"Poor Man's" Self-Made Light Diffuser

Materials needed

• One sheet of vellum paper, USD 0.80

• One cloth hanger, those you get from dry cleaning... most likely free

• Two stripes of transparent duct tape USD 0.01

Instructions:

• Open the wire cloth hanger and bend it into one straight piece of wire

• Make a Z shape out of the wire. The length of the feet of the Z match the width of the vellum paper, ca. 10 inches. The height of the Z is around 20 inches.

• Lay the Z onto the Vellum paper, wrap around both ends of the paper around the "feet" of the Z and fix with duct paper

• Bend the Z into a tent-like shape (like in the picture below) and finished is you Poor Man's Light Diffuser

• Make sure that you use only incandescent (neon, cold blue light) lights or all candescent (normal light bulb, soft red light) lights and set the WHITE BALANCE of your camera to either candescent or incandescent. NEVER MIX COLD AND WARM LIGHTS! This will confuse the digital camera and create strange looking pictures with yellowish, reddish or brownish hue.

Below is the first shot I took using the new diffuser, from a Montblanc Ladies' Quartz 2002. Or have a look at the pictures at the Montblanc page, all those pictures were taken using the new diffuser.

Reto Castellazzi, Bangkok, December 26th, 2002