DIY Diffusion panels seem pretty popular on the Strobist forum so here is my solution. As seems a common trend I had the idea while watching the Dean Collins DVDs where he uses Diffusion Panels pretty much for every shot. It took me a while to put this together, mainly because of how long it took me to find the appropriate fabric but I finally tracked some down on eBay.
Construction is really easy. I am sure you can figure it out just from the pics.Take three 3 meter lengths of PVC plumbing 22mm diameter pipe, 2x corner joints, 4 T joints and one pre-made 3×5′ nylon diffusion panel from ebay and ta-da, there you have your diffusion panel! Use a hack saw to cut the lengths down to size using the remainder of the cuts to make legs and feet.
While I was putting this together X-Pose got there before me, I can’t believe how similar our solutions are. You will notice unlike the others posted on the Strobist group mine has feet and a cross-bar. This lifts it off the floor positioning the panel higher while still offering stability. X-Pose took nicer photographs but I am sure that is down to his ability not his diffusion panel design, heh.
Because all this stuff is meant to just slot together you don’t need glue and the joints cover up any rough cutting. Just be careful to cut the plastic and not yourself or any surface you choose to cut on. My PVC came a bit wonky but you can straighten it out and even with a bit of a lean it doesn’t affect the final result. Packing up is a simple case of taking the stuff apart, folding up your fabric then tying it all together with a ball bungee. About as portable as a tripod.
With a little juggling of bits you could make it work horizontally but I chose to make mine vertical so I can do seated or standing portraits. Here are a couple of pictures of a test lighting setup. I used a SB-28 firing into the diffusion panel camera right and to light up the wall used as a backdrop a SB-26. Both were triggered with my favourite ebay wireless triggers.
I think I am going to need a fair amount of practice but my lighting gear is pretty much complete now I reckon…
Technorati Tags: photography, strobist, make, diy, diffusion, panel, lighting, tips
One Comment
Hey Chris,
I’m a regular reader of your blog and was pretty surprised when my own name came up.
You’re right, your panel looks a lot sleeker than mine
Keep up the good work and the interesting blog. I have a blog too but since it’s in Ducht it’s probably not very interesting to you.
greetz,
Bert aka X-Pose