DIY: I made a lightbox!

I am so proud of myself! I finally made my lightbox! I've been wanting one of these for a couple of years now for taking still-life photos for the blog. I thought about DIYing one for a while, then thought about buying one. I even pinned one to my Christmas list from Amazon, but my sister wound up getting one for herself and said it was a piece of crap, so I canned that idea. I finally decided that if I want to keep up with the blog this time around, I need to actually follow through with things I want for the blog.

So last night I took a trip into Peterborough and rounded up the things I would need, based on this tutorial from Never Homemaker.

From Home Depot:
Extra large moving box - $4.47
Packing tape (needed this anyways for our upcoming move) - $2.24
3 - 8.5" clamp lights - $16.97 each - $50.91
3 pk of Daylight bulbs - $9.98

From Michaels:
White craft paper - $7.49
Tissue paper - $3.99

Total - $79.08 plus 13% tax = $89.36

I couldn't believe how expensive the clamp lights were when the tutorial said that they could make the whole lightbox for less than $35. But I guess we can always use the clamp lights for other things too, especially if Tim needs them in the shop or for reno projects.

I came pretty close when following the tutorial I linked above. Assemble the Home Depot box, tape one end securely shut. Cut the flaps off of the other end. Use a ruler to mark out a square on three adjacent sides that is 2" from each edge. Cut out your squares with an X-acto knife. I cut a long slice in the top of the lightbox against the back so that I can put wrapping paper or fabric through the top without having to tape it to the box. I also cut holes on the top in the middle of each side and hung wire so that I can hang small things that I want to photograph upright. We'll see whether these are worthwhile additions or not. I added a permanent white backdrop by trimming the white craft paper from Michaels to the width of the box and then taping it across the whole bottom and back. Then tape the tissue paper squares (which are conveniently 20x20" against the 22x22" Home Depot box) on the three cutout squares.

Lightbox! I'm pretty proud of it. Tim was playing with it and took a couple of shots which are infinitely better than lighting pretty much anywhere else in the house, so at this point I would call it a success!