Studio DIY: Gel Holder for Flash
Craig Colvin (Flickr) came up with a great design for a gel holder on a flash. The design includes an L shaped plexiglass.
Now, if you ever followed the strobist way of mounting gels on your flash, you know the great value those little pieces of colored tape can provide.
You probably also know that it can very annoying to apply the gel strips on the flash or to remove them. Not to mention stacking them together - this becomes a Velcro hell.
The nice design by Craig solves this problem by providing a Velcro free gel chassis. Sometimes you need nothing more than some bended plexiglass. See Craig's full design and instructions here.
If you can not bend plexiglass yourself you may want to consider using an Acrylic stand. I could only find big ones but I know that there is a smaller version from my local coffee bar.
This got me thinking on alternatives to gel holders and the thing that popped to mind was name tag pockets. Those are pretty cheap and once you place on over your flash, you can freely insert and remove colorful gels.
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Comments
Great idea. Unfortunately,
Great idea. Unfortunately, if you are not into acrylic and have a heat bender, the cost of making these are prohibative. The sign stand idea is ok, but the angle of the signs is usual not 90 degrees, thus making it a non-working or at minimum, a hackneyed solution. The nametags do have some possiblity though.
re: acrylic
Thanks Sean,
I guess that you do need some equipment. When ever I need something like this done, I go to the local workshop area next to my home and they can do pretty much everything - usually for exchange to a smile and coffee :) - if it is a two minutes job.
As for the small stands - the coffee close to my house has them in 90 degrees. how ever I could not find any on-line - if anybody knows where to get those, please ping the comments.
- udi
i am not a big fan of the plexiglass
there is no way for the gel to cool down.I have another method in mind I think I will built soon(very simple and cheap).
also the plexiglass will start to brown.
if your not going to take many shots/min it should be ok....
Solution
Robotic,
The .5mm plexiglass may be a little thin for this application. I have found success using 1mm Lexan, which is about a zillion times tougher than traditional Plexiglass. In addition to it's durability, I believe the Lexan may insulate the gel a little better as well (but I'm certainly no polymer engineer). Creating these apparati correctly leaves about a 2mm gap between the flash lens and the gel holder, which keeps the gels fairly cool. I haven't lost one yet, or even come close. I can't tell if this is due to the gap, the Lexan, laminating the gels or using TTi instead of manual flash. Personally, I have had great success using these.
Do you lose any light
Do you lose any light shooting through a couple layers of clear plexi?
Rubber bands do the trick
Rubber bands hold my gels in place perfectly. Stacking them up is no problem (using a bit of blue tack helps them from sliding around) and the rubber band makes it very quick to put on and take of the gels.
Cheers/Peter
Shelf edge ticket holders
The acrylic option is a bit prohibitive if you don't have a heat bender but your name tag option got me thinking. I contacted a couple of point of sale suppliers here in the UK and requested some samples of supermarket shelf edge ticket holders (not sure of the US term for them). Perfect solution - right angled, slot for the gel, light weight and cost nothing :-)
Steve
This is a great idea
I'll bet the nice guys at the supermarket will be happy to provide one edge for the enthusiastic photographer.
I'm gonna ask tomorrow.
Thanks for this great idea, Steve.
Using these in combination with other DIY diffusers
I made four of these fairly easily out of 1mm Lexan. I used 1mm Lexan ($12 at Home Depot) after trying .5mm Acrylic which proved too easy to burn with my torch ($11 at Home Depot including the propane). The key is heating it evenly and paying close attention to the melting point. If it begins to bubble it is too hot. You have to feel for when the Lexan begins to give and heat it just a touch more until it becomes very pliable. You have about 10 seconds to work the material once it is pliable and I found that pressing down on the folded portion of the gel holder with a piece of wood creates a nice tight location for the gels. I also used clear tape to "laminate" my gels which makes them much easier to work with. The Lexan is EXTREMELY tough to break using the traditional score and snap method, but can be done with a little sweat and elbow grease.
My main point in this post is that connecting the gel holders with Velcro allows you to use other homemade diffusers in combination. I did this by simply attaching the soft sides of the Velcro to the back of the gel holders (right on top of where the rough Velcro is attached underneath) and sticking other modifiers on top. All in all, this system has given me a bunch more lighting options at a fraction of the cost of buying new stuff ($35 including the diffusing materail and Velcro).
Kudos to all of the inventors who are sharing their ideas here, you're doing the rest of your community a great service.
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