Light Reflector - Small and Foldable

by Benny Johansson in Circuits > Cameras

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Light Reflector - Small and Foldable

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A practical small Reflector for both flash and natural light photography,
works very well with a Flash bouncer.

  • Two sides, silver and white (hard or soft reflections)
  • Foldable, fits in a bookshelf when not in use

  • Can stand for itself or be held in hand

  • Can be tilted forward or backwards by placing some support on or under it.

  • Holding the reflector in different ways can block light from the background making it dark toned .

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How to make the Flash bouncer can be seen in my previous Instructable

Original DIY article at my website

Materials

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  • 4 pcs of self adhesive foam board (foam core) 5mm thick, size 30x25 cm (12x10 inch), the size is choosen for good fit in a bookshelf .
  • 2 strips of white paper that has the same
    width as two boards thickness and same length as the longest board side.

  • aluminium foil (use the matte side for reflector!)

  • clear packing tape

How to Make It

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1,
Fasten the aluminium foil to the self adhesive side of the board (use the matte side of the aluminium as the reflector surface to avoid "hot-spots" and uneven light) press the aluminium roll downwards while rolling to avoid bubbles.
Cut off the aluminium foil that is outside of the board edges.

2,
Hold two boards together (the white sides facing outwards) and tape the white paper strip to the edges of the long sides as shown ,
turn the boards inside out and tape on the other side also .

3.
The finished "two way hinge" should look like this, making it possible to fold the reflector both ways.

Examples

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The first image shows examples of macro shots ( I guess you can see which are taken without bouncer/reflector....)

The last one is just an example of a "quick shot" .
I think the images you can get from a simple compact camera (using flash + bouncer + reflector) is quite acceptable.

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How to make the Flash bouncer can be seen in my previous Instructable

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More of my DIY tips : http://www.benvelo.com/diy.htm