DIY strip light / softbox

A few days ago I ran across a post about using a bread keeper to make a strip light. Here's the link: Strip light. I think of it more as a skinny soft box rather than a strip light. At any rate, it looked like a good idea to me, so here's my version. The bread keeper is by Rubbermaid. I found it at Wal Mart.

I went to Lowes to get the rest of what I envisioned I would need.

The guy who gave me the inspiration for this project used aluminum foil and glue to add the reflective surface to the inside of the box. I found some aluminum tape at Lowes. It was $7.58 a roll so I figured why not.

Here's the breakdown on what I spent:

Rubbermaid bread keeper                     $5.47

Package of #8 screws and nuts              $  .97

Package of #8 machine screws              $1.18

Wing nuts                                            $2.36

Fender washers                                    $2.30

Aluminum tape                                    $7.58

                            Materials total         $19.86

Not included in this list is the speed ring from one of my softboxes, black gaffers tape and some black foam core. I always keep gaffers tape and foam core around, both black and white.

I started by drilling 4 holes in the lid of the bread keeper for mounting to the speed ring. Then I cut out a hole for the flash head. I cut the hole using a knife, making it slightly larger than my largest flash head. I mounted the screws using fender washers on either side of the lid using a regular nut on the outside to keep the screws in place. Then I attached the speed ring using the wing nuts (for easy assembly in the field).

Next, I wrapped the inside of the bread keeper with the aluminum tape, leaving the flat side open. I also wrapped the inside of the lid with the tape.

I wrapped the outside of the box with 2" gaffers tape to minimize light spill. I made some flaps out of tape for the flash head opening. Once again to minimize spill.

I attached some velcro strips on the outside of the box to be able to mount flags. I made the flags out of some black foam core and attached velcro to those also. I made the strips long enough to be able to adjust how far the flags extend. I made sure that the flags would fit inside the box when not in use.

Here's the finished box with the flags attached.

I plan on using the box for rim lighting and for table top set ups. I may add a layer of diffusion to the open part of the box which would be easy to tape to the inside or the outside.

My first DIY beauty dish with adjustable center disc.

I've been reading up on DIY beauty dishes and decided to build one too, with a few changes. I'd still like to get the dish from Lumodi on ebay but for the money I spent on mine I'm happy for now.

I mostly followed David Tejada's design but some others were of help as well. click here to see his dish. Another one I liked is Todd Owyoung's. Click here to see Todd's.

So off I went to find a bowl. Turned out to be harder than I thought to find what I was looking for. I finally found a nice set at Target for $6.99. 4 bowls with lids. I plan to make another dish out of the second largest bowl. The largest bowl is 12", which is a bit smaller than I would have liked. Got 2 cans of Krylon Fusion paint made for plastic at the Meglo Mart. One gloss white, one matte black. They also had some silver duct tape for the rflective side of the center disc. I plan to add a convex mirror to the back of the center reflector to increase and further spread the light inside the dish. I'll just need to decide on how to cut a hole in the center of it. I couldn't find the type of box that David used as a mounting bracket. Lowes had what became my mounting bracket. It's an extreme weather duplex electrical box that had a flange and was a good fit for my minolta 4000. It should be fairly easy to make it work with other flashes. Home Depot had some cork/hardboard plant coasters that seemed perfect for the center reflector. I wanted mine to be larger than a CD. I ended up using the smaller coaster and and two of the bowl lids.

Here's the list and prices for the materials:

Set of bowls from Target:    $6.99

Paint: 2 cans @ $4.44          $8.88

Silver duct tape:                  $3.88

Bag of nuts and bolts:          $1.00

Plant coasters: 2ea               $5.37

Electrical box:                     $3.77

Bolt with nuts and washers:  $3.00 (estimated as I already had some to use)

                                         ______

Total Cost                          $32.89

Bare in mind that I have most of what I need to make a second dish which will make the per unit cost under $20.00.

Here's the back side of the dish after painting, holes were cut and inner and outer brackets were installed. I cut the back off of the duplex box and had to cut out the screw tubes on the inside of the box so the flash would slide into it. It's a snug fit so no velcro needed to keep it attached. It's light enough that I don't feel like I need a separate bracket to attach it to a stand.

Here's the inside of the dish which shows the inner bracket (a CD spindle base) after being painted.

Here it is after applying some silver tape.

A word about the bowls. They turned out to be made of fairly brittle plastic. I cracked the one I was working on in several places while cutting the center hole. So next time I'll get a different bowl. 

And now the twist!

 I had a CD spindle but was a little short. I figured I could use a bolt and some nuts and washers to fasten the center reflector and allow it to adjust in and out. I ended up with 3 different sized center reflectors (one of the plant coasters and two of the bowl lids).

Here's the 3 different center reflectors. My thinking is that having 3 sizes of reflectors and being able to adjust them will give me more control of the light output.

Here's the CD spindle cover mounted in place. It is a twist lock which makes it easy to remove and adjust the reflector disc.

Here's shots of the reflector extended and retracted. This should allow me to control the fall off and spread.

One last thing. For storage, the lid that came with the bowl snaps over it to protect the dish.

DIY speed light modifiers

I've picked up some tidbits here and there regarding DIY light modifiers for use with flash units. Nothing new under the sun here but I thought I'd share what I've done.

I started by attaching some adhesive velcro strips to my flash heads. I use that velcro to attach the different light modifiers. I have changed the "sex" of the velcro since this pic was taken and lengthened the strips. Now the flashes have the fuzzy surface which is as it should be.

As you can see, I've stuck the velcro on 3 sides of the flashes.

Flags and reflectors.

Here's 2 basic ones. A 3 sided reflector and some solid flags. I used black foam core as I find it to be good material to work with and use (plus I had some on hand). Black matte board is probably better than foam core but it's tougher to cut. Velcro is applied to the foam core pieces to allow attaching to the flashes. I suggest using 1" gaffer tape on all of the edges of the foam core.

Here they are mounted to the flashes (I didn't make the softbox shown in the center).

Here's two of the flags being used one as a topper and the other as a sider.

The flags are great at controlling light spill. Of course being so close to the light source, the edge is not that defined so sometimes I use much bigger flags placed further away from the lights.

Snoots

I made two snoots out of black wrap which work great. I picked up a "real" one at a photo store and I don't think it's any better at controlling light. The nice thing about using black wrap is it's easy to shorten the length of the snoot by folding the black wrap back on itself or change the shape at the output end.

Here's 3 snoots of differing lengths and how they control the spread of light.

I was at Home Depot the other day and found something I think makes for a neat snoot that will allow for some light spill. It's a flexible/extendable adapter for rain gutters. It will  extend from 8" to 18". It cost $2.68

Gels

I got ahold of some lighting gels and cut it into strips and attached velcro to the ends of the gel strips. I also have some shorter pieces of gel that can be taped onto the flash or layered with the velcro'd strips. Currently I have 3 levels of CTO, Some CTB, plus green, a piece of green "party" gel and some ND. I doubt I'll ever use the ND but I had the chance to get some and figured why not.

A piece of gel attached to a flash.

Showing 3 different levels of CTO gel.

Edit: I've since bought some gel kits from Here: http://www.photogels.com. Their kits come with velcro dots that attach to the gels. I'd still like to find some kind of clear holders to attach to the flashes that the gels would slide into.

Light grids

Time consuming to make but I think it's worth it. Thanks to McDonalds for donating the straws. Once again I used foam core for the grid frames. I still haven't found black straws locally but the white ones still work.

Here's a few pics of the process. I didn't use the paper cutter at all.

I cut up a photo and placed it inside the frame to protect the flash head. Next time I might use hot glue but the craft glue I bought seems to work okay.

Edit: The glue I used dried out and lost adheshion. So next time I will use a different glue.

I made some mini flags for the grids to further control the light.

While I was shopping for straws I decided to get some colored bendy straws just for fun. It was an interesting experiment. It further restricts the spread of light and the colors of the straws don't seem to have much of an effect  that I can see as yet.

Here's the grids I've made so far.