Do-It-Yourself:  Studio in a Box!!

How do people take such great pictures?  Especially of very small or detailed items?  You might think they have professional photography skills or an outrageously expensive camera – and maybe they do… or perhaps, they utilize a “Studio in a Box”

You can purchase a Studio in a Box for anywhere between $50 USD and $500 USD; they can even be found on Ebay!  I highly recommend investing in one of these if your intention is to take fabulous pictures of smaller items for Ebay listings.  My husband sells pet supplies (collars, leashes, grooming items, clothing, carriers, beds, etc) and many of his products came with pretty nice stock photos; he wanted to show the seller the exact item they were bidding on though.  Not only that, some of the stock photos were actually quite bad (or even unavailable) and he really wanted to show the items as beautiful as they really were.

A Studio in a Box gives you a seamless background with perfect lighting for taking excellent pictures that will enhance your item’s beauty and really make your listings stand out from the rest.

He approached me with the idea of buying a Studio in a Box and I asked him if he thought instead that he could just make one for a fraction of the cost (I mean, the wife is the voice of reason, right?  He’s supposed to MAKE money on Ebay and not spend a glut of money in the process).  So we considered it and this is what we came up with:

Our Total Cost: $28 USD

Here are a couple of pictures my husband took with our home made Studio in a Box:

Supplies:
~ White Sheet
~ 1 inch x 1.5 inch x 6 feet lengths of lumber (or a similar size from any hardware store)
~ Staple Gun
~ Drill and Screws
~ Measuring Tape
~ Saw
~ Lighting (cheap halogen shop lights from any hardware store are great)

Our box was made to fit on his work bench and is 2’ deep, 2.5’ wide, 2.5’ long; you can make one in whatever size you need.

First, decide what dimensions you want your box and measure the wood planks according to your specifications.  You’ll need 4 pieces for the back frame and 4 for the front frame and 4 addition pieces to secure the front and back together; essentially you’re making a “box”.  We found it was easier to drill the front and back together and then I held them in place while he drilled the 4 additional pieces of wood (on each side, top and bottom) to secure the box together.

After your box frame is ready, take your white sheet and cut pieces big enough for each side and the top and staple them in place on the exterior of the frame (pull the sheet as tight as you can manage).  The last step is securing the sheet to the back and bottom of the box and is the most important because this is how you get your “seamless” effect.  Cut one piece of sheet long enough to cover both the back and the bottom of the frame.  Staple in place the top first and then pull the sheet tight down along the sides to the bottom and across the bottom to the front securing it as you go with the staple gun.

As you’re doing this last step – keep in mind that it is a little more difficult to staple the sheet to the inside of the box (rather than around the outside of the frame) but in the end it will look a lot better.  You want to staple over the interior pieces of the wood frame to hide it.  You also want to eliminate aany seam that would show up if you had stapled the back and bottom with separate pieces of sheet.

Don’t panic if the edges are not perfect – ideally you don’t want to be taking photographs of the edges of the box anyway; you’ll be taking pictures of small items that will fit inside the center of the box.

Your box is done!  Now what?  You need lighting.  The reason we covered the sides of the box was so that the lighting would be filtered onto the item and not harshly aimed at it creating distracting shadows.  This is the kind of light we use and they were $8 each at Lowe’s:

You want to have one light on each side of the box aimed at the sheet covered sides at about a 45 degree angle: basically take each light and set it at the front corner and aim it through the side toward the back of the box.  And now, you’re ready to start taking some pictures! 

We use a regular digital camera on a tripod, nothing fancy.  The pictures are taken without the flash because the Studio in a Box set up provides optimum lighting and reduces shadowing.  The tripod helps a great deal because we can zoom in very close and take detailed shots.  You can also use regular poster board laid against the back and bottom of the box to achieve a slightly glossy background effect or to have a black (or any other color) background.  The only other thing I would recommend is using some kind of photo editing program to crop your pictures down in size once you’re done.

Experiment around, take some test shots, you’ll get the hang of it!  I wish you lots of luck in creating your Studio in a Box and hope that the quality of your Ebay listing pictures will improve as a result!