DIY photography

[swan lover]

In one of the early issues of Photo plus Chris George showed how to make a home made defuser for your pop up flash, works great Chris, someone's copied you and selling them now for £10!

As I must do photography on a budget is there a way of making a portable reflector as I have a friend who wants some pics taking and I may need one.
thanks to all who reply.

[SieSmith]

How about a bit of Aluminium foil - shiny side OR matt side, scrunched OR unscrunched.
Just about as portable as you can get, provided you want it scrunched that is.

Cheers, Sie

[ether]

Originally Posted by Smith

How about a bit of Aluminum foil - shiny side OR Matt side, scrunched OR unscratched.
Just about as portable as you can get, provided you want it scrunched that is.

Cheers, Sir

Yep I agree
For Macro work I use a bit of white card with foil glued to one side for larger studio shots I have an old projector screen which I also use to control daylight coming through windows when i need to

Ed

[chris-p]

If you're into your DIY photography I would strongly recommend checking out the Instructables website. It's full of ideas on making things from tilt and shift lenses, through flash diffusers to digital photo frames.

[donoreo]

Originally Posted by chris-p

If you're into your DIY photography I would strongly recommend checking out the Instructables website. It's full of ideas on making things from tilt and shift lenses, through flash diffusers to digital photo frames.

There are a lot of great tips on that site.

[swan lover]

thank you all for responding I will be working on this over the weekend

[Chris George]

Originally Posted by swan lover

As I must do photography on a budget is there a way of making a portable reflector as I have a friend who wants some pics taking and I may need one.
thanks to all who reply.

I've used a wide range of things over the years as an impromptu reflector

– a sheet of white paper is great for small still life subjects
- a white bedsheet can be hung on any convenient item, or held by an assistant to create a large reflector
- a wall mirror makes a very strong reflector, create a spotlit effect on your subject
- sheets of white foam (often used for packaging) are light to carry around for reflectors (but break easily)
- a more durable portable material for reflectors is Foamex, or similar. The plastic-coated board they use for shop signage. You can use the reverse side of old sales material or exhibition signage.
- painting a sheet of wooden board white makes another useful studio-style reflector

Any other ideas, anyone?

Chris
Chris George
Associate Editor
PhotoPlus