If you are like me you probably always thought that lightboxes were fancy, expensive things that onlt the pros needed or used and that they were expensive and a real pain in the butt.  Well, we are probably right, but I found a down and dirty, amazingly inexpensive way to get similar results!  Of course, I am far from a professional, and this will prove that, but you will also see what kinds of changes you can expect from a decent setup.



    All you are going to need is 4 sheets of regular old printer paper and some scotch tape.  I am sure that folks more knowledgeable than me can tell you about the merits of various types of printer paper (bond, brightness etc) but I used a few pages of the stuff that I got on sale at Staples a few months ago.  Nothing special.  This is going to be the everyman's lightbox.


    Step One-  Fold the first two sheets of paper in half.


    Step Two-  Tape the ends of the folded pages together.


    Step Three-  Tape the side of the third sheet of paper to the other two, with the joint of the first two in the center of the third sheet.


    Step Four-  Do the same with the fourth sheet, only this time, on the other side of the first two sheets.
   

    Step Five-  You should now have something that looks like this


    Step Six-  Flip the whole thing over and start taping corners together until you have a box.


    Step Seven-  I like to fold in an inch or so on either side of the box to add rigidity and to give reflective surfaces something white to reflect.  I also like to fold the top back a little bit to act as a shade if needed.


    There you go- a fast and cheap (and reasonably effective) light box.  I usually just use it to even out natural light, but I have also used it in darker times by "hiding" LED Mag Lights in behind the folded side panels.  The name of the game here is experimentation.  I have had some good shots and some bad shots with this setup, but I am sure that has more to do with the faulty equipment behind the camera than anything else!

    Good luck, and lets see those pictures!