DIY Food Photography Lighting

With summer coming to an end, the gloomy fall season in Seattle is fast approaching. (Well, maybe “fast” isn’t the right word. It’s been unusually sunny and dry for the last month and it’s forecasted to be sunny for a while.) Anyways, gloomy weather is sure to hit us at some point in the coming months. Are you ready?

Here in Seattle gloomy weather is commonplace most of the year. Those low-light days really affect the quality of my cookie photos. Bakeat350 and Steamy Kitchen both have raved about the Lowel Ego Table Lamp for solving all their low-light problems with great results. The downside to this light is the hefty price tag.

Being on a budget and fairly new to blogging, I didn’t want to commit to the $104. While researching alternatives, I found this awesome DIY lighting project from Mawoca.  He shows how to do a $30 DIY-option to the $104 Lowel Ego light.

I took a crack at making my own Lowel Ego light following his instructions and I’m so glad I did. It just took a trip to Ikea, Home Depot, and Michaels. It was so easy and cheap that I decided to make two of them!

Here’s my setup: (I have an extra white foam board in the back for more light reflection.)

Here’s my setup with them turned on:

An interior shot:

And all the components:

• 2 Daylight Bulbs
• Ikea Hemma Light Kit
• 2 White Foam Boards
• Light Socket Y-Splitter
• White Cross-Stitch Fabric

These lights work magic! The proof is in the photos. You can really see the difference in my blog posts before May 1st of this year (when I made these lights) versus the posts I had after. Look for yourself.

With the lights:

Without:

With the lights:

Without:

The photos without the lights just seem dull, even after doing some photo-editing to improve them. These DIY Lowel Ego lights brighten the picture quality so that minimal photo-editing is required afterwards.

Whether it be during gloomy, rainy days or just night-time shooting, these budget-friendly lights make your photos great. Thanks Mawoca!

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