Custom Light Box for Photographing models

[korben44]

As the title suggests, I needed a light box to take better pictures of my models so I can showcase how they actually look. With input from quite a few members here, I was able to throw together a rather inexpensive box.

I used foam board to build the box and fitted it with a strand of super bright LEDs I bought off eBay. All in all, this box cost me under $20. Below are the results with a look at the box itself. Please note, I do still have to pick up some poster board to 'get rid' of the lines in the background.

The model I used is Bandai's 1/72 A-Wing built by myself, of course.

 

[Analyzer]

It amazing the difference a good photo setup makes

 

[g0rb]

Nice! Given that price I might be able to persuade my SO

 

[g0rb]

Questions: what type of LED strips did you get? 5050s? 5630s? Or did you get the smaller 3528s?
And did you get the power supply with the LEDs?

 

[korben44]

Questions: what type of LED strips did you get? 5050s? 5630s? Or did you get the smaller 3528s?
And did you get the power supply with the LEDs?

It was a 5630 strip of LEDs with a total of 300 for about $9 on eBay. I picked up two power supplies from the same seller for about $13. You only need one for the whole strip, but I cut it in almost half to use the other strip and PSU for another application. You see the ones I picked up in the links below.

LED Strip
Power Supply

So, a complete list of what I used would look like this:

• foam board (largest I could get from Hobby Lobby) $5.99
• hot glue and a hot glue gun
• 5630 LED light strip $8.99 (used only half for the box, so the adjusted price would be $4.49)
• Power supply $7.49

Total: $17.98

 

[g0rb]

Thanks for the detailed explanation and links, much appreciated!

 

[korben44]

No problem!

 

[jake88]

Thanks man thats very cool!

 

[NS4]

Nice work!
I built a budget light tent myself to photograph objects to 3D scan.
I took a sligtly different approach and diffused the light coming in from the outside (with tracing paper) - required as I needed to eliminate any shadows.

A L I E N Narcissus

 

[korben44]

I may have to try your diffusing technique... Although shadows, for me, aren't really a bad thing.

Here are some shots of my K2-SO in my light box:

 

[NS4]

Lookin good !

 

[g0rb]

Hey korben, I got myself an LED strip and hacked together a cardboard box, some pages of white paper and a printout of a dark-ish background from Massive Voodoo. I took a shot of a 35mm figure I am sculpting, I reckon it turned out pretty good for a <$10 job.

Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[korben44]

Hey korben, I got myself an LED strip and hacked together a cardboard box, some pages of white paper and a printout of a dark-ish background from Massive Voodoo. I took a shot of a 35mm figure I am sculpting, I reckon it turned out pretty good for a <$10 job.

Thanks for the inspiration!

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Looks great! I'm glad I could help!