How to Make a Quick, Easy, and Inexpensive Light Box

If you sell small things online, you could probably benefit from a light box in which to take your pictures. By using a light box and a free web-based photo editing site, you'll get pictures that are clean, crisp, and eye-catching to prospective buyers.

It really doesn't take much to make a simple light box. I used a cardboard box, cut the front panel along the right and left sides so that it is open to the front, and covered it loosely with white fabric (I used muslin, but you could use any smooth fabric).

A quick peek under the hood reveals...

It's a USPS flat rate box, which are available free (Free!) from the U.S. postal service. I love these boxes for shipping - this is one of the smartest things that has come out of the postal service in years. And in this case, the large sized box makes a perfect light box for me.

I topped off my cheap and easy light box with a small halogen desk lamp.

I think my husband originally purchased it from IKEA, but any small lamp would do. This lamp works well because the halogen is nice and bright, and the light is targeted and shines straight down into the box.

Once you take your pictures, you can use free online editing sites to crop and adjust the photos to look better. I love the Fotofuze site for this - it's easy to turn photos like this:

Into this:

I love how Fotofuze removes everything but the item and its shadow. It's also super easy to use! It's designed to work with Etsy, but it's easy to download the modified photo and then upload it to any other site, not just Etsy. Best of all, it's free! There are other free photo editing sites out there, but in my experience, Fotofuze is the easiest way to remove anything in the background as long as the background is white or black.