Diffusion material for softbox

Derrel · Nov 11, 2014

Buy yourself a cheap, white styrofoam ice chest. Use a steak knife to cut a rectangular cut-out in the bottom of it, so the flash will press-fit into the opening. Use wax paper as the diffusion material for the front, and hold it on with tape or push pins.

LIFOAM 30-Quart Styrofoam Cooler - Walmart.com

Super lightweight. You can line the inside with aluminum foil, or not.

astroNikon · Nov 11, 2014

Derrel said:
Buy yourself a cheap, white styrofoam ice chest. Use a steak knife to cut a rectangular cut-out in the bottom of it, so the flash will press-fit into the opening. Use wax paper as the diffusion material for the front, and hold it on with tape or push pins.

LIFOAM 30-Quart Styrofoam Cooler - Walmart.com

Super lightweight. You can line the inside with aluminum foil, or not.

you can keep your beer in it too ...

runnah · Nov 11, 2014

I only use the finest silks from the orient for my diffusion panels.

MichaelHenson · Nov 11, 2014

Derrel said:
Buy yourself a cheap, white styrofoam ice chest. Use a steak knife to cut a rectangular cut-out in the bottom of it, so the flash will press-fit into the opening. Use wax paper as the diffusion material for the front, and hold it on with tape or push pins.

LIFOAM 30-Quart Styrofoam Cooler - Walmart.com

Super lightweight. You can line the inside with aluminum foil, or not.

Brilliant! Might snag one of these on my way home this evening!

dannylightning · Nov 11, 2014

Waxed paper sounds like a good idea, Ill also try the t shirt, Ill make so I can interchange the diffusion material and try a few things out.

This is my plan, I want to make this out of stuff I have laying around the house. I have some thin bendable wire ( if I can find it ) and some thin cardboard to make the skeleton of this thing and than I plan to cover it with aluminum foil.. the plan is for this thing to be extremely light weight.

first I make a frame for the diffusion material to stretch over. and than I make a cardboard square that does not close all the way to slip over the speed light and than I can put a strap around it to hold it on.. than I use 4 thin strips of cardboard and 4 pieces of thin wire to attach the frame to the part that holds the speed light and than I wrap it in foil.

here are my awesome blueprints I just drew up so you guys can see what I am talking about. I swear I am a engineering genius, if anyone wants to buy a copy of my awesome design, only 3 easy payments of 999.95

this is something I might just throw away if it does not work well. I am probably going to make it 15x15. this will be something fun to play with until I decide what I am going to buy to diffuse my speed lights. if this works out well than awesome, if not ill throw her in the trash. should take about 10-15 minutes to make one of these.

here is the basic design

MOREGONE · Nov 11, 2014

I recently had the realization that those box spring skirts that come with Bed in Bag combo deals, usually have tons of material I think would be perfect for making a softbox out of. I of course realized this after I through out the couple I had.

dannylightning · Nov 11, 2014

I am looking at some of the links you guys are posting and some of those look pretty nice, since the flash on my camera is triggering the speed lights I probably need my speed light to be outside of the softbox and the lights probably need to be facing the camera

those PBL umbrellas look great but I am not sure how that would work out, the umbrella would probably block it from seeing the camera flash...also that little soft box from ebay looks pretty nice for a small soft box, I might actually pick up two of those since there what 11 bucks each.

I want to make my own though,

dannylightning · Nov 12, 2014

well I think I am gonna scrap the home made soft box, I started cutting the cardboard and its just got rigid enough, sure I could use thicker cardboard but than its not going to be super light weight.

I did order a couple of these PBL umbrella softboxes got a set of two for around 30 bucks, a few people have said they were good and the reviews are also good. I just hope they are not to big for my room but I am sure I can figure something out if they are.. I saw quite a few people saying they are using those with speed lights so they should work.

Amazon.com : PBL Photo Studio 40 inch Reflective Umbrella Softboxes Set of Two Steve Kaeser Photographic Lighting and Accessories : Umbrella Photography : Camera & Photo

MichaelHenson · Nov 13, 2014

dannylightning said:
well I think I am gonna scrap the home made soft box, I started cutting the cardboard and its just got rigid enough, sure I could use thicker cardboard but than its not going to be super light weight.

I did order a couple of these PBL umbrella softboxes got a set of two for around 30 bucks, a few people have said they were good and the reviews are also good. I just hope they are not to big for my room but I am sure I can figure something out if they are.. I saw quite a few people saying they are using those with speed lights so they should work.

Amazon.com : PBL Photo Studio 40 inch Reflective Umbrella Softboxes Set of Two Steve Kaeser Photographic Lighting and Accessories : Umbrella Photography : Camera & Photo

Yeah, mine just came in and they seem nice enough. Granted, I've never seen or touched a REALLY NICE diffusion umbrella or softbox...but whatever. I also picked up a styrofoam cooler and some wax paper to build a "Derrell-box." Can't wait to get it ready to go!

dannylightning · Nov 13, 2014

Nice, I might still try and make mine one of these weekends when I have nothing to do, I was thinking If I can find that wire I had I might be able to add a few pieces to make it work a little better.

After I started to cut my cardboard into strips I though this thing probably wont hold its own weight if I do end up using a old t shirt or something like that for the diffusion material. The cardboard felt much stronger before I cut it into strips.

Allot of people seem to use value softboxes and umbrellas and they seem to work just fine. I watched a few videos from people using those 50 dollar constant lighting kits and they get nice photos with those.

photoguy99 · Nov 13, 2014

It's easier to cut four triangles of cardboard, and assemble them into a four sided pyramid. Think about that. Then chop the top off the pyramid by clipping the tips of the triangles, to make a hole for the speedlight.

Glue tinfoil to the inside of the cardboard.

Tape the truncated pyramid together.

Glue on wood scraps as needed for structural supports.

Derrel · Nov 13, 2014

Back in the 1980's MANY softboxes were made of Fome-Cor brand (Registered Trademark, Fome-Cor, no "a" in it!) board material. It is much lighter than cardboard, and much more rigid!!!! If you search on-line you can find blueprints for Fome-Cor softboxes, which I have personally seen up to 3x4 feet. As far as I know, today's common "rod and speedring" designed, factory-made, affordable fabric-based softboxes sprang up in the early 1980's, but before that time, light banks were either huge and VERY heavy wooden or metal-based boxes, often held up on massive floor mount stands...and so the common, affordable option was to go home-made using Fome-Cor boards and tape!

jag's photo blog: DIY Softbox Part 1.

FOME-COR® BOARD - 3A Composites Graphic Display

here is an article showing 24 different DIY softbox designs!
How To Build 24 DIY Softboxes - DIY Photography