When SNL took something as simple as box and cut a hole in it, a nationwide obsession ensued.
So if a box is good enough to get 21-million YouTube hits, it’s good enough for me to use at home instead of spending $80-$300 at the store.
I spent this last weekend following directions from this really good tutorial for a DIY light tent. Essentially you are cutting out the sides out of a box, using a piece of Bristol board as a hard cyc, and then covering it with muslin.
Of course mine doesn’t look as professional as something being mass produced, but the sense of satisfaction I have and the ability to recreate this (semi) quickly and cheaply in different sizes is worth its weight in…well, not gold because that is so expensive right now…but definitely worth its weight in Diet Cokes.
I will say I had the hardest time trying to find a box. I scoured the strip malls of town looking in dumpsters and eventually settled on a Miller Lite box, but it was odd sized. So I bit the bullet and went to Office Depot where I found a perfectly new 14″x14″ box for less than $2.
Here is what my “light tent” looks like:
And, just to show you a quick snapshot of what you can get out of this, here is a picture of some tomatoes. I’m not particularly proud of this picture, but I think it’s good to put up just so people can say to themselves, “I can do better than that!” Plus, it finishes off this post nicely. I will be taking more product photos in the coming days, so we’ll be able to see how well this thing works.
