Edible Garden

Simple, Delicious, Everyday Recipes

You are here: Home / Food Photography Tips / How to build a Light box for Food Photography

How to build a Light box for Food Photography

47 Comments

After many months of thinking about it, I finally did it – A light box for food photography! It really is as easy as they say in many sites and blogs around but before you jump ahead, I would ask you to consider a few things, based on my experience.
– Do you really need one? Although a light box gives you the flexibility to click pictures of your food whenever you’d like, nothing can beat natural light when it comes to food photography. Let me repeat that – nothing. A lot of professional food photographers may go for fancy studio equipment but the beauty of food blogging from our homes and kitchens is, this is what we make for our family meals, we are sharing our recipes and what we cook on a day-to-day basis. I wouldn’t compare that to commercial food photography any day.
Another thing to consider is, do you usually plan before you cook for the blog or do you cook something and then decide you want to blog about it. If you find yourself doing more of the latter, then a light box may be a good idea because half the time I think that way, its night time on a week day when I am at work all day.
– Do you have the space for it? You can always dismantle your light box and set it up only when you need it but trust me, that won’t happen often. So you will end up building it but hardly ever using it if you don’t have a fixed spot for it in your house. We recently moved into a three bedroom apartment and I am using the third bedroom as my studio. The wardrobe is where I keep my photography accessories and the light box sits to one side of the room. I don’t intend to move it from there or dismantle it.
So here it is, my very own light box!

lightbox pic

I pretty much followed the instructions on RV’s site. The few differences I made are:
– I used a smaller box
– I used tracing paper instead of fabric to cover the slots through which light enters the box
– I used 18W daylight bulbs that give a 100W output
A few initial shots with varying light input – both Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) and edited.

lightbox pic

This is the first picture I took, without bothering with a background sweep or anything. I was super eager to see the results. Remember, this was taken in the night, at around 8:00pm. Taken with one light – SOOC.

lightbox pic

Another macro shot, taken with one light – SOOC.

green mor kozhambu

The first food shot, taken with one overhead lamp – SOOC except for watermark and straightening. I didn’t have the other two lights set up when I took this so I had to depend on editing to make it look better.

5310998967_dfae8bb4c5_z

Same picture, after editing.

lightbox pic

Enter three lamps – first food picture with all three lamps as shown in the light box picture above. No editing done – SOOC.

DSC_0746-ed

One of my favourite light box pictures to date (I haven’t taken that many yet, I always turn to natural light if I can help it). This is a very lightly edited picture taken in the light box, again, in the night.

I have taken a few more and recipes are coming up soon for this dishes. Going forward, I will clearly mark the picture setting when posting pictures because I expect a good mix of both kinds of pictures in future posts.

Other sites you can refer for building your own light box:
Digital Photography School
Jugalbandi

Share This Recipe
1

Comments

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. nice article..i myself have been contemplating on whether I need a light box or not. I too love natural light and plan my cooking accordingly. After reading your post, I think I am going to give it a pass for now and stick to my way like you said. Thanks, your article set my perspective right. 🙂

    Reply

  2. Super post, Nags. And a gorgeous blog 🙂 I've never considered a lightbox – though with the temperamental sun in my part of the world, I should.

    Reply

  3. I have to take photos of foods and then use photoshop to create a transparent background. What kind of plates/bowls/glassware will be the best to use so that I get a nice clean edge on the dinnerware. When taking photos of uncooked fruit and vegetables is a white background the best? This will also have to become transparent. Thanks!

    Reply

    • I am not an expert on that technique in photoshop so not sure what sort of bowls would work best. Maybe solid colours?

      Reply

  6. wow Nags what a great idea. To me thee only problem is that by the time I finish cooking I just want to eat the food while it's still fresh but maybe if I leave to box standing somewhere in the kitchen taking the shots shouldn't be a problem. Beautiful pics. I adore pesto! I could eat it almost every day and would be happy.
    Cheers!
    Heg

    Reply

  7. That's such a cool trick, Nags. Thanks for the education. Wish I could create a light box to take pictures of my dinner recipes and blog about it, ah!

    Again, you are doing an absolutely great job. Keep going! Looking forward to more info on food photography. Thank you.

    Reply

  9. This is superb !! I recently started my food blog and my hubby is clicking most of the photographs .. but we both felt that we have to do something to make them better .. I have to try this 🙂

    Reply

  14. Nags,first time here, and I am so impressed and grateful to have found you!I like-your communication skills,your presentation,and most of all,you tips on good food photography.Keep up the good work and keep helping souls like me!!!

    Reply

  17. Nice informative post. I do get enough sunshine here – that's actually what we get all the time!

    I think the little editing adds a whole lot of oomph to the pictures – love how the colors just turn up a notch.

    Reply

  19. love this… As Sig said, I live in Seattle and have no light most of the time these days that I find it hard to post in my blog… I should try these out!

    Reply

  20. Very Informative post , loved the details. I've been using only daylight and trust it, but would love to click @ night. Now this is a TO DO for me 🙂

    Reply

  21. Good job but I think you get more natural light :), for me this is a necessary!, I saw this kind of box some time back in Food for 7 stages of life, I had planned to do this then but still I haven't done it, I do not have a camera, I take my photos from my mobile and usually I take them during night (as I cook only during night during the week!), Hope to buy a camera this year, I checked your Nikon it's (£750 in Amazon), Mmm.., that's going to be too expensive for me :(, may be some day, I was just showing my son your box and asked him to build me one!, thought that I can make him stop playing games and sitting on comp watching cricket!, he is already interested, I always click on my kitchen table top a very very small space that's the only place I have tubelight which seems to work well than anywhere else, sorry for this long comment, reading your post I just thought of talking to you, O' I loved the last shot and of course the leaves one and the mixture cup one!, all the three are really good…

    Reply

  22. Wow.. awesome job 🙂

    I made one almost a year back and just used it twice if I remember.. The story of the light box had a sad ending when my little niece sat over the box which was neatly covered with a cloth 🙁 I am still lazy to make one more. But your post is motivating me to get it done again 🙂

    Reply

  24. Nice post Nags! I was thinking of doing something about the light. I usually cook in the evenings and I don't take pictures after sunset. I will try building the light box. I think it might be useful at least in the winters.

    Reply

  27. Agree with you on the natural light. Almost all of my photos were taken in natural light; and yes, sometimes when you finally decide to blog about a dish, you find that the 'light' is gone! Have seen RV's post and your box looks compact and neat.

    Reply

  28. I have often thought of how helpful this would be since a lot of my pics for recent posts have been spoilt by the fact that they were taken in yellow light in the evening – part laziness, but mostly because if I cook before we eat there is not time to set up white light etc etc. The light box would be great to have. Thanks for this demo and ideas 🙂

    Reply

  31. Wow..another addition to your wonderful knowledge sharing series on food photography for new bloggers like me. Congrats on your spacious new 3BHK…your camera is really lucky to have its own room!! Love the composite shot with 3 lamps..it looks almost like a daylight shot.
    Anamika

    Reply

  41. Wowo looks so good the pictures, I made a light box from jugalbandi they are good but have not used it that much, but i think my WB setting in camera is not orrecct as it ia always having a slight dull color. When i edit in photoshop it gets better though. The first and the lst picture in my latest post is taken with light box.
    I see you also used daylight lamp i have been looking for that here and have not got it, will still search for the lights .

    Reply

  42. Great work. I never realised making a lightbox was so easy. Thankfully, I get glorious natural light most days of the year, so I haven't felt the need for one. But like you rightly pointed out, I do want to photograph some dishes cooked at night. Will try my hand at this when I can. Thanks for the post.

    – Gowri

    Reply

  44. Great job Nags! Love the way the pics have turn out! If you live in a place like Seattle, you don't have a choice but to rely on studio lights, 9 months out of a year. :). I bought a lightbox, was too lazy to build one, but now I am too lazy to use it. I just use the lights directly with the diffusers 🙂

    Reply
Open

Close