Pin Test Tuesday: DIY Light Box
Today’s Pin Test is perfect for bloggers or anyone who wants to take great pictures of smaller objects.
The first time I heard about a light box was when I saw a pin that said “How to make a light box to help you take better pictures!” The take better pictures part jumped out at me. Beautiful pictures have a way of making a blog post, or a Pinterest image, stand out. When a recipe has a grainy or discolored picture, it just doesn’t draw me in like ones with great lighting and color. So, I’ve been working hard to try to take nice pictures of the food and crafts that I blog about. I use my iPhone’s camera for almost all of my pictures. While it’s not a bad camera, it’s not really made for high quality photography, so I jumped at the chance to improve my pictures.
As I read housefulofhandmade.com/’s post about how to make a light box to help take better pictures, I was surprised to find that she uses her iPhone for all of her pictures too! The box required just a few supplies, most of which you probably have on hand. We recycled all of our cardboard boxes after our move in December, so I did have have to pick one up on my next trip to Walmart, along with a piece of white poster board. Both are extremely cheap though, so it took less than $3 to make my light box.
To see step by step instructions on how to make one, see this post at housefullofhandmade.com. Gary helped cut the cardboard while I was putting mine together and I did the rest. It took less than 20 minutes to complete.
As soon as it was assembled, I stuck the first items I came across inside to test it out. I photographed the scissors I used to make the light box, and a baby toy that was lying nearby.
I loved that it allowed me to easily photograph them on a white background. I took these pictures at night, using a lamp for light. The light box helped protect the objects from the glare of the lamp.
One of the first recipes I used my light box to photograph was my Peanut Butter and Jelly Oat Bars. Here was my first attempt at photographing these, before I created my light box:
Taken without the light box. It was difficult to get a picture without a glare on the plate as you can see here. Believe it or not, this is one of the best shots I got.
Once I made the light box, I baked another batch of these bars and re-shot the photos:
With the light box. I placed the plate and cup on a wooden cutting board and stuck it all into the light box and the glare was gone!
Pass or Fail?
As you can see from my pictures, this definitely passed the Pin Test! Not only was it a thrifty and simple to make DIY project, it totally worked to improve my pictures! While there are a few things I photograph that won’t fit in the light box (like Baby G in her DIY 2 Minute Baby Headband, I’ve used it for most of my recipe posts, and even used it to take a picture of my DIY Heart Garland.
No light box for this post.
I was able to use the light box to get a photo of the heart garland on a clean background.
Know of any other ways to improve pictures? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
And don’t forget to check out housefullofhandmade.com to learn how to make your own light box!
Much improved and better pictures! I want to make one…
Thanks. They are so easy to make!
What a great review. I thought about making this light box, too. I can not take a decent picture to save my life! Thanks for linking up and sharing with us at Funtastic Friday. Please join us again this week.
Wow! That really made a difference! Thanks soooo much for sharing.
It really does, and it was so easy to make!
I love, love, love my lightbox, it’s similar to yours and I believe that it has helped my photos a lot. Of course there are things that I can’t photo in the box, but it’s great for small items, recipes etc. And I can take pics at night without the yellow tint!
Yes, I love that the colors look brighter with the light box!