If you need to take pictures of your products, sometimes hiring a professional photographer isn’t feasible, but taking a picture on your counter doesn’t put your product in the best light. Display the quality of your product and improve your close-up product photography with a do-it-yourself light box. (Look at how great JIM looks in his light box!)
Does a light box make that much of a difference? The answer is yes, it really does. It enhances your photos by minimizing glare, softening the light and creating a uniform background color to make your product stand out.
You can make a light box for under $10.
All you need:
Cardboard Box – choose size depending on what you’re shooting
Packing Tape
Box Cutter
Scissors
Matte Poster Board – white, black or any background color you may want.
Tissue Paper
Desk Lamps
What to do:
- Secure bottom of box with packing tape
- Lay the box on its side and mark lines about one inch inside each edge of the box on each side and on the top
- Use a box cutter to carefully cut along the lines you drew
- Cut a section of tissue paper to fit over each of the openings that you cut
- Use scissors to remove any stray edges from the front edge of the box
- Cut a matte piece of white poster board into the box and curve it up towards the top of the box
- Cut a matte black poster board large enough to cover tissue paper areas to block light when taking photographs
- Place lights (even your everyday desk lamps on either side of the box to produce the desired lighting
- Take some test shots! Add more or less tissue paper to soften the light
Voilá! Nearly professional product photography in minutes!
Anna Gonzalez, Outreach & New Media Manager