Use a Digital Camera.

I tried to take photos of items in my light box using 2 different camera;

- Canon Rebel XT, this DSLR Camera cost about $800 back in 2006, it probably used to be the lowest entry level pro camera back in the day.

- A cheap point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot A2200. Small, compact and basic camera. They are listed at $43-$95 on Amazon.

To be honest, the cheap camera offered better results. Photography related technology is evolving very fast so I am not surprised this small camera can actually take better photos than the bulkier but older DSLR.

White Balance.

Setting a white balance (WB) is a good idea, however not cameras have this feature. I will not go into details since one could probably write a whole book on the theory of color balance a.k.a. white balance.

In a few short words, we want or colors to be as "real" as possible and adjusting our white balance will help us achieve this. At least that's how I understand this. REMEMBER, this is not crucial so don't worry too much about the while balance.

Both of my cameras allowed me to change the color balance.

The Rebel XT allowed me to set a custom white balance. This is when you take a photo of something white (even if it might look yellow, grey or blue on the photo) then you tell your camera: "This picture that we just took - this is white. So when you see it - turn in into white." - something along these lines. Here is how the WB menu looks on the screen:

Surprisingly the small camera also offered pre-set white balances and even a possibility to create a custom WB. Here is how it looks on the screen:

If you have these options on your camera - try to set a custom white balance or/and try to use the different pre-set white balances. Or you can leave it on AWB (auto white balance) however I would suggest playing with these options. Try different settings, take a photo, and the setting that makes your background look the whitest is probably the one you should keep.

Well, we're moving on to the next step and this is an important one Photo Editing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->