Not entirely unrelated, but helpful

After a semester and a half at Purdue, I was well overdue to take slides.  I had a camera and a backdrop, but no lights.  The photo set up for the ceramics department was a photo cube and two side lights, which is effective for small work, but my pieces would not even fit into the cube.  I tried using the lamps and my backdrop, but the slides were really hot and washed out since I had no diffuser.  My solution, you ask??  Make my own light box!!!   One night of shopping, some donations, and a day of cutting, drilling and taping later, I had just that.  All for the low low price of $62.17.  I can take it anywhere, and storage isn't that hard (just put it inside of a large garbage bag and on its side to protect the diffuser fabric from stains and damage, OR you can leave it hanging in a dust free environment).  It could probably be done even cheaper than what i did.  My main point is that I now have a light source and diffuser available to me whenever I need it AND I know how to repair it if needed.

  While I was making my light box, I invited some of the undergrad students to come and participate.  It was a lot of fun, and I took pictures to chronicle the event as well as make a photo tutorial, complete with written instruction (lucky you!).

Full Tutorial (materials, construction, SAFETY!!!)