DIYPhotography.net

About three weeks ago, I asked DIYP readers to build a softbox. It was meant for fun and education. To add some zap the good guys at B&H chipped in with a Westcott Apollo Speedlight set and a strobe (Nikon SB700/Canon 430EX II) for the best design.

I literally fell of my chair seeing all the great submissions. The amount of creativity with the build was huge with sizes and materials covering just about any possible element on the face of the planet (including the rare element IKEAtnium). If you ask me quite a few of the bunch would have had a successful design career.

The contest ended up with 70 submission ranging on all the spectrum
of softboxes:

• The first obvious choice is size, and there are submissions with as small as half a letter paper to monster47" softboxes.
• Another critical factor was the materials, while some
  opted for "clothy and airy" using fabrics, tent rods, and umbrella
  skeletons, others opted for strong and sturdy and used corrugated plastic and
  plywood.
• Mounting ranges from custom metal brackets through friction fit and we even had one yogurt cup mount.

It is very impressive to see how some set out design goals (or briefs in design lingo) and held up pretty well to their intents.

Here we go with 24 DIY Softboxes which display the variety of softboxes you can built at home. There are some great ideas inside for on budget lighting so visit them all. Click each entry banner to see the full tutorial. There were more good design but I tried not to repeat similar designs in the post so each tutorial will have some added value. Click to continue ›

We featured a few beauty dishes before, one made from a turkey pan, and one made from soup bowls. (Even when it seems like DIY, it is actually about food).

With a recent mention about the connection between DIYP and IKEA, I thought that it would be fun to feature a beauty dish made with the very appropriate named IKEA FOTO.

It is a simple build, the smarts here are in the bracket that takes the load of the strobe head and allows for easy mounting on a lightstand or a boom. Click to continue ›

Wouldn't it be nice if your DIY Ring Flash was perfect. I mean, really perfect - almost pro like.

What If it had superb even light, looked slick and was made from top notch materials? It would be nice wouldn't it? What if that Ring Flash only cost as much as  a large pizza at Dominos?

What if for even less you could easily mount two (or four) strobes on one light stand and have full on axis light?

Well, I got some exiting news for you! Click to continue ›

Lightsoop is a simple device that bounces your camera-attached strobe off the walls and ceiling when you shoot in a small room.

The logics behind it are very similar to the ones behind the Garry Fong Lightsphere. Only this device attaches to your on camera flash, and uses a mirror to throw the light, where the Fong uses a translucent ball.

Way back we showed how an effect similar to the Lightsphere can be created using a Yogurt cup (free Tsiziki recipe included). synthetic_meat shows how a similar effect to the Lightscoop can be achieved with a bonbon box. Click to continue ›

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I would imagine that after yesterday's killer tutorial you'd want something simple.

Well, here it is: A super easy macro lighting modifier.

Ok, you got me. It is a Pringles can... Again. This time courtesy of Flickr user Steve Kushnir.

If you are a macro shooter, this will probably solve both your lighting issues and your snack issues with one swish. Click to continue ›

Here's the thing. If you are using the "The Strobist Collection" gels from Rosco (which we reviewed here. You know that they are really great. But they are a bit undersized to be velcro-ed to a speedlight. No room on both sides of the gels to attach them to the flash.

Mike Errecart is going to show you how to fix this with a very simple hack after the jump Click to continue ›

If you're into ring-flashes, this should be one of the most fun projects ever. It mixes together some paper, glue, scissors and, of course a strobe to print and then fold your ring flash.

Click to continue ›