Friday, November 12, 2010

Making Boxes

I have gotten myself some MDF (medium-density fiberboard for those not "in-the-know") and will be making myself some boxes. Yay. Note the utter lack of enthusiasm there. I hate sawing and gluing and nailing and all the basic skills it takes to make something out of wood. It is not my forte.

However, I will be making 2 boxes roughly 1 cubic foot each. They will have a mostly open front, and holes on both sides and the top. I will then paint the inside of one black and the other white. With some poster board or such I will make the back of the box seamless so it doesn't throw shadows, and the holes will be covered with white cloth to diffuse light.

That's right, I'm going to make myself some sturdy wooden light boxes. Mainly because I can't afford the fancy collapsible ones I really want. I'll have to get some mirror boards and a couple displays for picture taking, but I'm hoping my photos will be getting better with the addition of these large wooden boxes. The good thing is I have 2 linen closets near my work space with room in the bottom for these boxes. Eventually I will post progress pictures and maybe someone else who can't get the fancy ones will get some ideas.

The other reason they will be made of MDF instead of, say, PVC pipe frames wrapped in cloth is because I have a 2 year old daughter. She won't be able to arbitrarily grab the MDF boxes off the table and run off with them, or take them and loose them under the couch. I would love to have the collapsible ones, but I could just imagine her pulling the entire set up off the table and breaking some very expensive lamps. I will be on the hunt for the nice photography lamps with the reflectors and such, but when that hunt fails I will use some flood lights. I can always correct the yellowness.

Wish me luck, and when I can finally get the nice collapsible boxes these will most definitely be made into toy boxes or seating for my daughter. :) Multi-purpose at it's best.

2 comments:

  1. sounds like a good solution...I thought of making a light box too but haven't...good luck on your project!

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  2. Hmmm.. You've certainly given me some ideas on how to improve my photography studio. I currently have a white box and have played around some with the lighting to improve the colors of my work. This sounds like a very flexible approach.

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