Buy a striplight and get a lightstand for free
Tuesday I asked you how this selfportrait could have been lit.
You guys came pretty close in reverse engineering the lighting. I made the picture with two striplights very close to my face. If you’ve never heard of a striplight you might think it’s the low-calory version of the full monty but actually it’s just a slim softbox.
The most important thing is that you all put your brains to work to figure out the lighting. As soon as you start to understand the characteristics of light, you can learn a lot about lighting by watching pictures.
I got the idea to use two striplights for a portrait in february on the toilet of the high speed train between Paris and Brussels. There were two vertical fluorescent lights in the bathroom mirror and I immediately liked the soft light and the somewhat mysterious catchlights. I made this picture with my compact camera so I wouldn’t forget it.
Big softboxes give you nice soft light but sometimes it gets a bit too fluffy to my taste. It’s often hard to control the spill light. A striplight still throws out soft light but it’s easier to control. Usually these things are pretty expensive but I could buy two for about 60 EUR/piece. They even threw a free Manfrotto/Bogen Nano (001B) lightstand in. Or was it the other way around. Anyway, the striplights look like this:
I can’t blame you for thinking these striplights aren’t exactly examples of professional design. But off-course these are just the cardboard boxes of the stands. I noticed that these boxes were about the same size as the lights in the high speed bathroom. I kept the boxes because I wanted to turn them into small striplights one day.
I just cut out the front of the box and put three layers of tracing paper over it. At the back of the box, you see why I use completely printed albums a hole that’s just big enough to put a small flash in. On the inside I put some packaging material to spread the light more evenly inside the striplight.
That’s all there is. Just put the striplights as close as possible to the face and make a picture. Here are two pictures with the lights in the frame.
The light isn’t as soft as I would like yet, but soon I’ll try a few things to light the complete surface of the striplight evenly.
[...] Bert Stephani in magnificent buy-nothing mode. [...]
I knew there was a reason I didn’t threw out that packaging box for my monopod.
Love your work Bert!
[...] battery life of the old ones and you may end up throwing out recycling perfectly good batteries. Buy a striplight and get a lightstand for free. Прикольная самоделка.I got the idea to use two striplights for a portrait in [...]
Thanks Allan.
Looks good, I’m going to have to make a couple, I think that some silver foil would help with the light distribution, I’ll line the box with it
Thanks Michelle. The silver foil idea was already on my list of things to try. Let me know how it works out.
I made a pair of these out of 2 fluorescent light banks from the local hardware store; they’re my favorite trick to pull out! I’m going to have to try your design Bert, it’s much more portable. Kudos!
[...] Source and Read More: Confessions of a Photographer [...]
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I just went to my garbage bins to retrieve the two boxes that I just threw out from Bogen lightstands I just bought. Wow, the timing was perfect! Thanks!
[...] thinks the same way.If you in the market for a light stand, don't toss that box without checking with Bert first. -30-©2007 Strobist.com. If you are reading this content on another website, it was likely [...]
Great starting point, looking forward to seeing how you soften up the light.
No experience, but it would seem to me that putting the flash at the very bottom of the box, firing up through the box, would help the dispersion.
I love all this DIY improvised lighting. the trouble is my place is getting so full of old boxes I ‘might’ use one day it looks like I’m some kind of recycling collection service!
Confessions of a Photographer » Blog Archive » Buy a striplight and get a lightstand for f…
Confessions of a Photographer » Blog Archive » Buy a striplight and get a lightstand for free…
Thanks a lot for your kind words and if I find the time I will try out your suggestions.
AHH! DONT USE TRACING PAPER!!!! You need Roscor “TUFF FROST” gels they are lighting gels you can get from any motion picture Grip/Electrical surplus for about $10 a sheet, they spead/diffuse light 100x better than any diy paper.
Thanks for the tip Hunter. I’ll check out if I can get it somewhere in Belgium.
Thanks for the inspiration. Last week-end I built mines, using a slightly different design. I’m happy with the result. You can see it here.
Keep up the good work!!
Best,
Antoine
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Hey Bert, I just made a light strip, but what did you use inside. You said packaging material, but I couldn’t tell what you used exactly from the photo.
Otherwise, great diy project.
No idea, what the material is called. It’s some kind of styrofoam I guess.
Hi Bert!
I saw this page a long time ago and have now returned to build my own strip lights
I enjoy visiting your site and especially watching your videos
Cheers from Denmark,
Henrik
http://www.karlsenfoto.dk
Thanks Henrik
Bert,
Great tut and thanks for posting this. I myself have built two striplights, but i’m not getting the resutls you are…the photos are pitch black with, maybe, just a little highlight of the reflective surface to be seen. Not sure what is wrong.
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Hi Bert Love the Idea of your strip lights but
may I make a recommendation that may help?
Try and Mount your flash at the top of the boxes and pointing down. Line the box with white paint (works exceptionally well!) or silver foil or space blanket. No real need for diffuser on front unless you like it or want softer light.
If you cut the box down the middle of the front and then fold it open you can make adjustable “wings” so you can make the strip light really thin or quite wide.
One suggestion with this design. It is top heavy and therefore unstable, so hang it from your light stands, the wall or make a wider base from some more cardboard so it can stand on a table or the floor.
I hope this is useful. I suppose you better buy some more manfrotos!
Mark
Thanks Mark, I’ll try it with my next boxes. I’m sure your design works better.
[...] a few experiments, I was most happy with a lighting setup with my two extremely expensive striplights behind and to the side of her head (just out of the frame). To get a minimal depth of field I used [...]
Thanks for this tip! I think I try also what Mark suggested above..
[...] out Bert’s blog for the [...]
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