The Green Bean Hair Light

Reader Jerry Hamby just sent in this great hair light project. It is made from a cheapo 45 ws ebay flash and – believe it or not – a green-bean super value can (the kind you don’t want to eat too much of at one time). Just before sharing his tutorial with you, allow me to extend two small tips:

1. Empty the bean can before using it.

2. Do not empty it alone. 

Now, to the tutorial.

Use a 14.5oz Great Value green bean can and a piece of plumbing
drainage PVC to make a fairly useful hairlight. The flash used for this project is a cheapo 45 ws ebay flash. I did not personally tried those, but it looks like they provide some nice light for 10 dollars or so. See the materials in the image below. (Conserved peas should work as well…)

Drill a hole in the bottom of the green
bean can and enlarged it with a small grind wheel. The hole should be
large enough to emit light into the external PVC pipe. 

If you are using a small optical slave light, cut a
small square into the top of the can. This is necessary to allow your
main lights to trigger the small 45ws light. This hole was cut with a
saber saw.

Hot glue the PVC pipe (left over from a
kitchen sink project) to the bottom of the green bean can and tape
the green bean can open end to the strobe light. Be careful to remove
the small tag of metal where the can opener operated.

Below you can find the
final product for the hair light.  Go back to the top for a peek at the result.

The total
cost was less than a dollar and it works quite well.  Hope you find it
useful.

 

Have a project you would like to share? send me a note.