Tutorial: Building Your Own Cheap Light Tent

Tutorial: Building a Cheap Light Tent
by Richard Hinton

Introduction

For a while now I’ve been experimenting with macro photography in my kitchen, photographing various items including fruit and vegetables. The main downfall of my photographs is lighting, or lack of quality lighting. All of my recent experiments have been carried out with a single 20w halogen desk lamp, which does give good natural light, but it’s a very harsh light with little control.

I have a very small photography budget due to a 1 year old daughter and another baby on the way in 3 weeks. This means that expensive studio lighting with soft boxes is out of the question. An alternative solution for the kind of shots I’m looking for is a light tent. However these are overpriced for what they are with an average cost for a small tent of around £60 (~US$ 120)!

I’ve seen that some people on the web have created their own light tents at home using bit of wood and in some cases plastic tubing. I have taken inspiration from a version that uses plastic tubing and have created my own version of a light tent or as some like to call the setup “A desktop studio”.

Budget

The original budget was for approximately £10 (~US$ 18) for the light box and £10 (~US$ 18) for lighting. I came close.

Light box frame parts - B&Q Warehouse £13.14 (~US$ 23)
Backing card - Hobby Craft £2 (~US$ 3.5)
White double sheet - Tesco £3.75 (~US$ 7)
4 x 20w halogen desk lamp – Ikea £3.99 each (~US$ 7 each)

Grand Total £34.85 (~US$ 60)

Building Instructions

The frame is built using 22mm pipe from B&Q (also available from other builder merchants and plumbing stores). The frame consists of the following:
3 x 2m lengths of 22mm white plastic pipe £1.58 each (~US$ 3 each)
4 x 22mm 90 degree tee connector £1.69 each (~US$ 3 each)
4 x 22mm 90 degree bend connector £1.68 pack of 4 (~US$ 3)

The pipe can be easily cut using a junior hacksaw or you can use a jigsaw if you’re power tool minded.

Cut the first length of pipe into 4 individual 17" pieces, the left over piece is then cut into 4 individual 2" pieces. Using the second length of pipe now, cut one 20" piece and one 24" piece. Cut the third length also into one 20" piece and one 24" piece. The two off cuts can be kept and maybe cut in half in case you want shorter legs for use in the future.

Figure 1 shows all the cut pieces (excluding the two off cuts) and the connectors.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Cut Pieces

The next stage is to connect the 90 deg tee connectors to the 90 degree bend connectors using the 2" lengths of pipe. See figure 2. Note: none of the connections are glued so that the frame can be easily dismantled for storage.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Joint Assembly

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Joint Assembly

Take two of the finished joints and position them as in figure 3, then connect them together using one of the 20" pipe pieces. Do the same in reverse for the other two joints, then connect the two ends together with the two 24" pipe pieces. Finally connect the four 17" legs.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Assembled Joint Positioning

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Assembled Joint Positioning

The assembled frame should look like the one in figure 4.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Assembled Light Tent

I have attached 3 small metal screws to the back part of the frame to enable a piece of A1 card to be attached. The card is simply hole punched in alignment with the screws to enable it to be easily attached and removed from the frame. See figure 5.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Frame with Backdrop

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Frame with Backdrop

The final step is to cover the frame with the white bed sheet. See figure 6.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Finished Light Tent with Lighting.

I have positioned two of the lights at each side of the tent. Positioned at least 6 inches away from the material to ensure even light inside. See figure 7.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Lighting Setup.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Lighting Setup.

Results

Satisfied with the build I decided to have a quick experiment with some objects found in my kitchen. I was pleased with the first results, however my only concern is that the 4 20w halogen desk lamps are only just bright enough and I would consider upgrading to a couple of 50w desk lamps with natural light bulbs in them, one for each side along with the halogen lights for highlighting and additional light.

The results of the first shoot have only had auto levels applied in Photoshop and resized for the web.

Cheap Light Tent Tutorial: Sample 1