Building a Reflector?

[danman281]

Ok I finally bought some cheap equipment to move my strobe around for portrait shots. Since lighting will be strong on one side, I'm guessing I might have a contrast problem (in some situations). Since I don't have another flash, I'm going to make a reflector.

How was your experience with homemade reflectors? What size should they be? Is gold tin foil better than silver?

 

[Dweller]

In a pinch I used a large piece of white card stock, which worked enough to do what I needed at the time, but I looked around for something better and found this:

http://leprechaun947.blogspot.com/2008/10/iowa-sunbounce.html

 

[shed301]

i've actually used a silver emergency blanket before to great effect, cheap, easy to cut up (if needed) and the beauty of it is you can hide it away in the glovebox of your car

 

[danman281]

Thanks for the help! good idea using pvc piping and silver emergency blanket. I wonder if a windshield cover will work as well.

 

[shed301]

there are a lot of cheap possibilities to be used to create a reflection, just controlling the brightness is a hard part. A buddy of mine used some panel steel once and if it got to bright he just threw some plastic over it to act as a difuser.. cheap , primitive methods but still produced some nice results

 

[Garbz]

I have experience. Tried about 3 or 4 different types, and then bought one on ebay for $20AU (yes about $12US). It's a 5in1 reflector with white black silver gold and translucent types.

There are somethings I find that diy does not make sense for and this is one of them.

 

[Dweller]

I have experience. Tried about 3 or 4 different types, and then bought one on ebay for $20AU (yes about $12US). It's a 5in1 reflector with white black silver gold and translucent types.

There are somethings I find that diy does not make sense for and this is one of them.

At that price, I would agree. I have looked at a couple of the 5-in-1 reflectors and have yet to see one locally under $100. I had no idea that they could be found on ebay so cheaply, but now know to keep an eye out.

eta: wow! sure enough. Thanks for the tip Garbz!

 

[CraniumDesigns]

i used to work for a graphic design firm and we had a studio. the photogs there would just use white foam board to bounce light. cheap and worked well. this was all for taking pics of food, as they took all the shots for safeway's grocery shots.