Building your own light tent.

[faeriegodess612]

Red, Silver, & Blue star confetti on black felt.

Well, I guess thats what you could call this thing. I got an idea that I wanted to build a light tent kinda like the one from this:
How to Make An Inexpensive Light Tent – DIY

I tried this, and got frusterated with it too quickly. So I got to thinking, how could I sort of do the same thing, but make it have multiple uses other than this, and be storage friendly. Plus not have to worry about my cat taking it over as her own. So the thought of PVC pipe came into play. I work at a local home improvement store and get an employee discount, so I headed to work.

If the picture at the top is any good,....which it could be a lot better, I know. But I do have limitations with my camera, and to be honest I didnt put a lot of effort into it. Here's what you need:


2 - five foot sections of 1/2 inch PVC pipe.
4 - 1/2 inch 90 degree elbows
4 - 1/2 inch PVC caps
4 - 1/2 inch 90 degree 3 way elbows. ( I could only find a 1/2 inch 3-way that had one side threaded, so I had to get 1/2 inch adapters to screw into them to make it work. You'll see what I mean in a minute.)
2 - yards of plain white fabric. Not too think or too thin.
Scissors
Clothes Iron
Seam tape
Hacksaw
Tape Measure

So I measured one foot at a time on the pipe and cut each section with the hacksaw. Be prepared to make a mess during this part. I laid my pipe sections across the table and held the end I was cutting in place by grabbing both the pipe and the edge of the table. I kept the other end from sliding around by putting a bag of catfood over it, just for the weight. I cut three feet, one foot at a time and left the last two feet alone. Repeat on other pipe. Then assembled all my parts to look like this:



I was going to use the elbows in the first picture to put sections across the front making each side a full square, but miscalcualted on how much pipe I needed, so just used the caps. I was going to make two more sections of pipe that were weighted to slide into either end of another piece of material to go across the top like in the final set up picture. But again, my miscalculations prevented that. If you would like to enclosed the frame on the front, then add two more feet of PVC pipe needed.

Then I took the tape measure and measured from looping around the top of one side of the frame, to looping around the bottom. Then measured my white fabric to that length. So my fabric was one foot by 20 inches. Made lines to cut with a pen so I wouldnt veer off course. Then took out a peice of the pipe from the top of one side and rolled it up in the end of cut fabric to measure where to put the heat activated seam tape. Using a pen to mark where the end sat on the inside of the fabric. Cut seam tape to size. Follow instructions on back of seam tape package to make a loop on each end of the fabric. Basically like the top of a curatin, but on both ends. Once both ends are looped, thread onto frame and replace caps. Repeat process for all three sections of frame. And voila! I still used left over fabric for the top, and white fabric can come in handy for photography, so having extra is not a bad thing.

This was my final set up:


You'll notice that there is a gap at each corner, if you dont want this, then just make sure that your loops in fabric are large enough to fit over the sections of pipe all the way to the corners, and that the fabric is long enough to go over each end.

This whole project cost me around $20 to make. I had to buy the hacksaw too. I laready had some of the fabric, so give or take, the whole thing should cost around $20 - $30. Which is A LOT less than the light tents on the market now. I used the over head lighting for the shot at the top, but you can use whatever lighting you have. Whether it be ghetto lighting from a desk lamp or whatever. So, happy light tent making, and don't forget to share your results here on DPS.

[faeriegodess612]

BTW: That picture at the top was taken with a Pentax point and shoot camera. That why I said I had limitations to my camera.

[derekspacelewis]

thanks for the helpful instructions, nice and easy to follow and seems simple enough. This or a smaller light box is definitely on my to-do list lol.

[RecurrentNerve]

Another method is to cut 3 sides out of a cardboard box, then cover the holes with tracing/baking paper. You can then tack a sheet of paper into the box with a curve to it for a nice smooth background.

[mad editor]

Originally Posted by RecurrentNerve

Another method is to cut 3 sides out of a cardboard box, then cover the holes with tracing/baking paper. You can then tack a sheet of paper into the box with a curve to it for a nice smooth background.

I've done that a few times. Works very well. I think I'm going to try this more permanent tent next time.

[faeriegodess612]

Originally Posted by RecurrentNerve

Another method is to cut 3 sides out of a cardboard box, then cover the holes with tracing/baking paper. You can then tack a sheet of paper into the box with a curve to it for a nice smooth background.

I put that DIY thing in there. Its near the top. As I said, I've tried that and got frusterated with it. I wanted something more durable than a cardboard box. My cat happens to really like cardboard boxes, she even had to lay on this thing as I was working on another part. Even the pro light tents look like a completely white version of her favorite cat cube. This thing I can easily store in the closet away from kitty intrusions. I didnt use pipe cement on this. Its all just kinda like legos.