Making your own lightboard

Ljusdahl · Aug 13, 2007

After some delightful yet difficult slide-viewing, I've decided to make myself a nice little lightboard.
Now it's all rather straight forward, but I have a couple of questions.
Where can you find a suitable white diffuse screen? Also, is it very important how much light I use? I'm going with daylight fluorescent lights since it's low on electricity, no heat generation, and the shape just seems to make sense.
Any advice in general is also welcomed!

Nick Zentena · Aug 13, 2007

http://www.rosco.com/us/filters/cinegel.asp

I'm not sure how easy it would be to find the milky glass/plastic. OTOH Rosco makes various diffusion materials that are fairly cheap. Stick some on top of clear plastic? Maybe consider the Velvet Frost ?

richard ide · Aug 20, 2007

You should be able to get a small piece of (sign white acrylic) from a local sign making shop. Matte surface drawing film or even tracing paper would work with a clear piece.

Roger Hicks · Aug 20, 2007

Ljusdahl said:
Any advice in general is also welcomed!

Don't bother.

I've done it -- and since then, I've bought proper light boxes.

A LOT easier, a LOT more even, and not really very expensive.

This is one of those places where it's not worth trying to save the money.

Ljusdahl · Aug 28, 2007

Thank you for all your suggestions!
I think the window will do for the time being.

CBG · Aug 30, 2007

I have to chime in. White plexi does prettty well for a diffuser. I use it for everything from viewing slides to a transiluminated shooting table surface

Best,

C

jp80874 · Aug 31, 2007

Try office equipment salvage or more specifically graphic arts or print shop salvage businesses. Four of us bought five light tables a year or more ago, east of Cleveland, OH. The tables were similar in size, but some features were different. Mine is 30x44" and cost $20 or $25. The business was going to scrap them so this was good money for them. Mine was made in Germany, raises, lowers, tilts and has four light tubes. I would guess by the quality it cost a couple of thousand $ new. If you can find a place like this near you, have a SUV-van-pickup to haul it, have the space to house it, you can't afford to build a small one yourself. It is great to be able to lay out and compare a whole series of 8x10 or 7x17 negatives before you decide how to print them.

John Powers

jnash67 · Sep 14, 2007

You may also want to look at hospital radiology departments. Alot of them are going digital, which means the X-ray images are viewed on a LCD screen, not a viewbox anymore. I imagine alot of these viewboxes are just being "tossed". So call them and ask.

noseoil · Sep 15, 2007

I made mine with a sheet of white plexiglass, wood, white liner material and a small fluorescent fixture. Getting even illumination is the most difficult part. Mine is big enough to view 8x10 or larger films, but there is some uneven light at one edge (the fixture laid flat blocks light). It boils down to the difference between time and money. At this point I could buy a new one, but since the older one still works well, I use it. Nice to have for slides or B&W film. A mask for viewing is more important. Make a couple of masks to block the light you don't want to see around the film (for different formats, 35mm, 4x5) and your eyes will thank you for it. tim

paul ron · Sep 16, 2007

White acrylic plastic comes in different transmittence values. You have to ask the plastics seller, generally a glass shop, if he has the same stuff they use on x-ray viewers. I get the stuff out of the dumpsters when they toss viewers out at the hospital now that x-rays are taken and viewed on digital systems.

BTW the old x-ray viewers used regular daylight balanced circle line round florescent lamps, an 8" n 12" like the one used in your kitchen. It has a white painted background inside the box so there are no hot spots.

Making your own lightboard

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