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- Jan 30, 2011
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I've been struggling with lighting here in the cold and dark Dutch winter. I'm gonna see if I can make one of those light boxes if I can get around to it sometime
May I ask how you built that?
Sure
For starters I was going to build the frame myself, but I looked around our office supplies stores, and found some light collapsible storage containers. The main prerequisite needed to be that I could remove the sides. The side of these were made of woven mesh - so they were ideal.
Next step was taking the two sides out and also reinforcing the sides slightly with heavy cardboard to that it was a little more rigid.
With the sides removed, I went to a tailors warehouse and purchased some white very fine gauzy material (it is actually like a thin satin - and used in bridal-wear creations). When doing this, my tip is to take a small flashlight with you. What you're looking for is something that will diffuse the light, but not show any patterns on your interior (the mesh / weave must be very fine).
Affix the weave to the sides.
Final step is to have a heavy sheet of white paper. It's then hung in a continuous drop from the rear top to the front bottom (so it basically creates a reversed logarithmic curve shape). The reason you do this is you want no corners showing when you photograph.
Then all you need is two spotlights (I prefer a colder light than warmer), and you are away laughing.
My next one will be larger (wider and taller), and I'll probably include 3 light sources - sides and top.
If you google "building a light box", there are a heap of tutorials.