I recently made the switch to remotely triggered hot shoe flashes for my studio stuff. For years I’d been using a set of 650W quartz lights. They are great lights, but super hot, and a lot of work to set up and tear down. And because of the heat, there’s a limit to what you can do in the DIY modifier department – anything placed too close to those lights is likely to burst into flames.

Hot shoe flashes are light, battery operated, and easy to whip out on a whim. This flexibility has ignited my creativity, and I’ve caught the DIY bug (again).

Last weekend I went to my local 100yen shop (like the dollar store but way cooler) and bought 2 plastic tubs for storing food. I cut flash-shaped holes in the bottom of them and made some simple diffusers. I covered the outside in gaffers tape to prevent light from spilling out the sides so the light would be somewhat directional. These are fun and easy to make, but I wanted more. Enter the DIY Strip Light.

Supplies:

• 1 Cardboard Box
• Several sheets of white paper
• Glue Stick
• Box Cutter
• 1 can of beer (optional)

Hint: if you’re not into reading, just click on one the images and use the arrows to speed through a visual version of this project!

I started by carefully tearing open a cardboard box and laying it flat. Then I glued bright white printer paper to the inside of the box. This would become the inside of the softbox. You need the white paper for a couple reasons: (1) it helps the light from flash bounce around inside the box and get softer before leaving out the front and (2) it keeps the light from picking up too warm a tone from the cardboard.

After glueing paper to most of the box, I used a box cutter to cut it in half and make two equal sides. My goal was to make two identical strip lights. Depending on the box you’re able to scrounge you might just make one, or get a couple of boxes.

After that, it was a simple matter of glueing the box halves back together, and cutting wholes for my flashes. To reinforce the hole where I would insert my flash, I glued on a small square of leftover cardboard, making that section two layers thick. Then I taped paper over the front of the box to close it.

The tests showed light leaking out the back corners of the box. To prevent this I put gaffers tape over all the corners. After a few more tests with the first light, I went back and finished the second one. I mounted this one on a boom arm so that I could use it as a hair light.

After a few more lighting tests it was time to put these things to work in the studio (living room). I hung a black background, positioned my lights, and contacted my models (wife and daughter).

Set details:

• Background – black cloth
• Key Light – Canon 430EX Speedlite with omnibounce, 1/2 power, fired through DIY Strip Light
• Hair Light – Canon 430EX Speedlite with omnibounce, 1/1 power, fired through DIY Strip Light
• Background Light – Canon 420EX Speedlite, gelled blue, fired through DIY food container diffuser
• All flashes triggered remotely with the Canon ST-E2 wireless IR transmitter

Conclusions

This is a super cheap (almost free) way to produce soft, even lighting. Shooting through the omnibounce and then through the softbox diffuses away a lot if power though. I did it this way because I was worried there would be a hotspot in the middle of the paper if I put the bare flash into the box. But I’ll try that next time and see what happens.

I also made a mistake. I covered the inside sides of the softboxes with white paper, but not the inside back. So the light still picked up some very warm tones from bouncing around inside the box and hitting the brown cardboard at the back of the box. I shot these in RAW, so it was easy to correct this warm cast in Adobe Camera Raw, with the added bonus that this correction really brought out the blue in my background light. But I don’t like having to waste time fixing things on the computer, I’d rather get it right in the studio. Next time I’ll either set a custom white balance, or if I get really motivated I’ll tear open the softboxes and paste white paper to the inside back.

All in all this was a satisfying project and a good learning experience. If you have cardboard boxes, white paper, and a Saturday morning, you should give this a try.