DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

DIY – The Plaster Spatula Lighting Stand

Aug 31, 2007 by Udi Tirosh Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

DIY - The Plaster Spatula Lighting StandOne of the challenging lighting setups that I have encountered deals with setting up a lighting environment in small spaces. Spaces like working dens, children rooms and offices. Those places are sometimes dark and not well lit. The solution for this problem is simple – use flashes. One or two hot shoe flashes can easily give you the light you need. For creativity sake, you would like to take those flashes off camera like one of my favorite sites suggests. So where will you place those flashes? Obviously, you can not use a lighting stand – there is hardly any place for you, let alone your big lighting stands.

So what would you have in abundance in a working den? Let’s see…. If you’ve ever been in a lawyer office, you can’t escape the answer – they have books. Shelves and shelves of books. Do they actually read them? I don’t know. Can you, as a photographer use them? Heck yes!

In the following article, I will show you how to create a simple, fast to build, cool looking lighting stand from a plaster spatula and some books.

The first thing you will need is a plaster spatula, those come in really cheap. You can get a metal one or a plastic on, and there is no need to buy the high end spatulas, just buy the crummiest, cheapest, made in Taiwan most suitable spatula you can find.

You will also need an umbrella holder (AKA swivel). Or if you don’t have one a long 1/4″ bolt and nut. In general 1/4″ bolts are something usful to have around the house.

Lastly, you will need a portable flash like the SB-800 or SB28. And if you are using a hex and bolt or an umbrella holder with no hot shoe mount, you will need a hot shoe mount – you can get those at eBay for quite cheap.

Here is a picture with all the stuff together.

plaster_spatula_light_stand_01.jpg

The next step is easy – using either the 1/4 bolt or the umbrella holder, go through the hole at the end of the handle. If you ask me, it looks like those guys had flashes in their minds when they designed those spatulas.

Using a nut and a bolt along with a hot shoe adapter:

spatula_light_stand_02

Or with an umbrella holder:

spatula_light_stand_03

The rest is even easier – you mount the flash on the hot shoe adapter. Then you stick the flat side of the spatula between the books and the shelf. You gain great place to locate your flash, and the attorney can no longer say that he has no use for all those books lying around. In fact, for some of those books, this is probably the first time there were taken off the shelf for a long time.

Make sure you use heavy books though; otherwise the sentence “light will hit the floor” will take a sad meaning for you.

Here is what this thing looks like when it is mounted. I am using my cookbook shelf to avoid any comments about al the rash Sci-Fi that I am reading.

spatula_light_stand_04

One comment about spatulas and books: There are several types of spatulas: wide, narrow, long, short… I found the long spatulas to work best for me. The books really steady it well. If you are out of spatulas (I can resist writing this word over and over again…) you can also use a metal ruler.

And another comment about books: Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting is a great book to hold your flash, and if you also read it, you will learn how to use the very same flash that it’s holding. (Do not read and hold in the same time) 

The nice thing about this contraption is that you can use it to stick your flash any where:

  • If you are outside your house, you can stick it between the cricks in the wall (assuming you have a wall with cricks, which none of us have, of course)
  • You can stick it under a rock
  • You can stick it between almost any two wooden parts nailed together.
  • I am holding my self not to make a rude joke…

Post a comment if you see any other nice use for this.

Oh, and if you are short on space at your house too, check out the Super easy hardware store light-backdrop stand. Or if you have tons of space and loaded with tripods, check out to convert them to light stands.

Lastly – The Back to Basics series is running – check out the exposure and shutter speed articles.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Hack yourself a DIY Loupedeck stand from an IKEA laptop stand Default ThumbnailStudio Lighting – Cheap DIY Homemade Reflector Stand Default ThumbnailStudio Lighting – Home Made Cheap DIY Backdrop Stand This light stand – tripod hybrid is my best stand yet

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: flash

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.net

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

« Back to Basics – Exposure
DIY – Homemade Speedlite “Snoot” »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts

  • This year’s Nature TTL POTY winner puts global warming right in our faces
  • TTArtisan announces super-low-budget 500mm f/6.3 super telephoto lens
  • NASA reveals five photos of space objects invisible to human eye
  • Tamron’s 17-50mm f/4 Di III VXD lens ships in October
  • Facebook now lets you (legally) have multiple profiles

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy