DIY Lightbox For Etsy Product Photography

It can be challenging to take professional-quality photos for your Etsy shop, especially if you don’t own a nice camera. Etsy is an inherently visual platform, however. How do you know that your thumbnails are doing as much as possible to draw a customer to click on your listing? A DIY lightbox for Etsy photos can help you stand out among the competition.

Even a simple homemade lightbox will help you diffuse light and showcase your product against a clean white backdrop.

I’m not going to mislead you — I have never been a pro photographer, and it didn’t help my sales. Before I built this tool, my photos were okay but often had varied backgrounds and inconsistent lighting.  Now, my smartphone camera has an assist and I can work on creating a unified visual experience for customers browsing my shop.

Benefits

• Branding = a DIY lightbox for Etsy product photography keeps your listings looking uniform and consistent. A customer familiar with your shop will be able to identify your products by sight.

• Affordability = A cardboard box, tape, and some other cheap materials are all it takes to step up your photo game. No expensive cameras needed.

• Quality = The better a product stands out in the photo, the better a customer can assess its quality. A nice, clear photo can edge an uncertain customer closer to converting.

DIY Lightbox Supplies

• An appropriately sized cardboard box for your products. Make sure you also consider how you want to display them for your photos — trust me, I made this oversight! My box is perfect for knit hats but a little too small to showcase my head model.
• Ruler
• Boxcutter
• Packing tape
• White poster paper
• White tissue paper or sheer cloth

1. Setup the Box

Assemble the cardboard box and make sure the bottom flaps are taped securely for stability. You will be leaving the bottom side and backside intact.

With a pencil and ruler, draw the squares you will be cutting out of the top and other three sides of the box, leaving a 1-inch border. I couldn’t find my ruler, but you can see my copy of Oh, The Places You Go! worked shockingly well.

2. Using the Boxcutter

With your boxcutter, follow the lines you previously drew. You will also want to cut off the front flaps so they’re not sticking out and getting in the way. The lines don’t need to be perfect! It won’t affect the quality of your photos.

3. Attach the Paper

Measure the tissue paper to be about the right size for the tops and sides of the box — covering the holes you previously cut out. Attach these with tape. The tissue paper or sheer cloth filters light coming into the box to help you take photos with fewer shadows.

Lastly, create your white backdrop by cutting out white poster paper so that it’s long enough to extend out of the box. You want to make sure it looks infinite, so you should also curve the paper gently instead of creasing it to fit to the inside of the box. Attach the top of the poster paper to the top of the box with tape. You should be good to go!

Make The Most of Your DIY Lightbox For Etsy

You can spend some time refining your technique and finding the best lighting for your products. Using lamps or natural lighting to diffuse through your new lightbox will create different effects that help your crafts look amazing online.

Here are some of the results I got with just an Android phone and my simple box:

As per Etsy’s recommendations, make sure to take a variety of new photos for your products. Optimize the use of your DIY lightbox for Etsy listings by trying out new angles or modeling the goods, if necessary.