Portable Light Box For Small Photography Needs

August 21, 2012 by Mike Szczys 6 Comments

[Paulo] needed to photograph small objects on the go. Since you can’t always depend on ambient lighting conditions he built a battery operated light box which is easy to take along on his travels.

We’ve featured portable light tents before, but they still tend to be a bit too bulky for his tastes. He chose to go with a white plastic storage container from Ikea. It’s lightweight, and acts as a diffuser for the light sources. Four strips, each hosting three LEDs, were mounted on the exterior of the container. Half of a PVC pipe protects the boards while providing a way to fasten the strips in place using nuts and bolts. The driver board and batteries find a home inside of a travel container for a bar of soap.

He likes the results, especially when a glossy white piece of paper is used as a top reflector.

Portable Light Box For Photographers On-the-go

October 5, 2011 by Mike Szczys 4 Comments

Looking to make a quality light box more portable, [Hharry] designed a collapsible version complete with adjustable side lighting.

Light tents are used by photographers as a stage for photographing small items. The use of multiple light sources, and a fabric that will diffuse them, means a reduction in shadows that might otherwise ruin a picture. This design starts with an MDF base in the form of a shallow box with a few baffles running left to right. Drawer slides connect the lamp poles to these baffles, making it easy to pull each of the four light sources out when setting up the tent.

The white fabric that makes up the stage has pockets sewn into the edges to accept dowel rods. These are not anchored permanently. They pull against the fabric when wedged in place to keep the tent taut, but easily fold down for storage in the cavities of the base. Finally, the top of the carrying case folds down and a drawer pull serves as the carrying handle.

A light tent isn’t the only way to battle shadows in your pictures. Check out this method that uses mirrors to adjust lighting conditions.

[Thanks David]