I have a new toy, I have a new toy!!

And the best thing about it is that (for a change) it didn’t break the bank!! 🙂

Meet my new toy:

Heh heh heh, I bet you’re like – WOW that’s SO exciting Kat!

Ok, ok… let me zoom out a bit then…

Better?
No idea what it is?

Well – my new toy, (thanks to kind obliging handyman husband) is:
 a light box for taking photos of my products & creations.
Yeah I’m excited!

Mini-studio lighting has been on my “want” list for like forever. Ever since I bought my new camera really. Except the ones I wanted are just so expensive that I stopped looking.
But I was browsing blogs the other day and came across someone making their own out of a cardboard box. Ingenious I tell you!!
– The verdict of their home made light box:
Great lighting result = great photos = their spend – $30
Sweet!!!

So I emailed Neil the link and it’s been on his to-do list ever since. (Yes I know I could have made it myself – but it’s right up his alley, so thought he might like to do it for me – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it ;).)

Anyway we (he) decided to go 1 better than a cardboard box, because we had a second hand Ikea wire drawer unit kicking around the shed that we weren’t using and bought ages ago off a friend for a few dollars. So, in the absence of a cardboard box suitably big enough we used that instead.

It also has the added benefit of being on wheels, hopefully sturdy enough to withstand my “helpers” helping (because I’m pretty sure cardboard would have lasted 5 minutes!) and strong enough to able to hang things off of it – bonus!

{Neil would like me to note here that he did have to “butcher” the drawer slides off the sides of the unit – so it’s not something we’ll be able to use for drawers again without some serious remodification. – Just in case you were pondering doing the same thing…}

The board at the bottom which makes up the “ground” of the box is a shelf we also had kicking around the shed…. No cost
The lining of the roof & walls is interfacing that I already had in my stash (which happened to be THE perfect width – how’s that for meant to be)… No cost
The lining of the back (behind the white backdrop) is cut from a cardboard box… No cost
The backdrop is the bit of cut up white sheet left over from when I made my fabric protector curtain… No cost
The tape & pegs used, all on hand!… No cost

All free so far!! 🙂

So that brings us to the cost part…

3 x multi directional/adjustable lamps – $7 each from Kmart.
(Not a bad price for these lights I have to say – gotta love Kmart!)

4 x daylight bulbs (they only came in 2 packs) – $12 each pack.

Total spend: $45

Not bad!!

The most expensive part were the daylight bulbs…
– and I couldn’t really get out of buying those since they were kind of the key to the whole thing!

Here are some of my preliminary shots (with no computer editing other than resize gadget) and taken with my 55mm lens…

If they appear grainy, that’s just because of my resize gadget. But I do need to organise a tripod next too. Shame I just had my birthday and Christmas !

I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with it though!!!
I haven’t really had time to try it out properly yet, but the majority of the above shots were taken at night!

In the end we didn’t use the tute but did it from memory after I did a google search and looked at about a billion of them. It’s seriously not that hard… You can probably figure it out for yourself by looking at my photos if you want to make yourself a new fun toy too 🙂
And if in doubt I’m sure you are capable of doing your own google search 😉

Hope you’re ready to be bombarded with photos using my light box over the next wee while, because that is probably going to be what you are getting LOL…