Beginning to Blog: Week 2 - Setting Up a Light Box Studio

Let's do this thing! I am ready to go. I bought some regular white tissue paper at Big Lots. I have a cardboard box, some scissors, and tape. Woot.

I followed the technique outlined in Strobist's post about How to DIY a $10 Macro Photo Studio. It takes about a half an hour to create and it is easy and cheap. The results are much better (see elephant above), do you agree?

Tools:

• One Cardboard Box
• White Tissue Paper
• White Paper (Tracing Paper, Butcher Paper or any paper that is nto transparent)
• Scissors
• Masking Tape (I used blue painter tape)
• Box Cutter
• Two Bright Lights

Steps:

• Keep the bottom of the box taped shut. 
• Cut off one of the flaps on the top of the box (the one that would be positioned at the top when the box is complete - see images).
• Using the box cutter, cut out a large window in three sides of the box. Please be careful not to cut yourself. Stay out of the path of the box cutter. I almost got cut a couple times. I escaped unharmed!
• Cover each window with a piece of white tissue paper and tape it to the box. 
• Tape a piece of paper draping like a photo studio on the inside of the box. Do not use tissue paper on the inside (as shown). Use butcher paper or another type of paper that is not so transparent. 
• Point a light into the box on both sides and place your subject in the box to be photographed. 

Verdict: 

I like this technique much better. I may try some different lights. I also want to take some photos using my flash. 

Stay tuned for more experiments: Creating a Light Box out of Foam Board, Camera Settings, Fluorescent Lighting, Natural Lighting, Butcher Paper, Tracing Paper.