Homemade lighting

stepollard1 · Jan 12, 2011

Hiya guys,

Just wondering if any of you have rigged up some homemade lighting/reflectors.
And if so what were your thoughts and results

Cheers Steve

ghache · Jan 12, 2011

Ive done a snoot with cardboard for my sb-600.
I used White cardboard :lmao::lmao:

Mike_E · Jan 12, 2011

I've built more gizmos, gobos and snoots than I can list.

Best advice? Save your money and save money by buying the real article the first time. If you decide that you don't need it later then sell it and get something else.

Buckster · Jan 12, 2011

Lighting itself is hard to do homemade because of the color temperatures and general lack of brightness.

Reflectors are easy and cheap though. You can use all kinds of stuff, from inexpensive poster board to foam core boards to tin foil on coat hangers - anything that will help to bounce the light you have. Just watch out for things that would introduce a color cast that you might not want.

Marc-Etienne · Jan 12, 2011

I made myself a DIY ring flash over Christmas break based on these videos. I made few modifications to improve the model, but it creates a nice smooth shadow. The guy in the video is on the forum actually.

Here is just a quick example of the shadow it creates. That is straight out of the camera, zero PP.

I also made myself a small soft box for macro use and a diffuser for my off-camera flash. Like Mike_E said, it's probably more worth it to save your money and buy the real thing if you are serious I would say. I'm just a noob that is learning and I'm pretty satisfied by the results of my DIY projects.

stepollard1 · Jan 13, 2011

Cheers for the info guys. All I am wanting is to be at home and take pics of my little sister and parents etc. So I dont know wether to fork out for the kit or not....oh decisions decisions