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Making a Softbox Just Got Easier

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If you’ve been reading DIYP for a while now, you know that I am a fool for home made softboxes.

DIYP has featured all kind of softboxes, ranging from small light weight camera strobe to big studio photography strobes. Some are minutes to build and some are hours. Here is a list of some of the better softboxes we’ve had here on DIYP:

– The Best Softbox Ever (Image is from this project by Nick Wheeler)
– Two Great Weekend Projects – Striplight and Softbox
– Even Better Softbox Part One – The Build Process
– Even Better Softbox Part Two – The Test Results
– a home grown softbox
– Flash Mounted homemade DIY Softbox

One of the trickier parts of growing a softbox at home is the planning. The delicate work done by professionals to calculate the lengths of segments. The gentle work of trigonometry to calculate the angels. Light-less nights spent in dark basements with calipers.

(Actually it is the drawing of the the
individual pieces before you glue them together that is the real hard task)

[Read More…]

Win A Strobe And Softbox Set By Building A Softbox

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UPDATE: Contest is now closed for entries. Thanks everyone for the great and well constructed submissions. I will update with the winners shortly.

It’s been a long time since we had a healthy contest, one where you challenge your hands as well as your eyes.

The awesome guys over at B&H are sponsoring this awesome contest where we will be giving away a complete set of Westcott Apollo Speedlight set (values $109) along with a Nikon SB700 ($329.95) or a Canon 430EX II ($284), depending on your system. DIYP will be giving all those goodies to the best entry on our Build A Softbox Contest. Of course we could not let B&H carry the load all by themselves, so DIYP is going to chip in with a full set of the DIYP lighting kits line – a Ring Flash and Double Flash Bracket for the two runners up.[Read More…]

An in-depth look at the best macro photography light modifiers you can buy, or make yourself

Even though speedlights are incredibly useful for macro photography, they’re light does not always look flattering. Harsh shadows in unwanted places, blown-out highlights and strong aberrations are common issues. And even though strong, directed light can look good in many cases, diffused light looks more natural and generally more pleasing to the eye too.

The two following photos illustrate that effect:

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The $10 DIY Foamcore Softbox

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In this tutorial I will explain how I built the softbox used to take the image on the left. It is a 40cm X 40cm foamboard softbox that accepts a strobe. Kinda similar in size and effect to the Photoflex LiteDome XS which I use a lot out of the studio.

On the left image this softbox was used as key, see this lighting setup for another use of the softbox as fill.

It is a simple softbox to make and it takes about half an hour if you have mediocre cutting skills.[Read More…]

Lighting Setup: How to build and use a DIY Scrim in the Studio

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There are quite literally thousands of lighting modifiers on the market today, but which ones are good, which ones should you avoid and… can you make some of them yourself?

In this article I want to discuss: what a scrim is, what a scrim does, and how you can make a very simple scrim for yourself if you like the look it provides.

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Even Better Softbox Part Two – The Test Results

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Nick rocks again with a follow up on the Better Softbox – a comparison of softbox lining materials.

One of the questions asked in the comments when I built my first large softbox was “would a matte white finish on the interior give a more efficient output?” I had to admit, it had never crossed my mind to use anything other than aluminium foil as the lining material as I had just assumed this would be very efficient. After doing a bit of research on the internet I found a table with the following values listed for the reflective efficiency of various materials and finishes:[Read More…]

Studio DIY – Softboxing The World – A Home Grown Softbox

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A softbox is a studio thingy that professional photographers use on their studios. Why? for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, softboxes create a smoother light – less hotspots (yea – those are the bright, burnt our noses in your photos), anther is smoother shadows. Most professional models are shot with softboxes to get that glamorous, look. Softboxes are also great for macro shots – they produce even diffused light.

The only trouble starts when you head down the road to the store and want to get one of them nice wonders. They usually cost something like a small county side house. In this article I will demonstrate how to build a homemade studio softbox for just a few $$.[Read More…]

The Tasty Ice Cream DIY Softbox Container Pictorial

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When it comes to how to pictorials I guess no one does it better than Maciej Pietuszynski. (If you don’t think so, just check his Tilt-Shift Lens From A Shower Head, How To Instasuqare Your Camera’s View Finder and How To Give An Old Nifty-Fifty A New Life pictorials) This time Maciej shares how Spring cleaning drove him into making an ice cream softbox that doubles as a camera case.

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DIY Photography Lighting – The DIY Speed Strap

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I really wanted a speed strap. Ever since the restrictive light post over at Strobist, I wished for one of those magical straps. If you are not familiar with them look at David Honl’s site, it is filled with goodies.

“Why do you need one”, you ask? Because they are A – Really good at blocking light. B – Small and can get in my small bag when I go out for a shoot and C – They are just too cool that I could not effort not having one.

I even designed a new one. (Not so good, more on that in a few lines).

Then I decided that I am going to get one from Amazon. Since I (like my eight months son) can not delay satisfaction, must take photos to live, I made a new one that really works (and inspired by the Thomas Schwenger Complete Two Seconds Lighting Kit).[Read More…]

The Open Source Portrait – Equipment & Environment (Part 1)

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As promised, I thought it might be fun/helpful to walk through a portrait shooting session from start to finish using only Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS). This is my personal workflow, and hopefully I can do the subject some justice.


A Model Idiot.

I’m going to walk through the creation of a portrait of my friend Mairi that I did not too long ago. I had been wanting to shoot with Mairi for a while, and only recently got a chance to sit down and actually do it quickly. For reference, here is one of the final results that I’ll be walking through the process for:[Read More…]

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