Whether you’re an amateur or a professional photographer, you have certainly heard of the lightbox photography technique. For product photographers and ecommerce business owners, this is one of the cost-efficient ways to take photos of the products that will be displayed on their online stores. Most people think that it’s all about the camera that brings quality photographs, but they are missing some important factors such as proper angle and proportion lighting that can help capture nice photographs. Using lightbox photography, it’s like taking pictures in a mini studio. You’re literally taking photos inside a box which is called a light box. When you use lightbox, you can achieve high-quality product images that you can upload on your ecommerce site. If you are like most people who are engaged in selling any kinds of products and stuff online, high-quality images are key to your success in the e-commerce business.
Here at Strikingly we have a bunch of online sellers and photographers. We thought it’s best to give our users cool ideas on how to take their career and business to the next level. We love sharing insights and techniques to help you build a website that can withstand competition in the digital world. As a business owner or a product photographer, investing in high-quality product images can help you get more sales and potential clients. After all, these are the main reasons why you build your own website. We’d like to share with you the best lightbox in the market to help you get an idea of the important features to come up with studio-taken quality shots.
Image taken from the gallery of Sarah Muller website
What is a lightbox?
For beginners, lightbox photography is like a mini studio that is designed, developed, or improvised for taking small objects or product photos. By using a light box, it helps the photographer capture every detail, and element of an object like a crystal clear. Imagine a freshly-picked apple inside a lightbox with its dewy drops and shiny red color. It’s how you see things as captured by the camera lens.
In an article from The Hub, lightbox photography is defined as a technique that was developed for capturing better quality products, food, and still-life shots. With the design of the Lightbox, the lighting source within the platform offers complete coverage of the object. Therefore, this allows the photographer to capture every single detail and element of the product.
A lightbox is also called a light tent or white box. It is basically just an empty box having illuminated sides and a white backdrop. A constant light helps make the focus on the object or product inside the box. Using a light box you can achieve instant professional-quality photos with good lighting, no shadows, and a plain backdrop. You can create your own light box for only a few dollars or buy one that is approximately ranging from around $10 - $4,000. Yes, you can do it yourself and get high-quality product images for your client. The most exciting part here is that we are about to share with you how to do it.
Why should you use lightbox for your products?
Photographers know how important it is to be able to produce quality images. If you are one of the freelance photographers who want to impress your clients with the best-in-class product images, using a light box is key to high-quality deliverables. Many who have discovered how to use lightbox realize the great effects and excellent quality it can give to simple pictures. When you use lightbox for your products, you’re not just giving the impression of professionalism in all your works, but you are also giving assurance of the best quality product images to your clients. Lightbox photography can definitely help your career grow and improve. If you ask why you should use lightbox for your products, why not?
How to use a lightbox?
When you think of a lightbox as a mini studio, it looks like a real studio scaled down to a white well-lit box. If you wonder how to use lightbox, it’s quite simple and easy in a few steps.
- Properly position your product at the center of the box.
- Find out the best angle to take a photo of the product (overhead, flat-lay, eye level, angled perspective)
- Take note how near or far is your distance from the lightbox
- Capture full-product images, different sides, an up-close or detailed shot that showcase the product quality, actual specs, brand name, etc
- Once you’ve found a perfect frame, take photos as much as you can
Image taken from Sarah Muller website
Top 3 best lightbox
You might think that a lightbox is just an empty box but it’s way more than that. Take a look at the best features and specs of an ideal lightbox that are listed below. This way, you can figure out why you should use lightbox with certain features according to your project requirements.
1. Emart LED Lightbox
Image taken from Amazon website
The Emart LED lightbox has an ideal spec of 14” x 16”. The set comes with a portable photo studio box, a lightbox, and four photo box backdrops with the following color options: white, gray, blue, and black. Since it comes with a tripod stand that works with smartphones, plus its portability and lightweight features, it can help you to shoot and go anywhere you want without worrying about a still and steady image frame. If you are an amateur photographer, this is ideal to get quality product pictures, while online sellers and home-based e-commerce business owners can achieve high-resolution images of their best-selling products.
2. Mini Photo Studio
Image taken from Amazon website
Mini Photo Studio by Puluz is a 20 cm portable lightbox photography shooting light tent kit. With its white folding lighting and 20 LED lights, you can never go wrong with your product image shots. You can choose from 6 backdrop colors for product display. Having the key features such as multi-angle shooting, high brightness, USB power supply, and fast installation, it is certainly one of the best lightboxes to elevate your products with lightbox photography technique. The three-step installation are is follows:
- Expand the studio tent
- Snap button positioning installation
- Power supply light
Image taken from The Hub website
3. ESDDI Studio Lightbox (4)
Image taken from Amazon website
In an article from The Photo MBA entitled Best Photography Light Box on The Market for 2021, ESDDI Photo Studio Light Box is the overall winner. If you’re interested in lightbox photography, the best characteristics you should keep in mind are the same as what ESDDI Studio Light Box has. It is durable, lightweight, easy to- set up, with an adjustable dimmer switch so that you can get the perfect brightness of your product image. Having thirty windows for you to shoot at, this state of the art lightbox allows you to shoot at multiple angles. High-quality LED lights are such an ideal feature for professional photographers aiming for a consistent and excellent quality lightbox photo. For the specs, the size of the ESDDIlightbox is 60 cm, weighing 4.2 kilograms. Imagine taking pictures of your products using a light box with an adjustable brightness switch. Truly, amazing right?
Did you know that you can D.I.Y your lightbox?
You are probably thinking about how to make your own lightbox, right? No worries, it’s quite easy. Here are a few easy and affordable tips on how you can do your own lightbox. This is a 15-minute step costing no more than just $5 to create your lightbox. You can see lightbox photography can be budget-friendly.
• What you will need?
- Cardboard box
- Box cutter
- White tissue paper
- White poster board or bond papers
- Packing tape
• 5 steps to D.I.Y lightbox
- Use a box cutter to cut the top flaps of the box and the rest of the three sides. Retain one side for the backdrop.
- Cut out the tissue paper and put it as a covering on the three sides.
- Tape the tissue paper that will serve as a light moderator or diffuser.
- Drape the white poster board to form a white backdrop for your D.I.Y lightbox.
- Ready, steady, shot! Elevate your product images for your online store.
Image taken from Strikingly website
Since you’ve learned how efficient it is to use lightbox in capturing the best product images for your online business, it’s hard to set aside the importance of using a lightbox photography technique. Just like when you decide to build your own website as a photographer. You are keen on the template design of your personal site because it’s where you can display your quality works.
Being a photographer, an online seller, or simply an individual who wants to show what you got, quality is such a very important part of setting up your brand online. While you seek to elevate your product pictures using lightbox photography, don’t forget to make the right decision of whom you are making your website with.
Strikingly supports many talented users who happen to be the best photographers, illustrators, artists, chefs, social advocates, e-commerce business owners, interior designers, and ordinary individuals by providing the best services and tools they need to run their websites.
In this article about lightbox photography, we’ve learned the amazing effects and features that it can bring to your product images. Just like the great features and techniques that we can share with you once you click on our signup page.
