy and can be made with materials that you probably already have at the house. I did go to Becca Feeken's blog Amazing Paper Grace and printed out the instructions that she had given for her homemade light box. My husband did construct that one however, there were two things I didn't like about it. Firstly, it's not really transportable and secondly it's too big. I really only photograph cards so I didn't need a box that big. This first picture is the skeleton of her light box:


This is a photo of the box my husband made without any lights hooked up to it:


This is a picture without the tablecloth, just showing the skeleton, which is essentially a 1 foot square cardboard box with all the sides cut out except the bottom and back:


There are two sheets of Formica or some kind of sturdy white plate on the back and bottom. And kitty, who couldn't resist getting in the picture :D

These are the lights I used for each side of the box (the right and left side). The bulbs are 100 watt compact fluorescent daylight:

This is a top view of the light box on. I have a third fluorescent bulb shining down on the top of the box, while covered with a white tablecloth:

I have a white piece of paper that I draped from the top inside of the box to the bottom front. This is so that there are no lines behind the card. It just kind of hangs down from the back top of the box. I lifted the corner so you could get some perspective:


This is the right side showing the light on through the tablecloth:

And this is the left side:

This picture shows the left side, but from outside the box (looking down at the light):


The lighting is very poor in my craft room (hence the need for a light box) but I tried to get some photos of it in operation. This is a side view (the left of the picture is the front of the box):


This is what it looked like before I hooked up the lights:


And this is what it looks like lit up:


The whole unit can sit on my desk and it's very light, so I can pick it up and put it on the floor when I need to access my sewing machine. It takes great pictures, refer to my previous post on Ways to Use Sunny Days and that shows you the difference between an outdoor picture and one used in the light box. I ALWAYS Photoshop my pictures, there's no comparison to unedited photos. Thanks for hanging around for the whole post.
Have a great day and happy night stamping!