For something like 5 months I’ve been talking about making a light box to take better food photos. A friend here (Tina of ‘Montana: Unplugged’) bought the same camera and lens I have – 5 months ago. It came with a nifty brochure that talked about different ways to light things. She lent it to me and it got me interested in a way to light my food shots.

I don’t use a flash and sometimes finding a good spot of natural light is tough…gets much tougher this time of year.

Now, there are portable light box things on Amazon and they are not very spendy but I’d already looked at this Wiki-How to do anything post and I TOLD people I was going to make my own.

Time marched on…I didn’t have the right size box. I didn’t feel like messing with cardboard and tape. Etc. Etc.

Ha!

Tina also gave me a bag of this wood that is available from Plum Creek Timber Co. certain times of the year. She uses it for kindling in her wood stove. It works great! It is all mostly the same length so I decided to make my box with it. A little spindly but good enough for a first go.

I draped a white sheet around the box frame and used a light that was already on the table as well as one of the herb grow lights for a quick test.

All I can say is WOW! The little piggie figurine is about 3 x 3 inches. In the box, with the light diffused through the sheet, there is no glare, no shadows and all of the detail is visible.

…same with the owl that is about 5 inches tall.

Now for some food.

I was able to shoot in the light box at ISO 800 Shutter 1/60 vs ISO 3200 Shutter 1/8 for the same item in the kitchen. (- both at F5.6 )

I did not use a tripod for these unless you count that I had my elbows on the table – so I was fairly steadily braced vs standing. When I take food photos in the kitchen, I often have to get in an odd position to get an angle with the least glare, reflection or shadow. With the box, I can shoot comfortably as noted…with elbows on the table.

Dbl-click these and look full screen – still good although I’d probably go with a bit more light on the food next round.

So…a wood box frame, an old sheet, two lights = a lot of fun and food photos I’m much happier with.

About an hour later…

I thought I heard Bob come in but couldn’t find him???

“Thank you for the nice house!”