I Got Lighting Goodies!

[musicaleCA]

Lumiquest's SoftBox, QuikBounce, and FXtra (basically a holder and a bunch of gels; made sense for me though since I'm starting from scratch and it was relatively cheap).

EEEeee!!!

Those are my pretties. The set-up is intuitive, and I like the QuikBounce; works great in an environment where one can bounce from a ceiling but want to throw some light toward forward too. And the velcro means it's relatively easy to take-off altogether and just bounce the light from some where else. A great little device for on-camera flash.

 

[andrew99]

Sounds cool! Which Lumiquest Softbox? I just got an Aurora minimax softbox which is 6" x 8", I think very similar to the LQ Softbox III.

 

[JerryPH]

Uhhmm... one of the things one can expect when posting photo on a photo forum is useless comments like mine... learn to get your pics in focus! LOL!

I found Lumiquest stuff somewhat overpriced and a little DIY gave me not only a better product, but for about 1/10th the price.

For example, a one dollar bounce card:

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Basically 2 pieces of foam core with a little velcro. I bought 10 pieces of white and 10 pieces of black for $10. The one above is my smaller version that I use when I have the flash on camera, and I have a larger one (11" tall), when I am using off camera flash. The diffusion is excellent and I am surprised at how well this works.

I am making another one that is a little stiffer, and this is going to raise the price a whole 50 cents more, with a plastic mesh interior sandwiched between the black and white foamcore pages and a larger velcro surround so it can be securely held on any flash, even one without velcro on it.

For $12 in materials, I have enough to make 18 bounce cards of various sizes for testing purposes and I found that I only need 2 sizes, one for on camera flash and one for off camera flash (big and biggest... lol), these gave me the best results for my needs. They are also WAY more effective than any stofen or plastic cap diffuser when used in this manner (a stofen still has a place in my bag, just not for use in taking pictures of people).

 

[andrew99]

Oh, I didn't realize there was a pic in the original post! My work is silently blocking images from certain hosts. I now see you have the softbox that can be used when your flash is mounted on the camera.

Jerry, did you sew the black side to the white side? I can't quite see how they're attached in your pics.