Lightbox and Socks

I live in the Pacific Northwest and anyone who has been here for any length of time knows that sunny days are few and far between. For a knitter and now doll enthusiast getting the right light to take photos is almost impossible during the fall-winter-spring and even summer sun can be challenging with too many shadows and colour distortion. A while ago I noticed people on Ravelry talking about taking photos in a homemade light box. I initially dismissed the idea as being too costly and difficult for me to pursue but I kept coming back around after many frustrating photo attempts that ended in dark non-colour accurate pictures. Finally K. and I actually looked up several different websites that offer tips and instructions on how to make a lightbox at home and this is what resulted:

The box is a large moving box K. picked up from a self-storage place. He cut out the sides and top and packing-taped tissue paper over the openings. Inside is a couple of pieces of white poster board from a local drug store. The light is from Lowe's Hardware in Bellingham, WA and has a 100w daylight fluorescent bulb (the light is not on in the picture). All together it took a couple of hours work and under $20. Now it is not as strong as I would like but it does  the job. Eventually we plan on remaking it with sturdier materials.

Here's a photo of the Wollmeise socks I finished this week:

The colour is fairly accurate and true to life. Pretty good considering I took this shot in my basement utility room with absolutely no natural light coming in! I urge anyone who takes a lot of yarn/project photos to seriously consider making one of these boxes up. Its not hard and the results are great. I think the biggest problem we had was where to put the darn thing so that the cats wouldn't trash it!

BTW: The socks are made from Wollmeise 80/20 twin in "Aurora". Knitting these was a weird experience. The colours are amazing but the yarn itself is hard and inelastic. It is also a bit thicker than most other sock yarns so I had to compensate with my stitch count. The yardage is awesome, though. This is pair is sized as a man's large and I still had about 20-25 grams left over. It will be interesting to see how it wears next fall.