DIY Reflector Stand, using your own tripod :)

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

Hey guys! I'm picking up DIY tutorials on my site again and decided to do one showing how to make a reflector stand out of your already owned tripod (because who really wants to pay for something new when they can tweak what they have?) anyway, the project costs $4.87, everything was picked up from my local Lowe's and the stand works great! Feel free to check it out and give your feedback on my tutorial.

Love & Ink Photography - DIY


Thanks!

 

[robbins.photo]

Hey guys! I'm picking up DIY tutorials on my site again and decided to do one showing how to make a reflector stand out of your already owned tripod (because who really wants to pay for something new when they can tweak what they have?) anyway, the project costs $4.87, everything was picked up from my local Lowe's and the stand works great! Feel free to check it out and give your feedback on my tutorial.

Love & Ink Photography - DIY


Thanks!

Four dollars and eighty seven cents? My goodness woman, the stuff doesn't grow on trees you know.

Lol

(Tell hubby he owes me for that one... lol)

 

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

Of course you would complain about the price! Lol, did you give it a look? I think its a pretty neat project.

 

[ShaneF]

Here is one for you, i just figured out the other day a foam beer cozy makes a great snoot for your flash.

 

[Big Mike]

I love a good DIY project....but I don't think it will work well with an actual reflector.
Firstly, a folding reflector (the most common type) has a rigid outer band but are otherwise made of fabric. In other words, if you clamp it in one spot, it won't hold it's position unless you are hanging it. If you could rig up a pole with two clamps, you might have something.

Also, larger reflectors works much better/easier than smaller ones....but the larger the reflector, the bigger of a sail it will become. In even a slight breeze, a reflector will want to flutter & move around. This can be infuriating when you're trying to light up your subject.
Even the fancy 'store bought' reflector stands are all but useless if the wind kicks up.


I still think that the best way to hold up a reflector is a VAL. Especially if you already have one lying around.
http://robinwoodphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/assitant-emmie-0859.jpg

It should only cost you this much...
http://www.clker.com/cliparts/d/1/p/Z/A/g/chocolate-chip-cookie-md.png

 

[FITBMX]

I like it!

 

[Derrel]

About 25 years ago I made a similar reflector and a small tripod, using a piece of thin stainless steel that I salvaged off of a baby posing table the studio was replacing with a new one. It was about 36 inches wide by 28 inches from front to back, and it already had MULTIPLE, tapped 1/4 x 20 N.C. threaded fixtures welded to the underside of it! I used it for many years. I guess it was 1/8 inch thick steel, and I painted one side white, and left the other side its natural stainless steel color. I used it as what J. Barry O'Rourke's book How To Photograph Women Beautifully called the "under-chin reflector", and it worked superbly on a regular, inexpensive tilt-style tripod head! Worked perfectly! The mounting hole was right in the center of the sheet of steel, and when cinched down, the rubber-covered mounting on the tripod's tilt head area fit tightly, and it supported and kept the sheet right in position. A tilt-head tripod head was actually the perfect way to mount the doggone thing!

http://www.amazon.com/How-Photograph-Women-Beautifully-Professional/dp/0817440046

A solid metal or wooden reflector, or even a piece of foam-core board (aka "art board"), or even a piece of formica can work wonderfully this way, especially for clamshell type lighting setups, where the main light is overhead and shining down, and the reflector is placed right around the chest level on headshots. The main light creates a nice catchlight at the top of the eyeball, and the reflector fills in shadows under the chin, and also creates a very nice, defining catchlight across the bottom of the eyeball, which adds a huge dimensional "cue". An overhead , high-positioned light and a just-out-of-camera-view under-chin reflector is STILL a staple of the headshot/beauty shooters...you'll see it on America's Top Model and so on. It just "works".

 

[robbins.photo]

Of course you would complain about the price! Lol, did you give it a look? I think its a pretty neat project.

I did - looked very cool actually. Might come in handy at some point for me, though I don't do a lot of portrait shoots I could pick up an old tripod or two and give it a go.

 

[petrochemist]

I still think that the best way to hold up a reflector is a VAL. Especially if you already have one lying around.
http://robinwoodphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/assitant-emmie-0859.jpg

It should only cost you this much...
http://www.clker.com/cliparts/d/1/p/Z/A/g/chocolate-chip-cookie-md.png

I have a few alternate versions of you VAL, unfortunately they cost me a lot more than your price, and frequently don't work anyway!

Amber's solution is rather small for a reflector, but variations of the thread on a clamp can be very useful:

Fit a ball head to the clamp and use instead of a tripod (generally needs a bigger clamp)
Fit a flash to the clamp & fix to a tree/gate...
Use to hold flag/shade/windbrake or even background (might want 2 or more tripods/clamps if not for macro)

 

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

I love a good DIY project....but I don't think it will work well with an actual reflector.
Firstly, a folding reflector (the most common type) has a rigid outer band but are otherwise made of fabric. In other words, if you clamp it in one spot, it won't hold it's position unless you are hanging it. If you could rig up a pole with two clamps, you might have something.

Also, larger reflectors works much better/easier than smaller ones....but the larger the reflector, the bigger of a sail it will become. In even a slight breeze, a reflector will want to flutter & move around. This can be infuriating when you're trying to light up your subject.
Even the fancy 'store bought' reflector stands are all but useless if the wind kicks up.


I still think that the best way to hold up a reflector is a VAL. Especially if you already have one lying around.
http://robinwoodphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/assitant-emmie-0859.jpg

It should only cost you this much...
http://www.clker.com/cliparts/d/1/p/Z/A/g/chocolate-chip-cookie-md.png

The tripod I use gets pretty tall so I could always "hang" the reflector (its a circular one) from the clamp and raise my tripod to get up higher for what I need instead of clamping to the bottom and letting it fly high in the wind. Obviously if someone is looking for a real deal reflector stand this is not the one for them, simply a cheap fix in the meantime, think it would work well indoors.

 

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

About 25 years ago I made a similar reflector and a small tripod, using a piece of thin stainless steel that I salvaged off of a baby posing table the studio was replacing with a new one. It was about 36 inches wide by 28 inches from front to back, and it already had MULTIPLE, tapped 1/4 x 20 N.C. threaded fixtures welded to the underside of it! I used it for many years. I guess it was 1/8 inch thick steel, and I painted one side white, and left the other side its natural stainless steel color. I used it as what J. Barry O'Rourke's book How To Photograph Women Beautifully called the "under-chin reflector", and it worked superbly on a regular, inexpensive tilt-style tripod head! Worked perfectly! The mounting hole was right in the center of the sheet of steel, and when cinched down, the rubber-covered mounting on the tripod's tilt head area fit tightly, and it supported and kept the sheet right in position. A tilt-head tripod head was actually the perfect way to mount the doggone thing!

How to Photograph Women Beautifully: Professional Techniques for Creating Glamourous Pictures: J. Barry O'Rourke: 9780817440046: Amazon.com: Books

A solid metal or wooden reflector, or even a piece of foam-core board (aka "art board"), or even a piece of formica can work wonderfully this way, especially for clamshell type lighting setups, where the main light is overhead and shining down, and the reflector is placed right around the chest level on headshots. The main light creates a nice catchlight at the top of the eyeball, and the reflector fills in shadows under the chin, and also creates a very nice, defining catchlight across the bottom of the eyeball, which adds a huge dimensional "cue". An overhead , high-positioned light and a just-out-of-camera-view under-chin reflector is STILL a staple of the headshot/beauty shooters...you'll see it on America's Top Model and so on. It just "works".

That is extremely cool! How lucky were to find such a thing?? I'm a scrap yard junkie. If you're able to craft something yourself for pennies and have a unique piece no one else has, why the hell not?

 

[MOREGONE]

Here is one for you, i just figured out the other day a foam beer cozy makes a great snoot for your flash.

So done that too lol

 

[sk66]

The tripod I use gets pretty tall so I could always "hang" the reflector (its a circular one) from the clamp and raise my tripod to get up higher for what I need instead of clamping to the bottom and letting it fly high in the wind. Obviously if someone is looking for a real deal reflector stand this is not the one for them, simply a cheap fix in the meantime, think it would work well indoors.

Hang a larger piece of foamcore from it and you've got a descent setup for seated poses (and maybe a few other situations).
Not really getting why you needed the standoff and bolt. It would seem to me that you could have just used a 1/4-20 nut to secure the clamp directly to the plate. That would probably have saved you ~25%...