DIY Bounce Wall

I saw a great looking gadget that allows you to have a reflector held just far enough away from your on-camera flash to create the effect that you are bouncing the flash off a wall.

Why would someone want such a thing? Well, if you are shooting indoors with flash at an event, and the walls are distant or colored, your light will be either inadequate or tinted, which means more post. Also, obstructions and gaps can cause the light output from a bounced flash to be unpleasantly uneven.

The only solution before the bounce wall was to mount your flash on an off camera bracket or put it on a cord, with or without a pole. These are awkward solutions – holding the flash in your hand deprives you of proper camera holding technique, putting it on a pole makes you a clumsy spectacle, and putting a flash on a bracket puts a substantial weight off axis, especially when you add the light sphere or other diffuser necessary to minimize the nasty look of on camera flash.

The bounce wall neatly solved this problem. A mini reflector was placed off camera on a bracket where a flash could be fired off it, creating a diffused, off-axis light source that does not interfere with holding the camera or render you an oaf.

Unfortunately, Sunbounce wants $125 for this solution. For that they give you the bracket and one bounce card. Additional 8 x 11 cards cost $32-37 EACH.  Sunbounce makes durable, well designed gear, but no one ever accused them of being inexpensive.

Fortunately, you can build a suitable substitute for less than a third of the cost in shockingly little time.

You will need:

•  The venerable Stroboframe 350 quick flip bracket, which is available for under $30, even less at photo flea markets. You may even already own one.

•  A double clip. The Manfrotto Multi-Clip 375 is widely available for about 10-12 bucks. It’s the same as the Selens S-059 widely available on eBay.

• A 1/4 inch 20 pitch nut and bolt combo to fasten the Clip to the bracket.

• One or more pieces of 8 x 10 self-adhesive foam board. These are usually less than 2 bucks a sheet and come in packs of 10 for a little over $10.

• Patterned paper or foil of your choice.

THE BRACKET

First, remove the shoe mount, which we will be replacing with a clip to hold the reflector.

Next fold the bracket out to its full extension.

Attach the double clip with the nut and bolt as shown to the bottom of the bracket arm to allow full movement. You should be able to tilt using the double clip and swivel by loosening and tightening the nut and bolt combo.

Attach the bracket to the your camera via the tripod socket, making sure that you move the mounting screw from the default middle hole to the end for full extension.

THE CARDS

For in studio use, I never buy the expensive collapsible reflectors. All my handheld reflectors are foamcore boards of various sizes, covered with cheap, readily available reflective material. I will use the same strategy here.

To make a card, just take a self adhesive foam board and apply whatever surface you want to use. For silver, just use the dull side of aluminum foil. For gold, get some gold wrapping paper. If you want to mimic the zebra gold/silver or the silver or gold and white, just go to a stationery or art supply store and get some herringbone paper. I found excellent fine papers combining gold, silver, white and ecru for $3 or less for a big sheet. (AC Moore, Michael’s, Blick, etc all run frequent 40% off coupons) Wedding and xmas paper at the dollar store is even cheaper. Tip: use a rolling pin or brayer to apply the paper to the adhesive smoothly.

  

For a nice neutral reflector that stays focused, try holographic paper, available in a decent sized roll for under $10. It photographs as a rainbow but the colors mix to form white when used as a reflector.

The back of your board always serves as standard white.

PS You can also apply spray paint, especially if want to create an effect like the “Galaxy Gold: Spot Gold” from Sunbounce.

USE

Just clip one of your boards into the clips, orient it at 45 degrees above and to the side of your subject, aim your on- camera flash at it in TTL mode, and you are good to go. When you are finished, it folds up nice and tight to go in your bag.

      

Total project cost:

Stroboframe 350                $26.85

Selens double clip                 9.80

Nut and bolt                             1.22

5 sheets foam core                8.64

1 sheet fine paper                  3.24

2 rolls wrapping paper        2.16

1 Roll Holographic paper   6.70

Total cost of DIY bracket: $37.87   plus one card  $42.85  Sunbounce  bracket plus one card $124.36

Additional DIY cards $1.60-9.74 each, average cost $4.15 each.

Sunbounce cards $31.43-37.76 each.

Project cost for DIY bracket plus five cards: $61.61

Sunbounce bracket plus 5 cards: $256.41

This rig may lack the ball joint and a couple of inches of reach, but overall, at one quarter the price, I’ll live with those minor shortcomings.

New Studio

New blog, new studio

People who know me know that I am, well, finicky about my shooting space. On a tight budget, I try to make the studio as complete and practical as possible, with complete control of light the first priority.

We moved in a hurry in late February from our old facility at Salmon Street to Studio 313 and are still putting the finishing touches on the new digs in Center City Philadelphia. I have already held a seminar at 313, and that taught me a lot about its good points and its shortcomings. My partner photographers, Freddy Maguhu (NattyPhoto.com) and Paul Maurer (Dezzi Magazine) have also been exploring the new space and loving the central location.

The thirty foot length is fantastic, a full eight feet more than we enjoyed at Salmon St. For the first time I am comfortable shooting subjects full length, and I appreciate the greater flexibility in light placement it affords. Because of the balcony in the old space, we were effectively limited to 11 1/2 feet wide, but we have 16 feet to work with at S313. I really liked the 18 foot ceiling at Salmon, but the 12 foot height at 313 is more than adequate.

We did make a few changes in the background setup, however. The huge concrete columns made it impractical to hang paper and muslins on the wall, so I switched to a autopole system. What a difference! Now I can change from 9 foot to 12 foot wide backdrops with relative ease and the clumsy stands no longer block access to the modifier storage area or limit where I can put the backdrop.

I miss the work area/balcony in the old space, but a couple of cabinets have replaced the balcony in terms of storing seldom used but handy items, such as mat cutters, odd grip, and green screens, out of the way. The desk is tucked behind one of the annoying columns.

Salmon Street was not configured with a lounge space, and the dressing area was just screened off, but at 313 we have room for a small sitting area and a more private room for changing and make up. I have never liked a studio to look like a hangout, as photographers should focus on shooting not socializing, but the new studio has enough room for a couple of nice chairs so that clients can be comfortable without interfering with the studio’s function.

Ditto the flooring. At Salmon, we had the best possible floor, smooth concrete with grey epoxy paint. The previous tenants at 313, however, were a theatre group, who installed a floating masonite floor. Easy on their joints but not good for us. We put down indoor outdoor carpet to smooth out the bumps and seams in their flooring without making it too cushy to be stable for light stands and other grip.

The final project will be to put down protective flooring over the white backdrop. The ever-resourceful Zack Arias suggests white tileboard, which we have been using, but which is also prone to nicks and scuffs. I was going to cover them with Tuff White paint (the cyclorama stuff) on the advice of another photographer, but it suddenly became unavailable. The board is unwieldy, and we don’t have a big vehicle, so replacing it all the time is out of the question. Lindsay Adler recommends plexiglas, but it’s costly and just a little less high maintenance than tileboard. A search of the internet found Chris Bergstrom, who successfully uses dance flooring to protect his paper/muslin from filth and wear. The best grades of dance floor are only available in expensive full rolls, but the mid grades work fine, and three of the four biggest vendors for this flooring are close to Philly. It’s light and easy to move and clean, so it looks like the direction we will take.

You can visit guyjordan.com/studio-313 if you want to look at the space so far.