I wanted a light box to take some pimp product shots for stuff to post on eBay and Craigslist and looked into getting a light box, a photography tool to give a nice shot of stationary objects.  Kits can be purchased for $60 or so but wanting to save money I considered my options and did the most reasonable thing: Called Teejay Green to see if I could borrow his.   After getting childishly impatient I attempted to make one using a cardboard box and tissue paper and created something that looked like a hobo Helen Keller doing paper mache in a dumpster.  I threw out that attempt and created a new one using a pillow case and a slightly bigger cardboard box lined with paper.  This one looked like a box that decided to dress as an inside-out refrigerator and also met a swift garbage death.  Finally, I decided to drop the half-ass work and picked up nice foam board, good paper for a back drop, a nice cutting tool and real tissue paper as a diffuser. The results weren’t quite where I wanted them so I sprung for some extra light bulbs and desk lamps.

Total cost of my “cheaper” option: $65.00.  A full negative five dollars cheaper than the commercial option.