Light Box Anyone?

OK.. so apparently there's a whole lot of photography 'stuff' that I don't know (shocking.. I know..). I was having trouble taking pics of my new groovy bead accomplishments to share with all of you, so I started doing a google search to see if I could find anyone who could share their wisdom with me. Turns out that photographing jewelry, electronics, random figurines, etc. has become a hot topic out there with the advent of ebay. So, I read all I could find and discovered that apparently I needed a 'light box'. Never heard of 'em.

For those of you out there wondering what I'm even talking about, a light box is a hollow box covered with material that you put a spotlight through. The material diffuses the light to evenly light a subject so you can photograph it without excessive shadows, etc. Who knew?? (Apparently not me..) I continued my internet search and discovered that you can buy light boxes, which pretty much look like laundry baskets turned on their side. Not wanting to spend any cash, especially for a glorified laundry basket, I continued looking and found several options for building your own. So, tonight I cut some holes in a shoebox, taped tissue paper across them and stuck my halogen light into it. Here are my first experimental results with my new contraption:




Amazing what a little tissue paper can do, eh? Oh yah.. and the beads are pretty cool too ;-)