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As you know, trying to take a decent picture of a miniature isn't easy.
That's why I made this box.

The process was fairly easy, went to Ikea and bought a semiopaque plastic box, drilled two holes in it where the lightbulbs are placed.
They are placed on the outside, for a more even light.
Background for the models are a A4 paper taped up to the back and bottom.

The hardest part was to connect the electric wires, I have a friend who is an electrician, so I convinced him to do the actual work.

For the pictures themself you need a camera with a macro-lens. That might be slightly more expensive than this box.

Warning: Do not connect wires and plug in the electric system if you don't know what you are doing. This is for educational purposes only. Don't sue me if you eff it up...

Example of a picture taken in this box:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7993055&l=e08f98081a&id=588495218

Why are the lights outside?

Tanhausen wrote:Why are the lights outside?

If they are on the inside, you get harder shadows.
This way you get the entire side of the box to light up in a softer light, so there are very few and very soft shadows.

Could take a photo of a mini so we see how it turns out?

removed. Bad example

Thank you. I will have to try this.

Too dark in my opinon though...

You might want to add some shades to the bulbs to reflect some more of the light into/through the light box.

SilverMK2 wrote:You might want to add some shades to the bulbs to reflect some more of the light into/through the light box.

I second this motion. Also, try using daylight bulbs... right now there is a yellow hue to the lights you are using that would be eliminated using daylight bulbs.

Good Macguyvering though.

FTL

Adjusting the whitebalance will take care of the yellow hue. This was one of my first testpictures, so not the best one. Same with the brightness, I'll see if I can find a decent picture this weekend.

lunarman wrote:Too dark in my opinon though...

Then get brighter bulbs and add metal shades to them.

Nice job, its about as simple as it gets and works well

An example of the box in use.
I downloaded some nice backgrounds and taped to the back and bottom.
The image is touched up slightly in Adobe Lightroom, but otherwise it is as shot.