what exactly IS a lightbox?

[basschick]

from time to time in sites and also stock photography sites i see lightboxes, but i'm not actually sure what about them makes them lightboxes.

anyone want to enlighten me? i'd appreciate it :)

[gaybucks_chip]

As far as I know it's the digital representation of what used to be a physical lightbox (a box with fluorescent lights and an opaque white plastic top through which the light shines evenly for illumination) used to view slides... the idea being that you move all the slides you want to look at onto the lightbox, which keeps them together and makes them easy to view.

It's entirely possible somebody has come up with a new definition but I haven't run into it yet.

[abostonboy]

Hmmmm. I never once thought why it got it's name. But as Chip mentioned it makes perfect sense. In the example he gave, you are seeing the slide and pretty much everything else loses hierarchy. Just like in photography, the lightbox effect places the pic (slide) as the only element on the page that appears to be lit.

Interetsing....

http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/

[raunchpup]

There is another definition for a lightbox that is when a photographer needs to have consistant light on and object say a product like a bottle he may be looking to get an even light flow around the object to light it evenly. There are times when a photographer will build a large light box for people to get a no shadow look on the person but that is quite rare since its the shadows that give perspective.
not sure if its the same as what you were talking about.
raunchpup

[gaybucks_chip]

I think Raunchpup is talking about one of these (btw, the site cheapshooter, from where this pic came, has some cool photography-on-a-budget tools)


http://cheapshooter.com/images/lightbox.jpg

[raunchpup]

yep thats it

[basschick]

i meant an digital online lightbox they use so you can look at samples like at stock photography places and also i see "lightbox" in some flash galleries and other stuff.

btw, we have a lightbox here for looking at slides (from back in our non-digital days).

[rawTOP]

Lightboxes in a web context are the web equivalent of the lightboxes used by art directors and graphic designers to look at slides. As you mentioned, they're typically found on sites that sell stock and rights-managed photos and illustrations. The purpose of a lightbox is to allow your users to come up with groups of images they like and want to use in some way in the future.

I run a fairly large site for a corporate client that does exactly that, and I'm building smaller sites for photographers with similar features. The lightbox feature is used for everything from putting together images for chapters in new books, to putting together a selection of images for approval prior to purchse, to sending a selection of images to a friend or colleague.

[dzinerbear]

Here's what Wiki had to say about lightboxes:

A lightbox may also refer to a folder used on stock photography websites to allow a user to organize digital photos. Photos can be assigned to a viewable lightbox folder by subject, for later convenience, or used to compile unrelated photos for a specific project layout. Lightboxes also allow graphic designers to show clients options for a project in one simple uncluttered folder.