How to Make a Light Tent for Taking Pictures with White Background

Here are instuctions for creating a light tent that will help your photos look like they have a pure white background. Have you ever noticed pictures of objects that look like they are almost floating on the screen? You can achieve this by using a homemade light tent. We are certainly not photographers but just by doing a little research we've found that it can be easily done by a few materials and a little photo editing. If you need to sell an item on ebay, etsy, or any other online shop this is a great tool for you to use can inhance your pictures! Here is our version of a light tent.

Please Read All Instructions Before Beginning

Materials Needed:

*2 sheets of white foam board (If you wait until they are 50% off at Hobby Lobby you will only pay 99 cents for each.)

*Vellum paper (This is a transluscent paper you can get at Hobby Lobby. Really you can use any material that you can see through...white fabric, light interfacing)

*1 white poster board

*clear packaging tape

*ruler

*knife or razor blade

1. Measure and draw a line every 2 inches all the way down one piece of the 20x30 foam board. When you finish you will have 15 sections that measure 2x20.

2. Using your knife cut down each line until each section is separated.

3. Take your other foam board and draw only 5 lines this time, just like before, every 2 inches down your board until you get to 10 inches. You should see that you now have 5 long sections and one large square.

4. Cut through the lines of this board and now you should have 20- 2x20 long pieces and one 20x20 square.

5. Now you are going to take 10 of your 2x20 sections and cut 4 inches off of each of them. Now you have 10 pieces that are 2x20 and 10 that are 2x16.

6. Take 2 of your 2x20 pieces and 2 of your 2x16 pieces and lay them accordingly. Longest on the sides and shorter on top and bottom. You will be making a square and then tape each end together. The pieces do not need to be on top of each other when you are taping, only closely beside each other. Once you have one side taped together, flip it over and tape the other side as well. This is necessary for them to hold together securely.

7. Repeat #6 until you have 4 large squares that have been taped together.

8. Take your one large square (from #3) and one of your pieced together squares. Tape them together as shown above.

9. Continue adding the other 3 sides. You should have one taped square left and it will be used for step #11.

10. You need to cut 2 inches off your poster board all the way down the longest side so it will fit inside your box. Sit your poster board in the box and tape as shown above.

11. Now you can add the last taped square to the top of your light tent. Tape accordingly and securely.

12. You will need to cut 4 squares from your vellum paper. 18x18 pieces work well. Tape on to 3 sides leaving the front side open. Cover the top as well.
13. You can use 1 lamp or in the picture above three different lamps are used. The more lights the better. The desk lamps on the side were purchased for $5 each from Target. You will need to buy n:vision flourescent daylight bulbs and you can get them at Home Depot.

13. After a little photo editing using Gimp (a free photo editing program) with the brightness and contrast, here is the final photograph.

Good luck! Let us know when you try it or if you have already!