Want better pictures, build a light box
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Fantastic info Kenbo, and it was very easy to incorporate it into what I had already built.
My wife had asked for a dedicated area for photos just because she usually makes gifts last minute, but wants to take pics of them before sending them out.
So here is what I made her originally... I had a large 2' square board out in the scrap pile, so I bought some hinges and attached it to the wall with ropes. The blue sheet was our background. Here it is folded down.
![Blue Clothing Chair Cobalt blue T-shirt]()
I had some old cpvc plumbing attached to the ceiling, so I took it down, preserving the 90 deg fittings in the line. Then I went to the surplus store and bought 2 more 90 deg fittings and some 3/4" pipe brackets. The CPVC is attached to the wall, but can swing around. I then attach the 90 deg fittings to the ends and another piece of pipe to hold them in place in relation to each other.
![Table Room Furniture Wood Floor]()
I then put a line of screws in the wall to hold the paper, just like Kenbo showed (that works GREAT, btw). Throw the sheet over, bring in the lights, and it's picture time!
![Furniture Tripod Table Room Lamp]()
Not only can the pipes rotate, but they can also move up and down in case she makes a particularly tall intarsia. There's another line of screws higher up to attach the paper up there. So the whole sheet "roof" can be raised higher if needed.
Then, take off the sheet, remove the paper, remove the pipe crossbar, and it all folds up against the wall.
![Wood Wall Wood stain Hardwood Plywood]()
Awesome idea Kenbo, and I'm quite happy it works with what I'd already done instead of having to scrap it (which is NORMALLY what I'd have to do).
My wife had asked for a dedicated area for photos just because she usually makes gifts last minute, but wants to take pics of them before sending them out.
So here is what I made her originally... I had a large 2' square board out in the scrap pile, so I bought some hinges and attached it to the wall with ropes. The blue sheet was our background. Here it is folded down.
I had some old cpvc plumbing attached to the ceiling, so I took it down, preserving the 90 deg fittings in the line. Then I went to the surplus store and bought 2 more 90 deg fittings and some 3/4" pipe brackets. The CPVC is attached to the wall, but can swing around. I then attach the 90 deg fittings to the ends and another piece of pipe to hold them in place in relation to each other.
I then put a line of screws in the wall to hold the paper, just like Kenbo showed (that works GREAT, btw). Throw the sheet over, bring in the lights, and it's picture time!
Not only can the pipes rotate, but they can also move up and down in case she makes a particularly tall intarsia. There's another line of screws higher up to attach the paper up there. So the whole sheet "roof" can be raised higher if needed.
Then, take off the sheet, remove the paper, remove the pipe crossbar, and it all folds up against the wall.
Awesome idea Kenbo, and I'm quite happy it works with what I'd already done instead of having to scrap it (which is NORMALLY what I'd have to do).
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I used to do this same thing with my plastic models. When it comes to photos you can almost never have too much light.
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sweet! ill turn me one of these puppies out in a jiffy! and great scrollsaw work
As a professional photographer (www.zelophotoblog.com) of course I was drawn to this thread. I've got huge umbrellas and softboxes and reflectors and all that stuff, but whenever I'm going to sell something on eBay I don't really feel like getting out all my gear. This project is great but what I have is a pretty good sized cardboard box that I cut large "windows" out of the top, left and right sides. Then I taped vellum/tracing paper over the windows and put my white backdrop in place and have the light shine through the vellum to soften it a bit. I'm attaching an image of an old movie camera I was selling last year. I took this photo using my cardboard box setup. Of course, this could have been anything, not just a camera. And I can easily change out the paper color for the backdrop. With a couple extra cuts you can also make the box collapsible for storage. Anyway, that's my two cents, haha!
-Seth
-Seth
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That's great. The first draft of our lightbox was a cardboard box with vellum. We made it to see if we liked how it worked. When we found that we were using it more and more and the box was getting beat up and we were tired of seeing it sitting around, we decided to make something a little more collapsable. (sp?) But indeed, the cardboard box works just as well as my lightbox project. Thanks for bringing that up. Great idea.
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