How to make a lightbox for photographing jewelry. (2024)

Photographing my jewelry is one of my greatest ongoing challenges. Like many Etsy sellers, photography is not really my thing, but it’s a critical part of my selling process.

My house is dark inside and surrounded by a jungle of tropical plantsso ‘shoot near a window’ doesn’t work for me. I struggle to get crisp colours and a clean background.

But after months of trial and error, andhundreds of grey, gloomy photos,I came up with a solution that’s working pretty well for me—and it’s really simple.

Here’s a bracelet I photographed using my new system:

Not too shabby is it? There are loads of websites that show you how to make light boxes from cardboard boxes and tracing paper. And then there are those wrinkly-looking photography‘cubes’– but none of them do it for me, so Icreated my own one.

Drumroll….here it is:

Like I said, it’s really simple.

My materials:

1. A shiny new plastic storage container from Target – it’s about 14 inches deep.

2. A piece a very white, firmpaper. I bought a whole pad-full from Michael’sso if the paper gets dirty I can just tear out a fresh page.

3. A piece of whitefoam board.

The plastic box works like tracing paper—it lets a lot of light in, but softens it and reduces harsh reflections.

The paper is firm enough to make a greatminiinfinity curvegiving mea smooth background with no ‘corners’. I stickthe paperto the box with a bitof tape. That’s another great thing about using a plastic box…you can stick stuff all over it and rip it off again without damaging the box.

I place the foam board under the plastic box to reflect much-needed light up onto the sides of the box. I have to do my photographyoutside, so I choose a shady spot with no direct sunlight. I often shoot before 11am when the light is not directly above.

In the scenario above I have thewhole set-up resting on a fold-up luggage rack from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I like that I can easily collapsethe rackand store it behind my closet door—light isn’t the only thing there’s a shortage of in my house.

Sometimes I use a slightly different set-up: I shoot on the patio, which is partially covered,and I position an OTT-Lite (bought from Michael’s) on each side of the box for extra light. The plastic diffuses and softens the light.

Here’s another image I took in my handmade lightbox, and then lightened it a little using picmonkey.com. I stuck the thread to the sides of the box using packaging tape. You can’t easily do that in a cardboard lightbox or a crinkly cube!

Finally, here’s another finished shot that I took in the lightbox. I lightened it and brightened it in PhotoShop, but you can see by the original below it that it didn’t need much work. I could have lightened it just as effectively in picmonkey.com.

Follow-up Notes to questions about this post:

The ‘columns’: People have asked about the little white columns in the third photo—that thing is a Chain Sta. It’s designed to hold thread or jewelry chain in place while you’re working with it, but I use it for many other crafty things too. It has two little posts to hook chain on, and little jaws for holding thread or wire. The thread I use for hanging things on is this transparent, slightly stretchy plastic cord used for making bracelets.

My camera: For all the photos above I used aCasio Exilim that I got from Costco for just $190. It’s old and scratched up now, but it does the job. If you can look at the photo below without laughing you’ll see my little Casio perching rather majestically on a tripod. The secret is in the tripod! Buy a decent tripod, not a cheap wobbly one—your photo quality will improve immediately.

I set the camera on automatic except for the EV setting which I adjust to +03 or +07 to lighten the photos. Note that not all my photos are taken on this camera. Some of the mannequin photos in my Etsy store were taken with a friend’s Canon D60.

Cheers, Caro
Browse my Shops:
QuirkyOak.etsy.com
TheSlinq.etsy.com
Enter my jewelry give-aways: facebook.com/QuirkyOak

Sign up here foroccasionaljewelry give-aways and peeks at my new designs!I promise not to spam you.