Lightscoop

[delusional]

So, I found this little gadget...

http://lightscoop.com/index.html

...and thought I'd get an idea of how it would work, so I constructed myself a rather sorry looking cardboard version, with tin-foil, just to test out the principle of the thing. =P

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[align=left]And then I took pictures in the hallway, the darkest part of my little basement flat, with no flash, full-on normal flash (built-in), and then with my little cardboard gadget, and these were my results:

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[align=left]And that's just with wrinkley tin-foil glued to cardboard!

I'm ordering a proper one, immediately.
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[MikeScone]

And that's just with wrinkley tin-foil glued to cardboard! I'm ordering a proper one, immediately.

Nothing wrong with homemade - you might try just using bright white foam board instead. That will reflect nearly as much light, but will be less harsh.

When I took a nature photo workshop many years ago they had us make up portable reflector boards to carry in our camera bags. They were about 10" square foamboard, split in the middle halfway through so that you could fold them into a 5"x10" package. Wrinkled tinfoil was glued to one side, and the other was left natural white. You can just hold the board as needed, or fold it a bit so it stands up on its own.

It's not just for flash. We used them outdoors in natural light when photographing plants and whatnot under shady conditions - it's very useful to be able to reflect a little light from a bright spot onto a frog hiding under a big leaf. Even in bright sunlight, if your subject is backlit it's useful to reflect a little light on the front. If you build it as we did, you can try each side to see which sort of reflected light looks better in each situation.

 

[pamnock]

Neat ideas! Thanks for sharing!

 

[delusional]

Oh no, I'm all for home-made in most situations and have improvised with home-made reflectors several times. This actually fixes to the camera over the flash though, so there're no need for awkward positioning of hands to hold a reflector where it would go.

And unfortunately, my little cardboard one only stays put with the camera held upright, in landscape format.

 

[Boz]

I just got one! I love it! I haven't been able to try it on the bunnies but I will tonight and post them in my blog! I got mine from Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017LNHY2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20