On the Cheap

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“Valor is strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul; it consists not in the worth of our horse or our weapons, but in our own.” Michel de Montaigne, Cannibales

“The Master said, “A true gentleman is one who has set his heart upon the Way. A fellow who is ashamed merely of shabby clothing or modest meals is not even worth conversing with.” (Analects 4.9)” Confucius

Both the above quotes refer to the fact that expensive is not always the best, nor is it always necessary. That’s the topic of today’s post, inexpensive lighting mods.

Firstly, this is not to say good equipment isn’t worth the price. A good set of lighting modifiers can be worth their weight, if they’re used. For most of us, a reflector, flash, and maybe something like a Rogue Flashbender are more than enough. There are also times when having something like a soft box or snoot can add a little something to your photo, especially in portraits.


ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/30
This was shot in a local church. I used a Rogue Flashbender on my YN-560 flash wirelessly triggered. The flash was above and to the right of the camera. The soft light wraps, but still has direction to it, giving a nicely lit portrait of our Jesus' love for us!

When I first started out with homemade light mods, the first thing I built was an ice chest soft box. By cutting a hole in the bottom of a Styrofoam cooler the size of my flash head and covering the front with a white pillowcase, I had a soft box. The soft box softens the lights by giving us a larger light source, diffusing the lights internally to the box, and softening the light as it exits the box with a piece of diffusing fabric.

Take your ice chest, with the hole cut in it, and line it with aluminum foil, shiny side out. Tape of glue the foil to the inside of the chest. Let it crinkle up and have lots of texture, as this diffuses the light more. Once that’s done, tape, or glue a piece of white fabric to the inside of the ice chest to cover the opening. Taping it about 1 inch back from the edge gives you some spill control and allows for more directionality of the light. If you’re particularly ambitious, you can add some support to keep it from sagging, perhaps mounting it to a tripod.

Another great mod is a snoot. This allows a focused ray of light to be targeted to your application. One easy method is to cut both ends from a Pringles can. Using one end over your flash, and the other end open, you have a beam of light for a spot effect or hair light. Cover the flash end to prevent light leaks. You can even wrap the can with some colored paper and have a nice looking snoot. Placing the cap over the end of the can softens the spot a little, giving you a wider beam. A snoot can also be made from a rolled up cereal box, although you may want to line it with foil.

Another simple mod is a pie pan beauty dish. By taking a solid pie pan, or even some larger, a very nice light can be created. Cut an opening in the back for your flash, and drill 3 small holes. Place a 2-3 inch disk about 2-3 inches above the opening using stand offs or long screws, and voila, instant mod! Great for a more focused, glamorous light and ring like catch lights in your subject’s eyes, that adds drama to your scene.

For more advanced stuff, like large scrims or reflectors, PVC can be used as a frame with white sheets cut and sewn to fit. You can even make adjustable mods this way, and add legs or stands. Scrims are great for shooting in sunlight, as they soften the sun’s light and create nice shadows. You can even use a space blanket for extra large reflectors. They have a gold side and a silver side, like most commercial reflectors, and smaller sections can be used for fill light on product shots or close ups of flowers. When you’re making the larger sizes, it pays to measure everything out and have your fabric cut and sewn to match the several options you’ll have available. There are instructions online for making the larger PVC mods, and that’s a great way to build up your kit without breaking the bank.

With a little effort and ingenuity, a lot can be done. Even going back to Ansel Adams and many of the older era photographers, simple and cheap was a good thing. Ansel Adams was known to use the white side of his dark cloth for fill light when needed. Improvisation was often necessary, and following in that vein, we can get great shots without breaking the bank. A great place to start is DIY photography. They’re listed on our resources page!

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Trinkets or Accessories?

Greetings and welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place!

The term accessories has come to include a host of photographic gadgets of questionable value...  Ansel Adams

A sucker is born every minute…  PT Barnum

The first accessory we’re going to look at seems to have some merit. At least, for the maker it has merit. It’s the Camera Clip. This is a clip that mounts to your camera’s tripod bushing. The other piece goes on your belt or backpack strap. The 2 pieces clip together to keep your camera in place for easy carrying. It has a quick release button, and when worn on the belt looks kind of like some space alien stun gun thing. I’ve always found the camera strap to work best at carrying the camera, and being slightly free, a painless way to get the shot. No fussing with a clip or having your belt stretched (or worse, your pants falling down) by the weight of your camera.

Then there’s the SLR Pin Hole Lens. This is the cap from an SLR with a pinhole in it. This allows for pinhole photography without a pinhole camera. It’s a good idea, and may have merit if you wish to combine pinhole photography with digital photography. There’s no way to change your aperture, and no way to focus, so auto focus is out the window. This may not be usable with some SLRs, as the focus point has to be acceptably sharp, even in manual focus. This would apply to many DSLRs, therefore check before using!

Next up is a device called the Super-Secret Spy Lens. This gadget has a hole in the side of the lens and uses mirrors to photograph through the side. It allows you to pint your camera one direction, pretending to photograph something, while actually sneaking a photo of something (or someone) unsuspecting. I can see someone getting into trouble with this really quick! By the way, this little lens add on says right on it “Angle Scope!” It even includes in the ad on Amazon a sample use, on the beach…

Last up, my personal favorite for the no merit award goes to the Bottle Cap Tripod. First, there was the tabletop tripod, which allowed folks to shoot their food in fancy restaurants without having to handhold the camera. Then cam the Gorilla-Pod thing that allowed you to mount your camera to leafy tree branches. The final step (I hope!) in this evolution will be this. It’s a standard sized “bottle cap” that mounts to your camera and allows you to put it on a water bottle, juice bottle, cola bottle, whatever bottle, and take a photo, presumably of yourself or your group.

Of course, no list can be complete. Many gadgets may be useful to you, even when no one else finds them to be. This list is only showing a couple money wasters that actually do nothing to help your photography. Who’s to say the bottle cap is bad, if you can get a family shot when you’re out to a special dinner or something similar. There are so many more items that purport to be useful, when they’re actually nothing more than trinkets to make you feel better about your photography.

The best accessory for any camera, of course, is the manual. Read it, learn your camera, learn your style, and you’ll have no need for many of these trinkets. Some good accessories to have include a multicoated circular polarizer, a UV filter, good storage for digital photography, a good camera bag, a good cleaning kit, maybe some black and white filters if you plan to shoot monochrome, a remote release cable, and a flash with a couple mods. These items will flesh a very nice little kit, and have you moving through your scenes with ease after some practice! A very important piece of gear is a meter. Since most cameras today have built in meters, that can come later, and be a life saver in tricky light! Although, whatever accessories you have or use, you have to keep them ready and practice them to get the most from them.


ISO 400, f/8, 1/30
One of the buildings at the Hermitage in Bayreuth. The feeling of being away from the world, even in the city, is something one can relate to in this age of stress! The feeling of splendor, yet remote contemplation make this place a winner. Shot with nothing but a Wratten #8, yellow, filter over my lens. No fancy tricks or gadgets were used, other than knowing what my camera would do and how the filter would alter the levels.

I hope that this will give you pause the next time you see that “magic bullet” device that will make all your photos super perfect! As any long time photographer will tell you, there are no magic bullets. Practice and knowing your gear is the closest thing to that magic bullet.

Get out and get making your photos! We’d love for you to share them with us on our Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. We’d love to see your work.

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!