OK, so this ain’t no pretty beauty queen of a strip light box, but heck a “decent” one starts at around $80USD.
Down here in Mexico, while I don’t know how soon I will need one, the shipping is expensive or I have to research out the Mexican companies that supply one.
I also have a money shortage & needed some soft boxes & hair light & a strip light so that adds of fast.
Well, the hair light and strip box were a little easier to make. I will wait on the soft boxes.
I made a hair light box out of cardboard & just need to find a little brighter light for it. The small LED light stick is too dim for studio work. I can stick a flash in there.
But the other day I noticed that here in town there are LED strip lights for sale & at only 95 pesos for one, heck that is like $5 USD so why not invest a little time to make a strip light out of one.
My neighbor also gave me a big cardboard box that was too large for what she needed.
So,
1200mm is over 4ft long & 6500k is a nice level to work with. I did have a small issue that facing forward I got stripes on the wall. I had bought the clear lens so I could have the most light possible & would make my own defusing for it.
So I just turned the light around and faced into the box. The shiny side of the aluminum foil would defuse that issue just fine.
I then added some more cardboard to make “barn doors” on the box.
I put aluminum foil on the joints of the barn doors & made sure that the barn doors were in the full open position when taping them together so I would not have issues of opening and closing them or light leaks.
Over all time is a couple hours of work, but here is the light in action.
Wide open doors.
Closed most the way.
And a half way flagged position.
So tape, aluminum foil, a cardboard box & a strip of LED 6500k lights, plus a little and I have something that works.
Like a say, “it ain’t pretty to look at!” But it does the job for now!
And is light weight enough to hang on a light stand/boom or even from the ceiling.
Creative Shooting folks! Specially those of you with a limited budget.
Copyright Vanderhoof Photography 2017
