Creating a Light Box of Your Own : DIY Light Box

Creating a Light Box of Your Own is very easy if you follow our easy way to create. The end product is quite stable considering the cost you will spend for it. We wrote about Light Box before and the usages, advantages a Light Box can offer. Professional ready made Light Box and Light Tent costs a huge and not suitable for amateur photographers.

Materials Needed for Creating a Light Box

There is a kind of Polystyrene Sheet available in India, improperly called as Thermocol. They are available as sheets of various thickness, can be cut in to pieces easily with a simple paper knife. The basic reason why this thermocol sheet is available widely in India is not for creating a Light Box like us ! They are used for building materials for “use and throw” kind of decoration in Hindu marriages, Festivals etc. If you are not sure what is this Thermocol actually is – you can recall the specially molded packings used for consumer goods like television, refrigerator etc. Those are not suitable for Creating a Light Box, we basically need thin half inch thick sheets. If this material is not available in your country, you have to find some another similar material for Creating a Light Box. The basics for Creating a Light Box will however remain the same.

In the above image, these thermocol sheets are looking small, but they are actually can be big as an adult human !

Knife, metallic measuring tape, marker pen, adhesive (non xylene based, they will dissolve the material!), paper pins are needed for Creating a Light Box in this process.

Steps for Creating a Light Box of Your Own

You have to create a cube like packing box with these thermocol sheets for Creating a Light Box. Its a basic craft to cut the sheets in to pieces, joining one by one – by their side. Push the paper pins on the edge (in between there is glue you have added to make the box fixed by edges), so that both pieces are pierced at 90 degrees. I suggest to use longer and slender pins (more than 1.5 inches in length) so that they can reinforce the light box, use at every 2 inch distance at all edges (except one side which we will keep open to take photograph). You will end up with something like this one :

Do create a lid too like the illustration. It will keep your Light Box ‘s inside free from accumulation of dust on storage.

Several peoples has advised to use a cardboard box for Creating a Light Box, chopping the sides with 2 inch margin and then gluing up translucent material as if fixing glass on a window’s frame, retaining the original cardboard box’s framework. But, the frames will cast a shadow – think carefully plus the steps of work for Creating a Light Box will actually be increased.

So you have finished creating a Light Box of your own. But you need proper lighting from exterior. These kind of table lamps are widely available :

Any Fluorescent Lamp that will fit inside it will work. You need several such flexible table lamps. To make the light diffused too, simply add a translucent sheet, they are often sold in rolls for the books.

So you have finished all points for Creating a Light Box of Your Own. Just follow the image of our previous post on Light Box for Proper setup. Keep the light box inside a huge plastic bag, usually they are shipped for bigger consumer electronic goods, to protect it from dust. Keeping it dust free is a challenge, if it catches dust, all your diligence for Creating a Light Box will be for nothing.