Tutorial DIY White Box

[martin-bernstein]

I had a request in a different thread for a little tutorial for making a white box. Here is my home made white box aka light box.

Pic 1. Materials needed: Cardboard box, sissors, tape, pencil, paper knife, white paper (any type will do as long is lets light through)

Pic 2. First sketch up where you want to carve out pieces of the card board. You want to end up with just a simple frame so leave 1-2 inches and cut the rest out. (I have European rulers hence the centimeter ruler in the pic)

Pic 3. Next just cut the piece out. To get as straight a line as possible use the ruler to stabilize the blade.

Pic 4. Repeat this until you have three sides with open space.

Pic 5. Cut the top of the box off. Tape your pieces of paper to the insides of the box on two opposite. Leave one side open- this will be your camera window. You can also put white paper on the opposite side to the camera window, but this is not necessary. Try to cut the paper so that each sheet covers the entire side of the box. The more white, the brighter your photos.

Cont'd on next post....

 

[martin-bernstein]

Cont'd....

Pic 6. Cut a sheet of paper so it fits vertically into the box. This will be your back piece that will hide the corner in the back of the box and create the illusion of white space.

Pic 7. Bend it so that it curves and tape it to the box to stabilize it.

Pic 8. Now just put a sheet of paper as a "roof."

Pic 9. Grab any lamps you have and put one on either side and one on top and voila, you've got a light box. The bulbs I used here were completely different from eachother- one CF UVB, one 60w heat lamp, and one halogen. I haven't tried other bulbs or lamps, but these seem to do the trick.

Pic 10. Pic of my landrace lava in my white box.

 

[Em Wright]

Oooo!!!! Thanks SO much for posting this up, Martin. I'm really excited to make one now and start taking pics of my snakes in it. This is going to be fabulous! Thanks again!!

 

[Onarian]

Looks great, thanks for the tutorial. Perhaps I can actually capture some of the red of my caramel pewter if I photograph him in one of these...

 

[martin-bernstein]

My pleasure. I'd recommend using a green background of you want the reds to pop. Green enhances red very nicely. Good luck!