What is a light pad AKA "light board", light "box" and why do I want one

Roman_K2

I was looking at the Internet movie database and without preamble, an Amazon advertisement for some sort of drawing or tracing accessory appeared at the top of the screen.  Huh?

I bought a tablet protector or case affair from Amazon, but that was a couple of years ago... what gives?

At the bottom of the Amazon page there was what appears to be a list of similar... devices.

Hylas

Just judging by that screenshot alone, I'd say it's basically a screen that can be flat on the table. You have the screen display an image, you put a thin paper on top of it, and you use a pencil to trace the displayed image onto the paper. So it's like plotting, except by hand.

I would guess this is for people who really hate working with graphic tablets and insist on doing their final image with old school pen and paper. Normally you'd use a graphic tablet to do your tracing digitally, I'd say.

Richard Haseltine

A traditional light box is a box with a light/lights inside - place a source image on the surface, then a piece of paper, and trace over. It's a non-digital tool, though perhaps some of thsoe can actually show an image to use as a source.

McGyver

I made a traditional one a while ago for my daughter, she used it to make neater drawings of sketches she made... basically she sketches a cute cartoony figure, then uses the light board to trace the parts she likes in bold black marker and later she scans it to the computer to color it in... but now that she's got an iPad with the pencil, so she can use various apps to draw using layers, so the light box is not really used anymore. 
I used to do the same thing too, but honestly it's not necessary if you have a desktop drawing tablet or something like an iPad and use most image editing or drawing software.

The new thin LED light pads are pretty cool depending on what you want to use them for... I actually bought a new cheap one for $8 at FiveBelow to replace the older bulky (fluorescent tube light) one I made my daughter... for $8 it was pretty decent and had a drawing surface big enough to fit an 9" x 12" sheet of paper.

They are also good for aligning stencils and dry transfers, depending on the materials being used.

lou_harper

Back in the days of film photography you'd put your negatives on the light box, then stare at them through a loupe.

WendyLuvsCatz

lie a monitor or LED TV flat?

trace NVIATWS

frame your art and hang it on the wall

Quasar

I don't know what it is, but I know why you want it. The internet has told you you do! There's no questioning the internet, is there? So click the link and buy with haste! 

English Bob

Why do you want a light box? To stage weird abstract photographs, of course!

(Back in the time before computer aided design was a reality, the company I worked for used to lay out printed circuit boards for electronic products the hard way, using black tape on translucent film. The light box we had for the purpose was sometimes used for other things... Photo taken with my Pentax 110 SLR, scanned and digitally enhanced later.))

Websoul

English Bob said:

Why do you want a light box? To stage weird abstract photographs, of course!

(Back in the time before computer aided design was a reality, the company I worked for used to lay out printed circuit boards for electronic products the hard way, using black tape on translucent film. The light box we had for the purpose was sometimes used for other things... Photo taken with my Pentax 110 SLR, scanned and digitally enhanced later.))

Interesting take on using it as a bottom light for pictures, never thought of that.

My daughter finds inspiration on the internet and prints what she likes she then uses a light box to set the first few lines on a drawing she wants to make so she has the dimensions right.

English Bob

Websoul said:

Interesting take on using it as a bottom light for pictures, never thought of that.

Those small lightboxes that @Roman_K2 saw advertised should be useful for all sorts of creative stuff - at that price you could afford several of them, and I suspect they're that inspirational kind of thing that would suggest new applications that you couldn't imagine before you bought them.

Another advantage is that they won't produce as much heat as the old style lightbox, and won't be very heavy. They're basically the backlights out of an LCD display panel.

nomad-ads_8ecd56922e

Course, the heat involved in the older style light sources does make one wonder.... just how hot was it on the set for that underlit-floor scene towards the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey?  Those aliens had made the entire floor of that room into a great big light-fixture. 

bytescapes

lou_harper said:

Back in the days of film photography you'd put your negatives on the light box, then stare at them through a loupe.

I use a small lightbox for digitizing old transparencies and negatives. Take a copy stand -- which is a flat board with a vertical 'pole' to which you can attach a camera -- put the lightbox on the stand and put the film on it, then attach a DSLR to the stand and take pictures of the film to digitize it. It's a slow process, but if you already have a DSLR and a suitable lens, it's cheaper than buying a dedicated film scanner and the results are loosely comparable.

Roman_K2

bytescapes said:

...if you already have a DSLR and a suitable lens, it's cheaper than buying a dedicated film scanner and the results are loosely comparable.

Riiighhht... I get really edgy and confused when... I'm heading towards film scanners and projectors and stuff. Huge category. I've had a low end scanner that came with a sort of 35mm film (slides or negatives) holder but I don't think the motor was precise enough to do really high resolution transfers of the information.

For what it's worth I have on occasion temporarily taped paper onto monitor screens for various tracings. And to line up various things - like where exactly to start a crop or copying box, over an image I will place a sticky note onto the monitor screen.

Like everything else, tablets have really exploded. I don't like how some (many? ALL???!!!) Android programs are quite invasive and you are not allowed to remove stuff which then proceeds to launch itself on its own at inappropriate times, using up power for reasons known only to the multinational vendors involved..