Click 11 : Softbox treat

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I finally did it! My own very own,home-made studio soft box! :) I feel so glad that i finally made something that i wanted to make/own since a long time.It's very simple to do it and I'll be telling you how to make your own simple soft box setup at less than Rs.20 in this blog post.


here's another kinda of a softbox that you can learn too.here's the link to it.click here
Materials required:
1. A cardboard box of minimum 7”x7”x10” size (Get it from any grocery store or an electrical shop. should be freely available got mine at home)
2. A sheet of butter paper (Rs.3.50)
3. A light bulb (40W or a 60W bulb. Take it out from any unused room in your home or if not, Rs.12)
4. Electrical wires for the connection.

5. Scissors, sticky tape, insulation tape, a rope to hang the soft box, and a pencil.
Total expense: Rs.15.50. Pretty cheap isn’t it?

Method:

I’ll explain the method in the way I went about it.

1. Get ready with the electrical stuff first. Rest is all very easy and fast to do. And be very careful while working with the wires and electricity since they are dangerous. Don’t prick yourselves with the wires and if you are not sure of making the connections, get someone who knows well, to do it for you.
Take a wire with open ends. Fix one end to a plug that goes into your supply sockets. Take a bulb holder with wires connected at its terminals. Connect the bulb to the bulb holder. Twist both the free ends of the wires and if the bulb glows, congratulations you are done with the first part.

2. Take the box and cut open the flaps of one of its ends. Now cut out the butter paper to the size of the opening and stick it along the corners using some sticky tapes. This forms the base (or outlet) of the soft box.




3. Now flip over the box to its opposite side and mark the centre of the side (draw diagonals). Make a small hole (smaller than rope used) at the centre and use this to hook the box to the ceiling or a stand. You can use a rope or anything long for that matter to hang it. I used my college ID slings to hang the soft box from the ceiling (Finally, the ID cards were of some use to me :D ). Push in one end of the rope through the hole and make a knot at the end. Make doubly sure that you’ve made a proper, bigger-than-hole knot so that it doesn’t give away and cause you misery.


4. Make another hole right next to the central hole. Put the bulb socket with the bulb and its wire into the box and pull the wires out of the second hole. Close the lid of the box and seal it from outside.




5. Now we are done with the setup. Carefully connect both ends of the wires. Cover the twisted ends with insulation tape, and switch on the power. If you have done everything correctly, you should be getting a very beautiful soft light spread out of it. If so, congratulations again, you’ve got your simple soft box. :)

Now, hang the other end of the rope from your ceiling and place a subject below your soft box. It gives a very good light around the subject. You can also use a white, glazed sheet of paper to reflect some of the light for better results. Happy clicking!


You can also use this soft box for a beautiful, mild light in your home. Try using CFL bulb. It gives more light and uses less power (I used an incandescent bulb)

Although this is not a total replacement for a full fledged studio lights,its gives you a preety good light around your subjects. If you are a very serious photographer,go for a brand new set of softbox set. If you are not totally into photography,yet very passionate about it,this is an easier way doing things.

Remember:
• Always make sure the switch to the power is SWITCHED OFF when you are connecting the wires or moving the soft box around.
• Never leave bare wires visible. You could an electric shock in case you accidently touched them. Tape them all up using insulation tapes.

So here's some of the results that i got on my first trial.





This is what my setup looked like:




Thank you for reading! please let me know what you felt about the idea.Any suggestions are welcome.