Make A Cheap Cardboard Light Box

During one of my web projects, I pitched the idea of taking the product pictures for my client's site. Since the majority of his products were fairly small, I could build my own light box (like the one seen on www.DIYPhotography.net - but modified with whatever things I could get my hands on). So here's a list of materials I used, and the finish product, as well as a picture of an item that was in my light box.

A light box is generally used for product photography. You know those pictures with completely white backgrounds and the object. You can build your own for as little as $20, or maybe even next to nothing if you already have the materials. Here is what I used for my Do-it-yourself light box.

Materials for the box

One big cardboard box (mine was 20" x 20" x 20" - perfect for the width of my poster paper)
Parchment paper
Poster paper or "bristol board"
Lots of tape

Lighting

Two halogen flood lights (I bought two of these for $9.99 on sale at Canadian Tire)
Extension cords, or power bars - the flood lights above have very short power cords ~6 inches.

Supplies

Scissors
Box Cutter
Ruler
Pencil for marking

So for this project, I found the biggest cardboard box that I could find. It has to be fairly deep so you can stick your product in the center. And one that is fairly tall. This is a box I have which my parents use to ship stuff back to their homeland.

Here's what I did. The flaps of the top of the box should be the front opening of your Lightbox - i.e. where you take your pictures from. Note that this is a pretty cheap looking light box, but it works.

Tape the bottom of the box shut. Tape the inside flaps down also.
Cut out the two opposite sides of the box, leaving about an inch or two frame along the border. Use a pencil and ruler to trace out the line, and then use a box cutter to cut it out. This is where you will be pointing your flood lights, to provide lighting for your products.
Line the inside of the box with white paper. The white paper will provide good reflection of the light. Don't cover over the hole. I just used regular paper that I would stick in my printer. Tape the edges to keep it stuck to the box. Don't worry if it is not too clean, the poster paper should cover most of the back wall, and the lighting should hide the tape. You are going to Photoshop the pictures after anyways.
Measure and cut your parchment paper so that it fits over the rectangular holes that you just cut. Cover the holes and tape it in place. If one piece layer of parchment paper isn't enough, use two to cover the holes, but try to overlap as little as you can. The parchment paper will provide diffusion for the light so the light won't be focused on a single area. It will spread the light evenly throughout the interior of the box.
Place the poster paper in the box. The poster paper should have a curve as it lies on the bottom and the back of the lightbox. The curve is to get rid of the sharp edge that you may see in the background. You want as smooth and clean of a surface as possible. If your paper is to wide for you box, just cut the paper. If you live by a Dollarama you can buy poster paper 2 for $1.

That is all! Now to set up your lightbox, just put it on the ground, or elevated, it's really up to you to set it up. Place a flood light on each side of the box. If possible, elevate the flood lights so that they are pointing straight at the centre of the box to reduce shadows. Place your product inside, and set up your camera and tripod. Turn on the flood lights, adjust your white balance and take great product pictures. Note, I wouldn't keep the halogen floodlights on for too long as they are very hot. After about 10 consecutive minutes of them being on I started smelling some burning.

You can customize your box even more, by using different colors of poster paper, and even using sheets of glass to provide a cool reflection under your product. Of course play with everything. Theres plenty of things you can use to improve my cheap cardboard light box. Some use plastic tubes for the box frame. Some use foam core to achieve white walls.

Here's some samples of the pictures I took in my Light Box. And here's my setup.

DIY Light Box
Two flood lights which I elevated with whatever I could find.
My Nikon D80
My 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 with wireless commander on
Nikon SB600 as a slave, and used to bounce from the top
Velbon CX 200 Tripod
MC-DC1 wired remote

With my setup and equipment, I set my White Balance to Incandescent, but when I used flash it gave it a little blue-ish tint which I didn't want. Since you are using a tripod, and you want the detail you don't have to shoot at wide-open apertures (of course, unless you want the blur). I set my aperture to about f/8 - f/11. Adjust the shutter speed accordingly.