Well i became very bored today and wanted to experiment with lighting. Ive seen such cool photos with nice lighting and i want to learn to try to do the same! Since i'm on a very very small budget and do not have a flash, i decided to see what i could do with a constant light setup as well as take more advantage of natural light.
The first thing i thought of trying out was a reflector for outside shots. Here is a list of goods i used to make the reflector: (I found this DIY at DIYphotography.net)
1 Emergency Blanket
1 27inch bike tube
1 Roll of Duct Tape
1 cardboard box (for extra support)
Cost: Around $8 (i even bought a schwinn tube!)
As you guys can pretty much see, i laid down the emergency blanket, put the bike tube on it (inflated) and taped the blanket to the bike tube. I used a bike tube because you can deflate it and fold the reflector up. If you put the cardboard supports in, you can no longer do this.
Here is a quick photo with the reflector i used and some pics of the reflector. I dont have a before/after photo due to me forgetting. The reflector worked well IMO because it did fill in some shadows on his body/face. Sun was almost directly behind him. Sometimes the reflector was too bright and would blow out skin tones.
My next project for the day was to create a softbox. I wanted to experiment with some soft lighting so this is what i came up with. I was originally going to make the frame out of PVC pipe and some other stuff, but i found this much easier. Although it is small, and shapped like a cirlcle rather than a rectangle. I found it to be used decent for lighting up faces. It will not light up a whole body. Anywho, list of build materials:
1 Large lampshade
1 Silver dome reflector clamp light (this one is 100w)
1 Roll of Duct Tape
1 Larger sheet of silver reflective tape. (It looks like aluminum foil tape)
1 big ol' thing of tissue paper
Cost: Around $23
*(All goods for both projects bought at Meijer which is a dpt store)
To put it together i coverd the whole inside of the lampshade with the silver reflective tape. It helped keep the light in the lamp shade instead of actually leaving the lamp shade like its actually made to do. Once the inside was covered, i took the lamp and duct taped it to the back of the lampshade. Once that was done, i tapped the front of the lamp shut with tissue paper. Results was pretty fun! Id like to take pics of someone using it instead of self shots cause they were kinda hard and i dont think show the full effect of a softbox....
Anywho, pictures!
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Both projects can be built way better than my construction. With more time and effort they can be much nicer! Maybe with some cloth instead of tissue paper, glue instead of duct tape, or even some sowing of things together.
But, these kept me occupied today and were pretty fun to mess around with! The softbox was built around just before midnight so the pics are me just goofing around for my first time with one. I was tired and ready for bed, ill post more non-self shots with the softbox later
Thought id share my first experimenting with lighting with all of you on POTN....
Any suggestions or tips appreciated!
Thanks,
Chris
EDIT*** If mods or anyone wants a more detailed write up to be done with lots more pictures of the build and materials to be used in the DIY area, i would be more than happy to. Just PM me if you'd like that done.
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