DIY: Small Speedlight Softbox for the Club

A few months back, A friend of mine from TheRealNC.com needed a photographer to accompany him in the club. Of course i knew lighting would be a problem. After studying similar shots from photographers he directed me to, i realized they were using off camera flashes with lumiquest style softboxes or sto-fens ( I dont really care for sto-fens because i dont own one. They cost too much)…

Since i hate paying for shyt I rarely use, I figured i would build my own.

I just cut up a few pieces of cardboard, threw some duct tape over it to make it more durable. Then I put some silver tape on the interior portions to add more reflectivity… Is that a word? LOL… I taped all the corners except one so that it would be collapsible. Extra duct tape was used at the point where the flash is inserted so i can just use a simple bungee to attach it. Initially i was going to use velcro here as well but i didnt want to have to put velcro on every single flash that I own.

For diffusion I used an old chinese plastic pillow case protector thats used to keep slobbering kids from ruining a pillow. Or perhaps its to keep dust out… Who knows… it was laying around and free so i cut it up, applied duct tape to the edges and then a bit of velcro so that it was removable.