How to make a picture lightbox?

By artiswork

I've grabbed some small wooden boxes with clear fronts from IKEA, and some lights for under a shelf or counter. I'd like to put these together with photos printed on some kind of ascetate or transparent medium. Its that element of the work that I'm stumped on. Anybody have any ideas, or any other thoughts on making photo lightboxes?

Thanks.

Tagged:
photos lighting diy

January 01, 2007

4 comments

Viewed 1674 times

artiswork's blog (3 posts)

Subscribe to this blog
Member since: 11/17/06
About: Most of my design experience comes from the web at artiswork.org. But I am learning...

More by artiswork

Comments

» All comments

elizabethperry

January 01, 2007

I think my first experiments were with a couple of sheets of HP transparencies, which we had at work - the kind intended for use on an overhead projector. I was planning to buy myself a box for experimentation until I discovered that they needed to be used with a laser printer, and I have more ready access to an inkjet... I had trouble with ink density - my images were too dark for the effect I was after. So I moved on to another project - sorry not to be more help!

artiswork

January 01, 2007

Elizabeth,
Thanks for the insight. I find that regular paper has different densities in the fibers so I'm not to interested in using that, but I'd be interested in knowing what transparency paper you used, or a resource (site) that you found helpful in your work.

Thanks.

elizabethperry

January 01, 2007

And did you see mhDesign's recent post:

http://www.curbly.com/mhDesign/posts/237-DIY-Backlit-11x14-Picture-Frame-for-under-25

I think that project used regular inkjet paper...

elizabethperry

January 01, 2007

I have printed photos on transparency paper, but have even had pretty good results printing on lightweight regular paper when the light was bright enough and the image was light in color. (I modified an Ikea light a few years ago by replacing their printed plastic insert with a photo of my own.) You have to read the box specs carefully with transparency paper, as some will only work with a laser printer - the ink can smudge with inkjet.