Can DIY Modifiers Compete Against Pro Grade Modifiers?
Oct 15, 2014
Laya Gerlock
Laya Gerlock is a Portrait and Product photographer based in the Philippines. His passion is teaching and sharing his knowledge in Photograpy and has been doing this for 6 years.
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Last week I wrote about why you would want to do a DIY photography project, but can it match up to pro gear? Challenge… Accepted!
This week I did a whole photoshoot using only DIY modifiers for main lights. With the help of my girlfriend and her friends to model for me, the challenge was on.
The idea behind challenge was to prove that making your own modifiers and equipment is not all that bad compared to branded expensive material. (And before the first comment starts coming in, let me say that I do own a couple of Westcott softboxes and umbrellas, and I use them when needed or when working with high end clients, I just really like my DIY’s).
To start the shoot I used a DIY beauty dish (comparable here) as the main light boomed above the subject, and the subject really close to the grey wall in the studio.
I wanted a darker background so by moving my subject away from the background I can darken the grey wall.
To fill the shadow on the model, I got my DIY music stand triflector (comparable here) and placed it at the bottom of model.
My setup for this shot.
I moved my setup to a white seamless paper and pointed a bare flash at the background to make it slightly white.
After that I used my 4 feet DIY ringlight (comparable here) for my light source. I started by only using the diy ring light as the mainlight.
I was shooting at tungsten white balance because of the color of the bulbs in the ringlight. I placed a bare flash behind the subject pointing at the background, the light became blue colored because of the tungsten WB I was using, very similar to this technique.
Using a bare flash, I placed illustration board with cutouts to create these shadows. (comparable here)
The last setup we did is a shot on white. For the white background I used a big umbrella on the back of the subject to also get some spill on the side of the face.
So there it is, a whole photoshoot using only diy lighting modifiers. Share your own diy photoshoot below in the comments!
Laya Gerlock
Laya Gerlock is a Portrait and Product photographer based in the Philippines. His passion is teaching and sharing his knowledge in Photograpy and has been doing this for 6 years.
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9 responses to “Can DIY Modifiers Compete Against Pro Grade Modifiers?”
Thanks for the shootout Laya. This is an excellent article. One of the best I’ve read here on DIY Photog. Just goes to prove that one can do great things with less costly, home brewed gear and that it doesn’t always take high-end brands to make quality images. Having a model with a creamy-smooth completion, even skin tone and great makeup is a plus too.
Sadly, in the professional world, clients are “Brand Snobs.” DIY might do just as good or better than branded gear but bring that on a pro location or have a client in the studio and the photographer would be labeled as an amateur and likely not considered again regardless of his/her talent.
DIY Photography blog owners take note: More articles like this please.
J. Naphron
note taken :)
cheers and thank you :)
Laya, a question: Your models have soft, youthful complexions and great bone structure. The soft lighting just adds to the look but are there any cases in the above examples where you used a post processing workflow to enhance the skin, eyes and makeup? Basically I am asking how much of these images is your lighting. how much is what nature gave these women and how much is post processing.
Hmmmmm…
woops, sorry about that :)
It’s 90% lighting and preparation, and just 10% photoshop, normally for the photoshop part is just cleaning using healing brush, and a little bit of levels :)
It’s not the modifiers that count , it’s what you do with them.
All this proves is that light is light. It doesn’t matter if it goes through (or is reflected
off) a $300 modifier or one made from scrap material. The expensive modifier might be a lot more convenient and look prettier, but the principles of using light don’t change. This is why the DIY articles are so interesting.
This is an amazing post. Thanks for pulling it all together like that. Hope more shooters will do the same. Hey maybe I will. LOL. Thanks again!