Playing with a lightbox

I've been avoiding taking and posting pictures of my recent FO's because  like most people I don't the room to set up a regular photo area.  Usually I take pictures in my dining room which is not only the place where we eat, but also were the kids do homework, where my husband works on his computer, where things get put when nobody knows what to do with them...well you get the idea.  So it can be very time consuming to set up the make-shift studio (an old sheet and some desk lamps) in my dining room to take a few pictures.

I've been looking for a solution for a while and I think I found the answer (for small projects anyway) in the form of a homemade light box.  It's nothing fancy, but what can you expect for something that cost me less than $5 to make and the best part is it really seems to work.  

I had been thinking about a getting a light box since I first heard of them a couple years ago and even found instructions on how to make one, but never got around to doing it.  It wasn't until recently when I tried to take some quick pictures in the dining room and they turned out awful that I finally got the ambition I needed to try making one.  I won't bore you with the details, because the web is full of how to's, just google search homemade light box and you'll find all kinds.

I was surprised how nice my photos turned out with the box and I hardly have to do any editing. 

Light box shot with direct light & no flash.  To yellow

Dinning room shot, ceiling lighting & no background 

Light box shot, with flash.  To washed out

Final light box shot, no flash, diffused side lights.  Truer colors.

I really like white background photos, but have a hard time producing them myself.  I usually end up with something like these.

Invisible mannequin

Washed out mannequin

 After playing around with the white balance I was able to achieve the effect I was looking for without a vanishing or washing out the mannequin head.

 

Most of the blogs I read, suggest you use daylight bulbs for lighting, I bought daylight bulbs, but all the photos above were taken with regular soft white 65watt bulbs. I'm waiting to use the new bulbs until I can buy myself some lamps, so I don't have to steal the kid's desk lamps and change all the bulbs every time I want to take some pictures.  Now if I could just figure out how to light larger objects to get the same results, I could take the kid's portraits.