Building a DIY Lightbox
Some people might argue that when you are selling jewelry, the quality and design of the piece itself are the most important items to consider. I beg to differ. How many of us have purchased items online that looked great, but when we got them home, it was a completely different story altogether? We are left to sit and wonder, why on earth did I buy this? Well, it's pretty simple really.......it had a great picture. I mean, that is the point after all.....it looked good enough for us to buy it, right? Remember, your customer can't touch or feel your jewelry online. They can't put that necklace around their neck or slide that ring on their finger. But, a good picture can make them want to do just that!
I'm not suggesting that you sell a shoddy product. High quality and good design are elements that will bring your customers back for more. As unfair as it may seem, if you're selling online, the photo of your piece is what is going to initially entice someone to make the purchase.
So how exactly do you go about taking a good picture? First, let me say that I'm not a professional photographer. I don't have years of marketing experience either, but I have spent the last few years trying what seems to be a gazillion things to improve the photography of my jewelry. I wrote this tutorial almost three years ago. While a lot has changed both in the design of my jewelry and the quality of my photography in those few years, one thing remains the same.......good photos start with a lightbox.
Lightboxes can be purchased ready-made. However, keep in mind that store-bought boxes can get costly and are made in preset sizes. Building one yourself allows you to chose the footprint size you need and whether you want it permantly fixed or to break down and store away.
Good Detailed Photos Need Light!
Unfortunately, most beginners fall into the same picture-taking trap as I did. They buy a stand or some props, turn on their brightest indoor lights and start to shoot. And this is pretty much what they end up with:
It's pretty bad as far as photography goes. The necklace form is actually white and so is the wall in the background. Normal household incandescent lights cast a yellow hue. While that might be lovely lighting for a romantic dinner, it's not quite so lovely when trying to take detailed photography. In the picture above, the copper metal is slightly off-color and there is a definite light source coming from only the left side, creating a glare. There is no light reflecting off of the cut stone to show that it's faceted and a beautiful luminescent blue-green labradorite either.
You might hear some people suggest to photograph outside in natural light. That's a great idea if we could always catch the morning light with perfect warm weather. Unfortunately, the outdoors has wind, rain, snow.....well you get the idea. What do you do when you need a good picture and your stuck in the middle of a winter cold snap?
With my DIY Light Box, a couple of cheap fluorescent lights, the background of your choice, and just a few minor adjustments in photo editing software, you can turn the picture above into the picture below:
This is much better. The copper and stone are truer to color, the background looks more distinct, but doesn't take away from the main focus of the picture.......and look at that white form . Light is coming in from three angles, and although there is still some light reflection, it's not as harsh. Ideally, it would be best to bring more light to the labradorite stone so you can see a bit more of the blue/green glimmer, but it's not bad. Now you might be saying......I want something better than this! I don't blame you. I demand better pictures than this for my current work too. With Photoshop or other editing software, you can get that extra leg up. We'll talk more about that in future installments. Remember though, everything starts with the right lightbox!
To make a light box of your own, you'll need to buy a few items:
1. Foam core board (this can be found at your local hobby shop)....how much you will need depends on how large your finished box will be. I purchased (4) 2'x 4' sheets (see wall construction below).
2. X-acto knife
3. Glue of some sort (I used rubber cement......cause booger glue is just so much fun to work with)
4. White fabric or tissue paper (I used nylon fabric similar to what you would build a kite with). You might want several thicknesses of tissue paper to provide enough light diffusion. Hold it up infront of your lights to test. Too little will produce glare on your piece, and too much will make your pictures dim. How much you need will depend on how large your finished box will be and how powerful your light source is. I purchased 1 1/2 yards of fabric for my box.
5. Sticky velcro
6. A ruler or tape measure
7. A pencil or pen
I apologize for not having pictures as I made my box, but I wasn't intending on creating a "how-to" at the time it was assembled. Of course, we won't discuss how long it took me to photoshop out the crumbs that are stuck in the grooves of my kitchen table. Mental note......don't buy table with long grooves in it when you have 3 young kids in the house, or you will spend countless hours digging them out with toothpicks and q-tips, or at least photoshopping them out of your pictures!
First, you will need to decide how big or small you need your light box to be. I'm pretty picky and like a larger box so I have room to move things around how I want to. A 12 inch cube will be big enough to suffice though if you're pressed on space.
This is a picture of my light box walls stacked together. You can see how flat they stack.
You will start making your box by cutting out the (2) side walls.
1. Begin by cutting out (4) pieces of foam core the exact same size. (My two side walls are 20 inches square. Yours dimensions may vary.) You will need (4) pieces because you are going to make the walls double thick to sandwich the paper/fabric between.
2. Next, draw a square on each of the (4) pieces of foam core you cut out (this square will be cut out to form a window for light to shine through). You will want this square to be centered on the piece of foam core and, of course, the same size on each piece. (I made mine 2 1/2 inches in from each edge.) You want at least 2-3 inches around your interior square to form a stable enough frame.
3. Cut out each interior square with an X-acto knife. (Save interior pieces for an optional project described in the next installment).
4. Cut fabric or tissue paper to the largest dimension of the walls.
5. Glue fabric down to one wall an then glue the next wall down to the fabric. This will form a sandwich of sorts with your fabric in between. You can clamp the foam core down to something or place some heavy cans on the corners while the pieces are drying.
You should end up with something that looks like this:
Next, you will make the top of your light box.
1. Measure and mark (2) pieces of foam core where the width of the top is the same size as your walls PLUS the thickness of your walls, and the length is the SAME dimension as the walls. Mine ended up being 20 inches x 21 inches because the width of the top overlaps the thickness of each wall, but will not need to overlap the back wall.
2. Draw out inner squares, cut fabric, and glue pieces together as you did for the walls (see picture above for example). Set aside to dry.
Now, the back wall.
1. This wall is pretty simple because you just need to cut out a piece of foam core (I cut out two pieces to keep my walls the same thickness, but it is not necessary). If you want to be able to clip paper or drape fabric that is removable from your box, you will want to pick one length of your foam core to be shorter than the other. I made my back piece 20 inches x 18 1/2".
Here you can see how a shorter length will leave a gap to secure a removable background.
Finally, you should have all (4) of your "walls" cut out and glued with your fabric/paper!
Assembling your box is pretty self explanatory. Add velcro tabs where you would like your walls to attach. Your box is finished!!!
Finally, add lighting.
I chose to purchase some inexpensive lighting to start with. There are also professional lamps available to the average consumer that you can purchase in various sizes and wattages. I made this PVC stand out of some extra tubing we had stored from another project and it works just fine for me. The lights you see in my pictures were purchased from a local hardware store and have aluminum domes and a simple clamp. I zip-tied the clamps onto my PVC frame to keep them from sliding. I use (3) 100watt daylight florescent bulbs. You can purchase higher wattages, but this was the highest I found locally. They are quite bright and with certain backgrounds, I find I need to turn down the exposure value on my camera to get a good picture.
Here is the piece that was pictured sitting in my set up.
