DIY Softbox for Cool Lights LED600

[topcat]

Here's a project I threw together this evening that will diffuse the light from my Cool Lights 5600k Spot well enough for an interview situation or whatever.

I used 2 sheets of foamboard, 1/2 yard of white felt, some Aleene's "quick grab" fabric glue, an X-Acto knife to cut the foamboard, and a sharp pair of scissors to cut the white felt.

The hinge in the top of the foamboard was made by just "scoring" the foamboard and then bending it, although you could cut it and use tape for a hinge.

I bought all the materials for about $10 at the local Wal-Mart and it provided enough to make 2 of them.

The LED600 doesn't produce much heat so this seems to work OK, but with any light that would produce any amount of heat there would be a definite fire hazard for the foamboard and felt fabric used. Caution and common sense as always should apply on any home project like this one.

It would have been nice to just buy a softbox, but after spending my lighting budget on three of the LED600's this will have to do! LOL!

Richard puts out a great product -- the LED600's are GREAT!

 

[Cool Lights]

Thanks for your posting and comments Topcat! Pretty cool and easy to put together. I wonder if you could have used some velcro to help with attaching the hood to your fixture quickly and securely?

 

[topcat]

Hi Richard and thanks for the comments. I considered several methods of mounting and opted for this one because it was so simple and easy to do. Although the velcro would probably have worked a littIe better, I always hesitate to put velcro on equipment if I can avoid it because it leaves a mark on the painted surface that can be hard to remove later. That would certainly work though. And the lights are working out really well!

 

[puredrifting]

Nice job TopCat. I own six Chimeras, they are great, but I can hear you about budget. The beauty of it is your $10.00 softbox is going to get you the same end result, soft light is soft light. Very cool, love the DIY.

Dan

 

[topcat]

Thanks for the good feedback. I'm going to make a third one in a day or two so I'll have one for all 3 lights. A Chimera is definitely on my wishlist but will have to wait for now.

 

[Dana Kupper]

Here is my cheapo softbox solution:
I got a used speed ring ($20) and this softbox($70) from Calumet.
http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/RM3132/
It has worked well, but I think the front material is a little heavy, I may make another with a shower curtain and some hot glue and velcro.

 

[topcat]

I like that -- great idea! I'm trying to hold the cost down so I'm still pursuing the low-cost version! LOL!

I tried using a piece of plastic diffusion panel (like you use for overhead fluorescent lights) and glued the felt over top of it. This version looks better and is much more sturdy.

Use the fabric glue along the edges to secure the felt to the plastic diffusion panel. It's much more sturdy and just looks better. I used plastic tape to cover any rough edges and also to allow the panel to slide into position more easily.

I glued the felt to the edges of a milky white plastic panel and it seems to give me the softness I was looking for but I'm still going to try using a frosty clear piece just to see what I come up with. I think it will let more light thru.

I noticed Richard's comment about the space between the barndoors and the light and it's just enough to slide a piece of plastic panel with the felt glued on -- but no more than enough. So I thought I'd try another version of what I did on the first attempt. So far I'm very satisfied. I'm using these on the spot LED panels -- will try them on the LED flood panel maybe tomorrow to see how much light gets thru.

 

[p.a.h.]

-- will try them on the LED flood panel maybe tomorrow to see how much light gets thru.

Very interested to see how this turns out....and for your (anyone's) interpretation on using them (one) for interview scenarios.

 

[nsoltz]

Just tried my Chimera (S) on LED Flood panel. My speed ring seems a bit smaller than Dana's (model for Tota's) so I really could not properly obtain a secure mount to light. It did not seem to let a lot of light through the Chimera so I really don't see that as a viable option at the moment. Will test again when I have more time.

Ned

 

[topcat]

Just as an update, I made some of the ones using the more clear diffused plastic instead of the milky white. Needless to say, they let much more light through and I think that's the way to go. The milky white plastic is a softer pleasing light but the clear does a nice job and I prefer those -- it's a very subjective choice. Also, I've been using these so far with the 600LED SPOT panel and those have more punch than the FLOOD does. I'll post some pics later today or tomorrow if I have some time to do it. Overall, I'm very pleased with this little project.

 

[Cool Lights]

Thats about what I expected. You know there are quite a few different grades of that stuff. You may even be able to find one thats mildly "milky" thereby giving a greater diffusion factor but not so much as to cut more light than it has to.

 

[topcat]

Here's a link to a video of some tests I did. Could have done a better job I guess but I wanted to get something posted so everyone could see how these work. Hope they help!

http://vimeo.com/3981788?pg=transcoded_embed&sec=3981788

 

[Cool Lights]

Tom that's really great. I couldn't have done a better job for illustration purposes. Actually I thought it looked not too bad with no diffusion.

I'm really gratified to see all the DIY work people have done at creating filters, diffusion and such for this fixture and will certainly help in inspiration of the follow-on accessories to come in the future.

Here's another idea using a "quicky" diffusion flozier I had created out of 1 stop loss polysilk. Just fits over the barndoors and looks like an oversized shower head cap. Elastic around the edges lets it grip onto the barndoors and stay in place.

Quick on/quick off. Just needs a more sheer material I think to keep from losing too much light. The heat resistant polysilk is definitely overkill for this kind of fixture.

 

[topcat]

Wow! I hadn't thought of that approach -- Nice!

 

[nsoltz]

Richard,

Was that polysilk flozier over a Spot or a Flood version? As I think I wrote, just attempting to jury-rig a small Chimera using a speed ring for a Tota over the flood, it seemed to throw very litle light.

Ned Soltz

 

[Cool Lights]

Ned,

It was a spot and that works best. In controlled conditions, Tom's video shows that even the flood can be diffused though with different kinds of diffusion besides the polysilk which is not the ideal material for these units.

 

[topcat]

I bought a piece of white frost gel from B&H and I'm going to cut it to fit this weekend as another option. If it's not the effect I'm looking for I might try some craft spray glue and adhere a piece of white felt to it. That might have enough stiffness to be usable and alot less work than cutting the plastic panels. It would also be very light weight. I'll post the results then.

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

I think that the 1/2 stop flozier would probably be perfect for that.

 

[topcat]

Is the fabric used on the flozier a regular fabric like polyester or is it a fiberglass cloth?

 

[Cool Lights]

It is rip stop type nylon with 1 stop loss. 1/2 stop loss would be much better. Also want to try different "chiffon" or "voile" type materials which are 1/4 stop but they may be too little diffusion. We'll see.