How To Make A Softbox For Product Photography

As an e-commerce store owner, you know how important it is to upload high quality product photos to attract customers. Lighting plays an integral role in ensuring you get that right and bright color of your product on camera. But getting the right amount of light is not that easy. Often, when natural lights are not good enough, we end up relying on artificial lights and adjusting them according to our convenience. But high quality lighting equipment can be quite expensive and may end up creating a hole in your pocket as well as business.

For a small e-store owner, dilemma between maintaining a budget and making sales can sometimes be harsh. This is the time when you should turn to DIY techniques and hacks that that would help you get high quality pictures while maintaining your budget.

What is a Softbox?

Softbox works as a light adjuster that covers flash or direct light and presents a softer, flatter version of it. It is used especially in studio photography where sufficient natural lighting may not be available. Studio lights are normally directed in one direction and therefore photo shoots often require multiple lights to ensure enough brightness in the entire room. Softbox diffuses these direct lights and redirects it in all corners of the room; providing a brighter surface and reducing the use of multiple lights.

Softbox ensures uniform display of light all over your studio and gets your product that perfect brightness required to attract targeted customers. The price of softboxes can start from $100 and can end up being more than $200. The expense can be even greater if you decide to go for multiple lights to cover all parts of your studio. Although integral, lighting is just one part of a photo shoot. Spending such a big amount only on lighting can seem burdensome for a small e-store owner. The good news is you can make softboxes on your own using DIY tools and techniques with a budget lower than $20! Now let’s move on the how-to part of this blog where we provide step-by-step guideline about creating softboxes.

Steps to Follow

Step 1: Material Management

Before you start building your softbox, you need to make sure that you have all the required materials with you. The materials include-

• A cardboard; the base for diffusing and softening the light
• Pencil, ruler and cutter; for measuring and cutting the cardboards
• Aluminum Foil
• A hot Glue gun and tape; to stick it all together
• Flash light/LED bulb
• Tripod/Stand; to hold and direct the softbox to the product
• A white cloth; to cover up the softbox

Step 2: Measure it up!

Most small e-store owners try to complete their product photo shoots at home to avoid the excessive costs of a studio. As home studios normally aren’t that big, the softbox you prepare needs to be of moderate size. We recommend a size of 50×35 inch but you can customize as per your studio size as well. First, take your pencil and scale. Then carefully rule out four trapezoids and ensure they are all equal in size. The lower part of the trapezoids will be 50 inches in width and the size of the upper part will depend on the size of the flash/LED light you‘ll be using.

Step 3: Ready, Steady, Cut!

Now that you are done measuring and ruling the trapezoids, it’s time to cut them up! Using scissors to cut the trapezoids can result in them having uneven sides with crooked ends. This is why; we recommend you use a cutter to ensure a greater degree of accuracy.

Step 4: Constructing the inner part

The inner part of your softbox needs to be so intact that it doesn’t leave any scope for light to go out and reflects properly on all sides. Using aluminum foil will help you reflect the light properly and make the softbox stronger with a solid base. First, you have to attach glue on one side of all four pieces of the cardboard and cover it with aluminum foil. Make sure the glue is applied properly and use tape if necessary so that it doesn’t fall off by any chance.

Step 5: Adding it all up

Now that you have all the pieces prepared, it’s time to put them together. Here we’ll be assembling all four parts into a pyramid using glue and tape. Normal glue that was used in attaching the aluminum foil with the cardboard pieces might not be appropriate here. We suggest you get a glue gun and use hot glue and tape to put it together. After you’re done, take the upper half of the softbox in hand and pull the softbox up. If all the parts seem to stick together and tremble in any way, it’s safe to assume they have been glued properly.

Step 6: Place the light

Now that we’re done with building the base, it’s time to place the light inside the softbox. Remember, in step 2, we measured the upper half of the trapezoids according to the size of the flash/light. Now is the time it comes handy. We’ll be inserting the flash in the narrower upper part and pushing it until it fits. Use tape to adjust and attach it properly.

Step 7: Attaching the diffusion panel

Diffusion panel is the tool that softens and reflects the light. Although the name sounds fancy, don’t let it scare you away. It can be simply a piece of white paper or cloth that you’ll be attaching on the broader half of the softbox using glue or tape. Here, the thickness of the paper or cloth will depend on the amount of softness you require from the softbox.

Step 8: Take a stand!

If you’ve completed all the steps till now, you should have a beautiful softbox in front of you that’s ready to shed light in your photo shoot and business. So pat yourself on the shoulder and say “Well done!” One additional step we recommend you follow is attaching the softbox to a stand so it’s able to stand up on its own. Using a tripod is ideal here they can be adjusted according to the product and photo shoot height. Or you can simply use wood and make a stand out of it. Make some holes in your softbox, attach the stand to it using screws and nuts and ensure its stable.

Lights not only help understand the color of your product, they highlight the intricate parts of the design as well. Although all e-commerce store owners understand its importance, the question of affordability always pops up and scares many store owners away. They end up capturing and using dull or unattractive photos with uneven lights in their website. Using DIY tools like softbox can help small businesses save and grow at the same time.

Read more on our website: https://cutoutwiz.com/how-to-make-a-softbox-for-product-photography