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am terminat cu selectia ...desi calitatea video e mai slabuta il voi lasa macar sa va faceti o idee

Tutorial: Light strip softbox

Home made light strip softbox.

tutorial preluat de la nickwheeleroz(flickr)

To build the light strip softbox, I used a long thin cardboard box that originally contained a cloths rack from Ikea. I have two of these and intend to make a second light strip when I have another hour or so spare.



For the lining of the box I used a combination of aluminium foil and aluminium tape. I also used some spray glue to fasten the foil and duct tape to join everything together.



The first step was to strengthen the joins of the box with duct tape. The box was originally held together with thin plastic tape and was a bit flimsy.



Once the box was prepared, I rolled out the aluminium foil shiny side down and traced out the shape of the bottom of the box using a magic marker.



I then cut the bottom lining out using a pair of scissors. At this point, I wished I had splashed out a couple of extra dollars and got the heavy duty foil as the cheap stuff is very flimsy and tears at the first hint of the scissors.



The next step was to spray the glue over the bottom of the box and carefully place the foil inside. Once in place, I smoothed it down using a cloth.



I repeated this process for the two long sides of the box. I then used the aluminium tape on the two short sides and also ran a strip along the top edge of the two long sides for extra strength.



With the box fully lined, I stood it on its end and traced out the outline of my small strobe with a magic marker.



Using a craft knife I cut just inside the outline of the flash head. It is important that you don’t make the hole too big as you want a nice snug fit. This way, friction alone will hold the flash head in place.



Here you can see the flash pushed into the hole.



I did a test fire of the flash to check everything out so far.



The next step is to add a diffuser to the front of the box. For this I used some cheap thin white cotton fabric. I placed the box face down with the front flaps open on the cotton and traced the outline plus an inch (2cms) with a pencil.



Next I cut out front diffuser.



Pressing down on the top of the box, I folded the excess fabric along the length of one flap back and taped it down with duct tape.



With the box flipped over, I sprayed glue on the flap I had just tapped and pulled the fabric tight over it. I smoothed it down with a cloth. Be careful at this point not to apply too much glue or it will soak into the cotton (as you can see here).



I applied a row of fold back clips to the side I had just glued and then I applied more glue to the other flap and pulled the fabric tight across. I used more fold back clips to hold everything in place while it dried.



The last step was to tape the fabric to the underside of the flap and to tape back the two short ends.



That’s it, one light strip softbox. I did find that it didn’t balance very well with the weight of the flash making it top heavy. I overcame this problem by putting two large fold back clips on the bottom of the front flaps. I could adjust these to create little feet that made the whole thing much more stable.

I did a couple of test fires to try it out. Here is the box with the front flaps wide open.



Here is the flash fired on the same power but with the flaps closed down.



I made one final modification to the design and added a pair of black socks to the front flaps. These help control light spill when the box is used with the flaps closed down. To make them I just took a length of black fabric twice as wide as the flaps and just slightly longer. I folder it in half length ways and taped the ends over with duct tape. I then just slid it over the flaps.

Tutorial: Home made softbox

HOME MADE SOFTBOX

tutorial preluat de pe adresa : fredmiranda

The main problem with your average flash gun is the shadows are too harsh. This is determined by the light quality and the size of the flash head. There are many ways to overcome this problem like bouncing the light off the ceiling. This effectively makes a very large flash surface but tends to produce unwanted shadows underneath the subject. For example makes bags under the eyes stand out like sore thumbs.

There are many commercial products on the market to produce nice soft even light, but these are expensive and not always that good.

Here is the Stofen diffuser. It fits on the front of the flash head

Without Stofen

With Stofen

I have one, and its great for the kit bag when travailing, but you can see from the pictures below that for the purpose of diffusing light its better than nothing but really not that good.

So what to do, well you could try to make your own softbox, it is not that difficult and will cost you next to nothing, and you will see gives far superior performance to commercial offerings.

The items you will need are:

• Stiff picture mounting card, A0 size about 2-3mm thick, at least one side must be white
• All purpose glue for porous materials
• Heavy duty packaging tape
• Translucent material, tissue paper, baking grease proof paper, I prefer drafting film because its really strong and doesn't crease
• Scalpel or craft knife, straight edge, and cutting surface
  

Step 1:

Decide on your final size for the sofbox. It should be as large as possible, without blocking the lens. Some flash guns have sensors on the front to measure automatic flash, you will have to be creative to avoid blocking those. Here is a really old one with a shape for the Canon 430 ez flash gun. This worked really well but was an early model and didn't look very good. For my latest softbox the final size was 200mm x 385mm, designed for a Canon 10D with 28-105 lens.

Old Style softbox for sensor on flash gun

Step 2:

Measure the sides of your flash head, add up all the sides, and cut a strip of mounting card about 20mm wide and however long you measured. This will be the fiction fit hole to fit over the flash gun head. Cut another piece of card 20mm wide by the length of the longest side. Mark and score the long strip then fold so it fits around your flash head then glue the other card on the join. Make sure the join is half way along one of the longest sides. Take the mount off the flash and clip then leave to dry. For the Canon 430 ez this was a strip 220mm x 20mm, and one piece 70mm x 20mm.

Softbox friction fit mount

Step 3:

Mark out on the card all the main sides to the softbox, use the mount you just glued and the final size of the softbox to determine the angles etc. Mine was achieved by drawing a rectangle 140mm (the depth of the softbox) x 385mm, then use the mount in the center of the longest side and extend lines from the edges of the mount to the corners. Repeat for all sides. This produces the sides of the softbox. Don't forget here to add 10mm tabs on the ends this makes it easier to glue the diffuser and attach the flash mount.

Final Softbox

Step 4:

To ensure you have even lighting over such a large area, you will need to put a second diffuser halfway inside the softbox, just mark and score some card, fold to make right angles brackets and glue on the sides you made in Step 3. So when all glued into the softbox shape this provides a small ledge to glue and sheet of diffusing film.

Step 5:

This is where you find out if all you angles are correct. Glue all the sides together onto the flash mount you made earlier, one at a time letting them dry as you go. Makes sure you have the white side of the card inside the softbox. Use the packaging take along the seams to give stability. Then cut a small rectangle of the diffusing film and glue inside the softbox on the ledge. Then cut the final large rectangle of diffusing film and glue to the outside of the softbox. Let it all dry before trying (I know its tempting to use but try to resist).

It is a lot easier to make than explain so don't let it put you off, the results are really great. So why not have a go. See the results below.

Without Homemade Softbox

With Homemade Softbox