Foldable lightbox. We make a photobox (light cube) for shadowless subject photography with our own hands. Examples of received photos

April 1, 2012 at 10:01 AM

DIY lightcube (Photobox, lightbox) for 300r

  • DIY or do it yourself

Let's say you want to take high-quality photos of a gadget for review, or you are interested in product photography at home, but only an inexpensive soap dish is at hand. How to be? You need a lightcube! How I made my inexpensive but durable light cube, sample photos and much more - under the cut.

What is it?

Lightcube Is a construction of plastic / metal frames in the form of a cube, on the sides of which a translucent diffusing fabric is stretched. The bottom and back wall of such a cube are a "subject" table. It looks like this:

What for?

The reasons can be very different:

Like photos on a white background
I would like to have my own "mini-studio"
Interested in subject / macro photography
The conditions in the apartment do not allow you to achieve high-quality photos
I like to work with my hands

I decided to make a lightbox because I wanted to get high-quality photographs, but conditions in my apartment are completely unsuitable for this - it is "dark", the sun practically does not enter it. Under indoor lighting, photos rarely came out well. Lightbox solved all these problems.

Why exactly like that?

There are many articles on the net on how you can make your own light cube out of a cardboard box. And I had such a cube.

At first I liked everything about it, but gradually minuses began to appear: the speed of manufacturing negatively affects the life expectancy, periodically there is not enough lightbox size (my last "cube" was 35 * 35 * 40 cm), the cardboard skeleton is easy to damage when replacing the "diffusers »And a subject table (they break and get dirty over time).

Therefore, I decided to replace the skeleton of the "cube" with a more durable one, and make it the size that I need, and not start from the size of the cardboard boxes I have.

Design

The idea to make a skeleton out of a wire box came spontaneously while visiting a hardware store - for my "cube" I took 3 sticks, 2 meters long.

To create a lightbox you need

Whatman
Wire ducts
Corrugated paper
Double-sided tape
Small carnations

Boxes ~ 160r, Whatman ~ 20r, Corrugated paper ~ 50r, Scotch ~ 40r, carnations ~ 30r. Total 300r.

Light

In the photo at the beginning of the last section, you can see 2 lamps and 2 lamps. Before that I had a table lamp and a clothespin lamp, but they had different bases. I decided to buy a second similar "clothespin" and take two energy-saving lamps - 23W (corresponds to 160W for an incandescent lamp), 4200K (bright white light). Such 2 lamps and 2 lamps will cost 800-900r.

Assembly

I will make a reservation right away - I do not pretend to be optimal in design, because I decided how to connect the faces of the "cube" to each other "on the fly." But what happened in the end, I liked it, and I decided to tell about it.

The boxes were cut as follows: 4 pieces of 50cm and 8 pieces of 35cm (these are the dimensions of the lightbox that seemed to me optimal for use / storage):

In order to connect the "sticks" to each other, I used a feature of the boxes - a hollow structure:

And the joints were fixed with small studs:

First I made the sides:

And then I used the hollow box structure again to build the base:

After some time, the skeleton was ready:

When I fastened all the poles together and got a parallelepiped, I decided to add two braces to the back wall to increase strength and stability. Stretch marks were made from the remaining parts. I also added one "rail" to the bottom so that the future cardboard bottom does not sag down.

Then I attached the bottom and glued on whatman paper (to make a "subject table"):

At the end, I pasted corrugated paper on the sides and on top of the lightbox:

That's it, the lightbox is ready. With its large size, the lightbox turned out to be durable - it does not wobble or bend. For the sake of the experiment, a couple of times "accidentally" dropped the structure from the table - the skeleton remained intact, even the paper on the sides did not have to be changed. And since with such dimensions the lightbox turned out to be quite durable, then if it were smaller, say 20x20x20cm, it would be even stronger. And such a photo box is easy to make the size you want.

Result

Lightbox "working" state:

The purchased bulbs noticeably "crawl out" from the lamp body, so I made a "continuation" of the body out of paper, for better focusing of light on the lightbox, as well as to prevent direct rays from entering the eyes.

Examples of received photos

For a couple of years now, my camera has been a Nikon Coolpix L110 (budget hyperzoom). All photos were taken with it.

Total

It turned out to be an inexpensive but durable lightbox, the price of which is only 300r. I hope someone will find this article useful.

Good luck with your experiments!

Good day to all.
Sooner or later, any photographer wants to maximize the quality of his photographs. Of course, there are many ways to achieve great photo quality. This is the correct arrangement of light lighting on the sides of the object, the use of beautiful backgrounds, as well as processing in Photoshop.

You can of course use professional equipment, but this can only be justified if you professional photographer, and this is the main income, then it is already possible to create such a photo studio. But of course, at home, more compact devices for shooting are required.
Photobox or lightbox (as you like to call it) belongs to such devices.
The convenience of its use is precisely due to the mobility and economy of "papers" in your wallet. It does not require a lot of space, and with minimal lighting it makes it possible to get exactly high-quality photos, with uniform illumination of the object. You can choose absolutely any background, or vice versa, take a picture of an object without a background, without resorting to using Photoshop to desaturate the background.
There is a large selection of ready-made photo boxes on sale, but the price for them is high. And many are interested in how to make such a photobox with minimal cost... I will talk about this in today's review.

To create a wireframe, you can use various materials, the choice is yours:

1. Metal construction. On sale you can freely find profiles for the manufacture of mosquito nets, there are several types and sizes.

To assemble such a frame, you will need plastic corners to connect the profiles. The corners are also sold individually according to the size of the profile.

2. Wooden slats. Everything is simple here, cut it off, put it together, ready.

3. Cardboard frame. We take an ordinary box, for example, from under the TV, cut out the windows.

4. Plastic (PVC) water pipes... I chose them for making the frame.

Which pipe diameter to use is decided individually, I chose 20mm. You also need to decide at once what maximum size you want the photobox. I made a length of a pipe section of 50 cm.

So, the list of required photo boxes for making:
1. Plastic (PVC) pipes - 6 meters. (12 pieces of 50cm.)
2. Connectors (PVC adapters) for pipes - 8 pieces of angular, 4 pieces of straight. (if there are two-plane tees in the store, then there are 8 of them)
3. Power plug - 1 piece.
4. Bulb holder - 1 piece.
5. Switch for the wire for the sconces - 1 piece.
6. Electric cable 2x0.5 - 5 meters (optional footage)
7. LED light bulb.
8. Plafond.
9. White cloth.

Photos required:

The fabric I used is satin, which has been lying around since the times of the USSR. The plafond, also from that era, was in stock.
If, however, you do not have a plafond, then it is quite possible to make it using Penofol.
It is an insulating material and has a reflective surface just right for amplifying light. The stores have a choice in thickness, and are inexpensive. A piece of penofol can simply be rolled up with a cone, secured, and the ceiling is ready.

So, let's start assembling.
To reflect the light inside the plafond, I used ordinary foil ... yes, yes, also from the USSR era. There were good times, there are so many useful things left ...)

I think no one will cause any difficulties in connecting the cable, but just in case I will show you. All the same, a step-by-step review.

We disassemble the switch.

We measure the distance on the cable to the place where the switch will be located. To place the switch on a cable, you do not need to cut the cable completely in half. It is enough to rip open his abdomen (like cutting a fish), get one wire and cut it and clean the ends, connect it in the switch. And lay the rest inside on the opposite side in the groove.

That's it, the switch is ready.

Now we connect the wire with the plug and the socket.

Of course, lighting cannot work without the main source of light - a light bulb.
There is a huge selection of bulbs on sale, ordinary, halogen, LED, etc. Conventional incandescent bulbs are poorly suited, not bright enough and the light is far from daylight. The halogens are bright, but they also emit a lot of heat, and you also need to handle them very carefully, you cannot touch them with open hands, besides, they have a small work resource.
But LED lamps are just very suitable for lighting a photo box. Bright, even light, low power consumption, very little heat generation during operation, unpretentious to use.
My choice fell on the Supra SL-LED-PR-A60-10W / 4000 / E27 cold light LED bulb.


The lamp has good declared technical characteristics:
Consumption - 10 W
Luminous flux - 850 Lm
Color temperature - 4000 K
The manufacturer promises a lamp life of 30,000 hours, almost 3.5 years. I note that the lamp really shines with a very bright, even light, the illumination is obtained almost like in the daytime, it does not change the color of the object when shooting.
The flask has a matte finish.

There are restrictions on use LED lamps... The manufacturer indicates this on the box.

We insert the light bulb into the socket, and check the resulting product for operability.

Everything works fine. I will warn you right away, I do not recommend looking directly at the light from the resulting lamp, it is very bright, and of course you do not need to direct it at others and animals. As welders say, you can "catch a bunny." I accidentally looked and caught such a "bunny".)

Now let's move on to assembling the frame.
When I bought pipes in the store, there were no two-plane tees available:

Therefore, angular and straight adapters were purchased in order to subsequently make tees out of them.
First you need to connect the angled and straight pipe adapters so that the pipes themselves can be connected three-way. This is done very simply. Straight adapters are long and need to be cut in half. There are special scissors for cutting PVC pipes, but it makes no sense to buy them for one-time work. It is enough to get by with an ordinary hacksaw. It will not work for metal, you will be sawing for a long time. But with teeth a little more than metal, designed for sawing wood, just right.

Having cut straight adapters, we proceed to the process of fixing them on the corner ones. To do this, it is necessary to heat the cut point of the straight adapter over the gas burner so that it begins to melt, and then press it tightly with effort to the center of the corner adapter. Until it cools down, you do not need to bother him so that the parts are well welded to each other. After this "welded" work, we get 8 tees for connecting pipes.

Now we are dealing with the pipes themselves. For them, I chose a length of 50 cm. Since the pipes are initially supposed to be hot-welded with adapters, it will not work simply to insert them into the adapters, the pipe diameter is slightly larger than the adapter hole. You can, of course, cut the thickness, sand it, etc., but again, everything is much easier using a gas burner.
We heat the end of the pipe by constantly turning it over the gas, there is no need to wait for reflow! Just warm it up. And then we insert, pressing with effort and constantly scrolling the pipe, into the adapter. It is necessary to scroll so that the pipe does not weld with the adapter, to obtain a collapsible structure.
As a result, it turns out like this.

If you have noticed, the length of the section where the pipe thickness is removed is different for the two pipes.
Here I will draw your attention so that you do not make mistakes!
In corner and straight adapters, the inner diameter and length of the pipe entry are different to the stop. Therefore, it is imperative to insert four pipes, after heating, insert them into straight adapters, and the other eight into corner ones.

Now we just put everything together, and we get such a frame.

We make a cover from fabric according to the size of the frame, so that the cover is put on with effort, and the fabric does not sag much on the sides.
And that's it, the photobox is ready.

Inside the box, different backgrounds can be used. The store has a huge selection of decorative plastic panels. I bought a couple of these panels for testing. One such panel costs 130 rubles. For shooting without a background, an ordinary Whatman paper is suitable, or you can also take a plastic panel, but pure white.

Well, the level of lighting and the arrangement of light are selected by trial and error.))) If necessary, you can add lighting on the sides of the box, this is an individual choice of everyone.

And, of course, I will show the result of these efforts, several photographs against a different background.

No background, on whatman paper.

As you can see, the photos are obtained good quality, with uniform illumination. I was very pleased with the result of making such a photo box. It was worth it, and it doesn't take much time.
Well, now at the cost of everything:
Pipes and adapters - 240 rubles.
Plug, cartridge, switch - 112 rubles.
Cable - 41 rubles.
LED light bulb - 300 rubles.
The fabric and shade were available, but their cost was not high.
Total - 693 rubles.
I think it's generally very inexpensive. I also forgot to point out that for the convenience of shooting, I purchased an inexpensive tripod, which will help to avoid unnecessary jerking / shaking of the camera when shooting a subject. The price is only 300 rubles.
Made of metal. The maximum load on this tripod is indicated at 800 grams, which is fine for small cameras. Stands steadily on the surface, the legs are height adjustable. Assembled only 15.5 cm long and 3 cm wide, weight - 115 grams.

How to make a lightbox with your own hands aslan wrote in March 5th, 2017

A lightbox is a box that scatters light inside itself, reflects from the walls, and is used for subject photography. We will assemble according to such a magnificent complex drawing.


Here, in fact, are the sheets of polystyrene from which the lightbox is made. I bought rubles for 70 rubles in Leroy.

We cut 35 * 35 squares from them. 7 pieces. Why 7 if a cube has 6 faces? This is the same question I asked myself when I saw 7 squares in my hands. In one of the squares we cut a hole through which the shooting will be carried out.

We glue all this with the help of corners from the same Leroy and glue into a cube. In addition to the front wall with a hole.

We fasten the front wall with hinges from above. And that's all. So that you can always throw it up and dig deeper inside.

Inside, smooth the bottom joint with a sheet of Whatman paper. We glue it like this.

I recommend a couple more improvements inside. A magnet at the top of the back wall (two magnets, one glued, the other not) so that you can change the background by attaching it like this, and a magnet stuck on top, on which you can magnetize a hook, for hanging pendants. Why a magnet? You can then twist it as you like. This is optional.
Result:

Now lighting. I wanted the setup to be adjustable, collapsible and CHEAP.
So I bought 2 of the cheapest 10 watt floodlights and two 20 watt floodlights. Couple PVC pipes, corners and all sorts of related parts. We collect according to the following scheme:

With the help of a hacksaw, we saw off what we need. Heating the end of the pipe in a circle, to the state of "pancake, well, it's time to go along", we squeeze them into the corners. They will not stick together anyway, because for this you need to heat both parts at the same time, but I do not have an apparatus, well, it is not necessary, well, please. Therefore, they will fly out of there, but we will decide.

The pipes after squeezing look like this

We cut the corners going to the vertical posts, as shown, and put clamps with thumbs on them. I'll tell you why later. We screw up all other fastening points with self-tapping screws so that they do not fall apart.

Insert vertical beams. For aesthetics, we seal them on top with plugs. It is very important.

We take fasteners. We measure the required distance, screw them to the spotlight. Of course, when calculating the structure, the distance between the mounting holes on the brackets of the spotlight must be taken into account.

I will not dwell on the topic of electrical connection, if someone is not able to fasten two wires together, then he definitely did not finish reading here.
We fix it!

Everything is regulated, everything is reliable, everything is understood!

And that's how everything is assembled. Small spotlights for strokes.
Remove a little light, add a little. You can put it straight on top.

But such frames are obtained. Filmed with a phone, no processing, and the phone is not the coolest (xiaomi)

Greetings to all who dropped by the light!

Last week, one of my reviews spotted a portable photo lightbox. Unexpectedly, the lightbox aroused more interest from the public than the hero of the review - the contouring stick from Wet n Wild.

At the request of the workers, I tell you where, why, how much and how)))

A little background.

I have been fond of photography for several years, and since the appearance of the first SLR camera Canon Rebel T3i I try to keep the quality of photos for reviews at the level.

Someone will say: "Fu, what a stupidity, clicked the label on your mobile and that's enough. good camera for the sake of 5-penny reviews it's stupid".

I do not impose my opinion on anyone, but from beautiful photos I get aesthetic pleasure, and I am not too lazy to spend 2-3 hours filming.

It's no secret that the quality of a photo depends not only on the camera, but also on the light. Even with a fancy Mark, if you shoot in the dark, nothing good will come of the photo.

And I always had problems with the light at home: while the sun is at work, and when it’s a day off, it’s always the sea, then the dullness outside the window. So I came to the need to buy my first lightbox - i.e. cube for a photo. As a rule, it is a cube with translucent walls, scattering the flow of light, and several interchangeable photophones. Light is placed on the sides and on top to obtain a picture with uniform illumination without gaps in shadows and overexposures. Some people find such photos boring, but sometimes shooting on a white background is a necessity. Especially if you are shooting for catalogs.


Having started shooting in a photo cube, I ran into a problem - my reviews were removed from publication, allegedly for using photos from the Internet. For some reason, it did not occur to those who pointed out the "error" to check whether this photo is on Google or Yandex. Well, then correspondence with the administration began, I had to prove that I was not a camel - send the source of the photos, where the information says when, where and at what settings the photo was taken. It seems not difficult, but the mood spoils.

Not so long ago I changed my place of residence, and almost all the photo scrub had to be left at home.

In the new house with daylight, things are even worse, and there are no lugs.

So a new photo cube was ordered on Aliexpress, with already built-in lighting.

Small but remote

The price of the issue for today "my" seller - 762.14 rubles. or $ 11.62 (I took it for $ 9)

Active link on the product - [link]

Equipment- folding photobox (white) and 2 photophones (white and black), USB cable.


The size approximately (depending on how to bend) 22 * ​​24 * 23 cm.

Side faces- on magnets.

Body material- plastic.

Because of this, the design is not particularly rigid, but it is not critical to me and not of principle.

The main thing is not to put anything on the top of the cube, and it will not fold like a house of cards.

Along the top edge there is LED Strip Light.


Light- white, cold. Unfortunately, I won't tell you the temperature in Kelvin))

The set includes 2 photophones - white and black. Matte, glare-absorbing. Feels like foam. Easily damaged when pressed with a fingernail or sharp object.

I have already managed to inaccurately throw a black background, there are noticeable marks on it.

The backdrops are mounted on slots in the plastic.



Powered by a standard USB port. Wire included. I usually power the cube from a laptop.




Impressions from use.

First, about the pros.

  1. The cube is really portable. Doesn't take up much space. Assembled in less than a minute.
  2. 2 backgrounds included. You don't have to shoot only "white on white". It is possible to use a contrasting background.


  3. Backlight included. You don't have to run around the house and think about where to get a light source.
  4. At the exit, the photographs, if not of catalog quality, are close enough. And if you do a little magic in Photoshop, most viewers will not understand whether to take a photo at home on a table, or in a professional photo studio.
  5. You can shoot using the built-in illumination as a backlight. But in this case, you will need another light source to illuminate the object from the front. I have this external flash Nissin Di-622 Mark II for Canon.


  6. Can be used with any camera. Here is an example of shooting on

    Well, now about the cons.

    1. The most significant minus for me personally is one single backlight from above. This means that one way or another, the subject will cast shadows. Perfect white background without processing in a photo editor will not work. But, if you approach the matter wisely, you get quite viable photos.

    2. Flimsy construction. If you constantly collect and disassemble the cube, then one day the plastic may simply burst. Remember what happens to a plastic card if you start bending it back and forth. And here the plastic is much thinner. Therefore, I usually store the cube assembled, since it takes up little space.
    3. Only 2 photo backgrounds. His predecessor had 4 of them - blue and red were added to white and black. Sometimes you want to remove the white nail polish .. And then it merges with the white background. You take a black background - here the brush already merges with the background. Something like that.

    4. The size. Suitable only for shooting small objects. Maximum 50 ml fit into the cube. a bottle of perfume.

      But, weighing rationally all the pros and cons, the pros are more significant for me. And for every minus there is a solution to the problem. And when making an order, I realized that for this money I was only getting a temporary solution for shooting creams and lipsticks.

      Considering that the cost of this "all-in-one" miracle does not exceed 1000 rubles, and the result it gives (with the correct camera settings) is quite decent, for me it is 5. Even with a minus.

      I hope that the review was useful and provided answers to all questions for those who are interested in the cube.

      Thank you all for your attention to the review)))

Passion for photography is quite an expensive pleasure. has always been in demand, for example, in photo banks, and is also relevant for those who are fond of handmade and want to show their work in all its glory. For high-quality product photography, you need a lightbox that is easy to do with your own hands.

The lightbox mixes and diffuses the directional light generated by the lighting fixtures, creating a shadow-free drawing of the subject and focusing the viewer's attention directly on the subject. Its purpose is quite clear, and the do-it-yourself manufacturing process is quite simple and takes no more than half an hour.

To make a lightbox, we need:

  • cardboard box
  • Whatman sheet (size depends on the size of the box)
  • Scotch
  • glue (pencil or PVA)
  • ruler
  • paper knife and scissors
  • flipchart paper
  • 2 clothespins
  • 2 energy saving white light bulbs

Making a lightbox with our own hands

We take a cardboard box. The size depends on the items you will be photographing in the lightbox.

Cut off the excess with scissors and a clerical knife.

We get such a construction.

Cut the Whatman paper if it is too big for the box.

After making sure that the power buttons do not hold the Whatman paper well, we decided to use glue and tape, despite the fact that the structure cannot be disassembled.

We fasten the Whatman paper to any glue, or with scotch tape.

The design is already starting to look like a lightbox.

Cutting off the flipchart paper. It is thin enough to let light through.

Advice: You can use any light scattering material such as a tablecloth.

We cover the slots in the box with it.





You can use ordinary clothespin lamps by purchasing energy-saving white light bulbs for them.

Household halogen spotlights can also be used. But if the lightbox is small, table lamps with a flexible stem will suffice.

Keep in mind that halogen floodlights heat up quickly and can burn your hands or burn your apartment. Therefore, do not leave them on for a long time.

Now you can start shooting the subject. The result of our efforts:

 

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