# The ghetto DIY photography stuff thread.



## Garbz (Aug 13, 2007)

On the tail end of my homemade softbox thread there's been a suggestion to start a thread full of all sorts of home made equipment.

So here it is. If you have made something homemade to add to your camera, it doesn't matter if you even homemade the camera itself, post it here and if you can details of the device and link to example images. I think this would be a great way to help the people on a budget. 

Small softbox:





Example photograph: http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a241/Garbz01/junk/DSC_1074-1.jpg?t=1187058452
Makes a very soft light for the size. Made out of cardboard trapazoids, the insides lined with aluminium foil, and the front covered with a really thin sheet of paper.

Bigger bouncard:




Example photograph: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/215/483807189_65bdc080d7.jpg
Now this is fantastic. A fong lightsphear without the stupid price. I use this at weddings. It's just a sheet of inkjet paper. At first it was rubber banded on but then to get a more "professional" look I velcroed it onto the flash. This goes with me everywhere in my bag and gets used a lot.

Reflector:




Example Photograph http://farm1.static.flickr.com/222/486068627_d625ec74d6.jpg
A sheet of cardboard with some aluminium foil on the front. The backside also has white paper stuck on for the multipurpose requirements. There's not too much saving here though since a cheap reflector can be had on ebay for $15

Softbox/Shade screen:




Example Photograph: http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a241/Garbz01/junk/DSC_1294-Edit.jpg
Now at first I was going to make a softbox using a white sheet and a real estate for sale sign, and it does act like one outside, but this now also doubles as a translucent shade screen, and if you put it inside and fire the flash from behind it the spill light gives one of the softest single light sources I have ever seen.

Ring Flash:




Example Photograph:http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a241/Garbz01/junk/DSC_5205.jpg
The newest addition to my rig. I haven't had the chance to use it on something decent yet but it does work quite well on small macro. It halos a bit more on one side than the other but hey it's made of a circle of cardboard / alfoil, two rings on the outside made of aluminium foil, and a sheet of paper on the top. It is ... fragile at best. There are much better ones out there.


Next on the cards for me is a multipurpose flash trigger for sound light or electrical triggering. Should get some highspeed photography going soon. Also on the cards pending having decent income is a DIY stuido strobe made of 60000uf capacitors, xenon tubes, 3kV triggers, and a yet to be decided upon control system.

Ok post away, keep images small please


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## Don Simon (Aug 14, 2007)

This has to be one of the most useful threads I've seen, and that's with only one post. Look forward to see what others can add too. Great stuff!

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:


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## Big Mike (Aug 14, 2007)

Here is a great site, for this type of thing.

http://www.diyphotography.net/


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## Chris of Arabia (Aug 14, 2007)

Here's my contribution - one soft box






Made from an old Xerox printer box, a little balsa for stiffening, a couple of cans of white paint and some drafting film. Makes for shots like this one...






I need to work a little on my lighting, but not a bad start


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## chrisk121 (Aug 17, 2007)

DIY mini tripod

Will be easier to bend if made out of copper house wire. I made mine out of a wire coat hanger.




For some reason, my image host won't allow portrait images
http://www.instructables.com/id/E0PY4KCOYZEV2Z5IT7/


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## Garbz (Aug 19, 2007)

easier to bend yes, but will it still support the old 80-200 then  I saw something of a similar effect but different application. Basically they were using copper wire, but long ones to allow you to wrap it around poles and mount a camera on something rather than stand it on a tripod.

Nice work


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## Garbz (Aug 20, 2007)

What is it? A sound based trigger for a flash. I haven't given it a test shot yet owing to the fact that I used a high quality and not very sensitive frequency measurement microphone so nothing short of taking the thing and banging it against something hard triggers it as yet, but it's coming along quite well


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## jon_k (Aug 20, 2007)

Garbz said:


> What is it? A sound based trigger for a flash. I haven't given it a test shot yet owing to the fact that I used a high quality and not very sensitive frequency measurement microphone so nothing short of taking the thing and banging it against something hard triggers it as yet, but it's coming along quite well



Interesting. What was your motivation to build this?


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## Garbz (Aug 22, 2007)

Boredom. I'm an electrical engineer. I saw the circuit on DIYPhotography and though damn I actually have all those parts on my desk RIGHT NOW. 

Once I get the mic sensitivity figured out I may try breaking something. I found out the hard way a while back that lightbulbs are pressurised so maybe belting one with a hammer would be a good start. The OP originally used this circuit to photograph shooting things like fruits or glasses and such things.


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## drflet (Aug 23, 2007)

Here's a few I've run across:
*Ring flash:*
http://web.archive.org/web/20050827...kmaster/2005/02/build-your-own-ring-flash.htm

*Digital-Holga Hybrid:
*http://www.litratista.org/2006/04/29/homemade-lens-part-1-eos-holga/

My own contribution - my light box for macro photography:
http://www.cheapshooter.com/2007/07/26/do-it-yourself-pvc-light-box/


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## neea (Aug 25, 2007)

Wow. I like this thread!!!

I know what I'll be doing on my next days off : D


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## RacePhoto (Aug 27, 2007)

Big Mike said:


> Here is a great site, for this type of thing.
> 
> http://www.diyphotography.net/



Great. I was on that site a month ago, and lost the link, searched all over. Now you posted a link to it. Thanks!

I'm at work (my #2 job) so I can't post any projects right now. But I have two questions.

1) Where do I find Xenon flash tubes? I'm looking for industrial size, not little tiny ones. I have some strobe heads and the tubes are going back, I want to replace both at the same time, possibly make a light triggered slave out of another one of them.





(prequil response, since I added this after, the following post) I'll try the site and see. These aren't that unusual. It's a standard tube socket, with the bulb soldered into it, not a special bulb base. I think the same model light now uses a horseshoe shaped bulb, which may make no difference.

2) Anyone know why I went to Home Depot and bought the 99c Green Clamps? I can't find that website again. 


I'll post some pictures of DIY photo projects tonight.


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## Garbz (Aug 27, 2007)

1) go into the DIY strobe article at diyphotography.net and follow the links to a site where one guy sells the supplies for it. Talk to him and see if he has what you need.


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## Bifurcator (Aug 15, 2008)

Here's two from me:

Studio Grade diffuser and reflector stand.
Diffuser panels for macro or close-ups.
And a pretty good one from lextalionis: 

Hardware store ring flash.


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## JerryPH (Aug 15, 2008)

There's the old bungee ball trick to get an off camera flash to be held on to railings, tree branches, outdoor lamp poles, etc...

9" bungee balls are available off Amazon for prices like 15 bucks for 5, or something like 19.00 for 50 of them.  I've yet to find them locally anywhere in Montreal, though... still looking.


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## Bifurcator (Aug 15, 2008)

Add a link to your remote trigger mod Jerry - that was pretty good!


And what the heck is a Bungee Ball? Oh: http://www.officeplayground.com/bungeeball.html Huh? How would that work?


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## andrew99 (Aug 15, 2008)

Bifurcator said:


> Add a link to your remote trigger mod Jerry - that was pretty good!
> 
> 
> And what the heck is a Bungee Ball? Oh: http://www.officeplayground.com/bungeeball.html Huh? How would that work?




Basically it's an elastic band with a ball at the end which allows you to make a loop.
http://nicepicslady.blogspot.com/2007/09/handy-tools-ball-bungee.html

Your link looks like more fun, though!


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## icassell (Aug 15, 2008)

Here's my DIY ringflash (with a Vivitar 283)












and here's a pic taken with it (I really haven't had much time to play with it since I finished making it a couple of weeks ago)






I got the design idea here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8472611@N04/sets/72157603816045949/


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## fabric (Aug 15, 2008)

cool thread..fred


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## fabric (Aug 15, 2008)

love it!  





icassell said:


> Here's my DIY ringflash (with a Vivitar 283)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## icassell (Aug 15, 2008)

fabric said:


> love it!



With the exception of paint/glue drying time, it only took a couple of hours to build and cost me <$30 (excluding the flash itself -- which comes out easily to use elsewhere).


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## fabric (Aug 15, 2008)

perfect papparazzo kit for those red-carpet entrees at cannes.


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## icassell (Aug 15, 2008)

fabric said:


> perfect papparazzo kit for those red-carpet entrees at cannes.



Nah -- it's thin aluminum.  Wouldn't protect me against some guy wanting to bash my face in :lmao:


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## fabric (Aug 15, 2008)

but..you can always activate ..the deathray (!) instant respect.


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## icassell (Aug 15, 2008)

fabric said:


> but..you can always activate ..the deathray (!) instant respect.



OK.  How about you get me a ticket to Cannes so I can try it out


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## K_Pugh (Aug 28, 2008)

Anyone got any DIY samples of turning an umbrella into an umbrella? lol

I'm thinking about buying two cheap black umbrellas, keeping the black material for the backing, adding a silver material (old motorbike covers) for the inside.. plus cutting out an appropriate white sheet with velcro tabs on it to attach to the front to make a sort of softbox out of them (i know it wont be quite as good as a softbox, light spill etc).

Sounds reasonable, just wondering if anyone has converted any old umbrellas of their own that could offer some tips?


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## andrew99 (Aug 28, 2008)

K_Pugh said:


> Anyone got any DIY samples of turning an umbrella into an umbrella? lol
> 
> I'm thinking about buying two cheap black umbrellas, keeping the black material for the backing, adding a silver material (old motorbike covers) for the inside.. plus cutting out an appropriate white sheet with velcro tabs on it to attach to the front to make a sort of softbox out of them (i know it wont be quite as good as a softbox, light spill etc).
> 
> Sounds reasonable, just wondering if anyone has converted any old umbrellas of their own that could offer some tips?




Umbrellas are like $20, so it seems like a lot of effort.  Anyway, you don't need to make something in the shape of an umbrella, the only reason umbrellas are popular is because they collapse to a small portable size.  You could just as easily bounce your flash off a white piece of cardboard or shoot through a white sheet, etc.  I've tried a lot of DIY stuff, but I ended up buying light stands and umbrellas because they are much easier to work with, more reliable/durable, easier to transport and store easily.


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## K_Pugh (Aug 28, 2008)

yeah i know they're fairly cheap but i could make two of my own for like 1/4 of the price without going anywhere! 

I've got two frames with white sheet i shoot through just now but they're not very portable (unless you disassemble them which means they're a pain in the butt and time consuming to put back together) - hence requirement for umbrella's.

I've got stands for my speedlights which i can attach umbrellas to ("..one i made earlier") so thought i'd try DIY'ing some in the meantime 

Embrace the Bodge!


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## osirus (Aug 29, 2008)

ghetto macro lens 

take the 2 front lenses out of a pair of old binoculars.
make something to attatch em to your lens







pic i took with it.
on a d50 with the 18-55 kit lens


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