I Designed and 3D-Printed My Own LED Softbox

I got my first 3D printer recently, but it sits in a dark corner of my room, so I thought I’d design a light for it. Then I realized I could kill two birds with one stone and design it to be useful for photography as well.

I designed and 3D printed this LED softbox:

Here’s the softbox with an optional hexagonal light modifier:

The hexagonal light modifier blocks the view of the light from off-angle, effectively restricting its beam width.

The 3D-printed casing:

The drive electronics are based around a Mean Well LDD-1500LW DC-DC LED driver.

The components and accessories:

Here’s an example photo I shot using the softbox:

The lighting setup was: key light from the LED softbox, white paper on the opposite side for some fill, and a blue-gelled flash firing on some crumpled aluminium foil for a background.

If you’d like to build this for yourself, I’ve posted the LED softbox model and the build instructions to Thingiverse.

About the author: Nicholas Sherlock is an amateur photographer and professional software developer based in Dunedin, New Zealand. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Sherlock’s work on his website.