DIY: Small Circular Softboxes

Photographer and design student Hunter Frerich came up with this really cool DIY for building a small circular soft box. It kinda resembles one of the first projects on DIYP (which is the one that actually pushed me to start the site) but is waaaaay nicer and probably gives way better light. It kinda resembles the Honl Traveller8, but exchanges the high $$ for sewing skills.

It is pretty light weight, so it can go as an on camera flash diffuser, but using a Gorillapod or a Nastyclamp, you can stick one pretty much anywhere.

You’ll Need:

A sewing machine
Spray Glue
Velcro
12”x30” of black fabric for the body
12”x30” of aluminum foil
11”x11” of textured plastic or white fabric for the front diffuser

Instructions

Download and print this template. It’s 11”x17” but if you only have a standard printer just print 1/2 sheets at once.

Spray-glue your aluminum foil to the black fabric being sure to coat both pieces.
Spritz some glue on the body piece templates so you can temporarily attach them to the fabric and remove them after cutting.

Sew the sections together, always fabric touching fabric and allow a 1/4” seam.

flip the sections inside out, fold the seam flat and throw a stitch down the middle.
Continue for all 6 sections but don’t close it up just yet.

Sew a simple hem on both ends.

If you have a standard flash just sew on two opposing Velcro tabs to the skinny end before sealing up the circle.

If your flash already has a strip of loop-velcro mounted around it’s end you may want to just sew hook-velcro around the inside.

If you choose the latter, be sure and fold over and sew the hem.

Now close up the body.

For a beauty-dish effect, cut out an 11” circle of textured plastic and spray-glue a 4” paper/fabric circle in its center.
For a more center weighted, yet diffused effect, just use white fabric.

Sew or pin it in place before attempting to sew the full circle.

Lastly, fold your previous hem over and sew down another full line around the circumference.

Done! Now go try it out.

I always keep at least one in my camera bag because they fold down to almost nothing. To get it back into shape, just push the sides outwards through the hole in back.