PVC stand attachment provides extra "hands" for using poster board reflectors

    This post is a bit of a two-for-one deal. Two DIY projects in one post.

    The first one is a DIY reflector to bounce light on to your subject. You can use these indoors or out.

   There are expensive models, but a couple of photographers, including Joe Edelman and Daniel Norton, recommend using white poster boards. Norton calls the ones he uses "Brooklyn Reflectors." The boards are inexpensive — you can get them for $1.25 a piece at the so-called dollar stores, or your usual big-box store.

    With it being back-to-school, you may be able to get them on sale.

    Here's Edelman's demonstration with one.

   
    You can use the reflector with a voice-activated lightstand — also known as an assistant — but if you're shooting alone, it could get tricky trying to take the picture and hold the reflector yourself.

    Edelman proposes building a PVC holder for the reflector that lets you adjust it and put it on a lightstand. This allows you to use it hands free, and the rig can also hold flags (the light-blocking variety, not the state or national emblems) and Gobos, which go between a light source and a subject to create a pattern of light, say simulating light coming through a Venetian blind.

    Edleman's plans are in this video, although I would probably also use a joint to mount it to a PVC lightstand.

PVC lightstands can support flash units with DIY adapter

    As promised, here's how to mount a flash unit on your PVC light stand.

    Everybody is familiar with flash units, especially on-camera flash. Some people started out with the built-in flash, but the first major upgrade is going with a speed light on the hot shoe.

    But if you want to take your flash photography to the next level, you need to get the flash off the camera, allowing you to get better lighting angles than if it's attached to the top of your camera, or on a bracket to the side.

    We won't get into how to trigger the flash, as the DIY options involve some knowledge of electronics and there are options available such as wireless transmitters or using our camera's on-board flash as a "master" to trigger the "subordinate" flashes.

    But the question is how to set the flash up away from the camera. Most speed lights nowadays come with a small cold-shoe base you can attach to the bottom of the flash. This base lets you set it on a table or shelf, but that doesn't help much when there's nothing to sit it on.

    The flash makers recognize that, and these feet have a 1/4x20 hole in the bottom to attach it to a tripod. That's a good alternative, but suppose you need the tripod for a camera, or you don't have the room to set up one or more tripods (they do take up quite a bit of real estate)?

    PVC light stands, particularly the one I built based on Scott Eggelston's (The Frugal Filmmaker) plan, take up one square foot of floor space.

    Using Scott's plan for hacking a worklight, I got a set of four 3/4" PVC end caps to make four flash mounts. While Scott just put a bolt through the cap to attach to the work light, a flash is different, since it would also need to swivel and tilt.

    I found a set of fairly heavy duty ball heads on eBay (I had asked Scott if a ball head he had used in a different project would work for a speed light, but he told me to get something with a greater weight rating.) that could hold a DSLR with lens if needed.

    I attached the head to 1/4x20 bolt through the cap, giving me a mount that can slip over the 3/4" pipe on the lightstand.

    The ball head is fully adjustable and the flash stand attaches easily and securely to it.

Mount your clamp light on a PVC lightstand without the clamp

    In the last post, I talked about how to double the output of a clamp light by using a two-bulb adapter.

    This time, we're going to talk about a better way to mount the lights than with the clamp.

    While the clamp offers a certain level of versatility, there are some drawbacks, especially if you're using the PVC lightstands I highlighted a couple years ago. The clamps sometimes don't grip the pipe just right and may come off at an inopportune moment, or they might throw off the balance of your stand.

    Also, if you're shooting in someone else's home, they may not want you attaching your clamp to their furniture and possibly scuffing it up. (Sometimes the rubber on the clamps wears out.)

    But there's a solution if you use the PVC light stand, as demonstrated by Ryan Connolly over at Film Riot. What Ryan did was replace the clamp with a pipe connector, allowing you to directly connect the light to the stand.

    What you need is a 3/4-inch pipe connector, a bolt, wingnut and a couple nuts if needed. Here's the basic assembly for the mount (before the light is attached).

    First, remove the clamp and get a bolt that will fit the hole that was used by the tiny bolt that held the clamp on. I wouldn't throw away the clamp, as you might want to use it if you're in a situation where you can't use a lightstand.

    Then, drill a hole through both sides of the connector to thread the bolt through. In my case, I needed to put a couple extra nuts on to ensure the clamp mount didn't come apart. On the other side, put the wingnut, as this will let you control the vertical angle of the light.

    This is the finished product, attached to a stand.

    Scott Eggleston, of the The Frugal Filmmaker, offered a similar solution for mounting shop lights on a PVC stand, except using end caps.

    In our next post, I'll show you how to use that technique for flash units.

Bible for those who want to make PVC rigs for home studio

    PVC pipes are not just for carrying water.

    They can be used to construct a variety of things, especially photographic gear such as shoulder rigs, light stands and light boxes. Youtubers such as Scott Eggleston (The Frugal Filmmaker) and Dave Knop (Knoptop) have done impressive things with the pipes as well.

    But there is a book that describes how to essentially create almost an entire studio outfitted with PVC lighting rigs of various sorts, as well as accessories such as casters and counterweights.

    "Tinker Tubes: Personal Lighting Systems" by Dean Collins provides plans for a variety of lighting rigs and ways to turn an open garage door into a soft box. Collins, a photographer who died in 2005, developed his system as a way to provide professional level lighting rigs at a fraction of the cost.

    You can download a free, low-resolution copy of the book here, either to build some of these rigs yourself or give you inspiration to design your own rigs.

Low-cost ways to set focus for your videos

    If you're working by yourself, getting your camera focused to where you are going to be in front of it can be a challenge.

    There are some tricks, such as using a remote to trigger the autofocus on the camera while you're standing in position, and then quickly locking it in by going to manual focus. But not everyone has a remote trigger.

    Another way is to put something where you will be,  focus on it, and then step into position.

    Dave Knop, AKA Knoptop, has a couple suggestions in a Youtube video.

    One is using a polystyrene mannequin display head, which you can pick up at a local wig shop or on Amazon. But if you either don't want to spend the money or have Jeff Bezos' algorithms making wild assumptions about you, Knoptop offers a cheaper solution that you most likely have laying around your house: A plastic, one-gallon jug.

    Knoptop said they can easily be used as a head to either hold hats and wigs, or as a focus stand-in. He recommends using a milk jug (not those big. square-ish ones you get at Costco), after rinsing it out, of course. For me, I have distilled water jugs sitting around that don't need as much cleaning.

 

    Knoptop said you can paint it, cover it with comic book art or whatever you want. I would recommend something that creates an easy focus pattern, maybe something like this modge-podged to the outside. To make it really utilitarian, you could also paint it a neutral gray tone so you can set color balance as well.

    I think the best part of it is you can fit it on a light stand, especially if you are using a PVC lightstand.

Frugal Filmmaker's $5 PVC light stands a practical way to hang lights, back drops.

    As most makers know, PVC pipes are a versatile medium.

    You can make quite a few things out of the pipes for a relatively low cost. The limits are just your imagination, just like with Lego bricks or Tinker Toys.

    (The pipes have been nicknamed "Tinker Tubes" for their use as a modular building material.)

    One of the more popular uses of PVC among DIY photographers is light stands. If you go online, you'll find a variety of stands online, holding a variety of lighting rigs, from speed lights to modified work lights.

    In my opinion, one of the best is the one designed by Scott Eggleston, also known as The Frugal Filmmaker for about $5 a stand. The stands are modular, which makes them adjustable to any height you need while being easy to transport. And you can use them to hang back drops, hold mics or position reflectors or sound-absorbing material.

    I built a set of four stands for about $25, which included extra poles to use for hanging a back drop, and extra connectors. I did try to cut some corners on Scott's design by eliminating end caps on the feet, but I quickly discovered that the caps are not there for aesthetics. They help stabilize the stand, because without them the stand is resting on the center pipe connector, making it unstable.

    My wife and I gave them a battle test recently, when we used them to hold up a limbo bar during a Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet. The stands survived a parade of Scouts trying to get under the bar.