Brick Essentials 2 - Lightbox

Brick collecting hobby is never complete without sharing your customized creations, hauls, and reviews in the online communities. This requires photography and editing effort. To make the details  of each set or figure stand out or noticeable, a clear image has to be produced. After all, we deal with small items.

One of the greatest photography implements - a lightbox! This thing allows light to diffuse consistently in a cube environment without projecting shadows from the subject (I like shadows in taking snaps though!) This also allows the light to bounce off the environment to better highlight a scene or the subject. What is good about it (especially for small items) is that it does not have to be expensive. You can turn a cardboard box into a makeshift lightbox and use whatever diffuser is available e.g. thin cloth, onion paper, paper towels.

I have been using a rice cooker cardboard box with punched sides where paper diffusers are attached. I use LED lamps both sides when I have a sudden urge to take photos of the little bricks.

A eureka moment came to me one night while lifting a perfectly-prepared round cheesecake (a blueberry one!) out of a 5 x 5 x 5 box. The insides of the box are white and the paper is not waxy. I propped a fig in the box and flashed the LED. I now have a cheap and light lightbox to wear out until I get bored of it - how portable the box is as I can just fold and unfold it. Funny how this sounds but it is effective for me.

From cake box to light box

My workstation at the moment

Unedited/raw image taken from a mobile phone using the cake box... err, light box

Have a useful lightbox for your next brick photo project!

Til next blog.