On a scale of 1 to 10 it gets an 8 for DIY coolness, but a 2 for usability.  And that bugged me enough that I was back to the drawing board the next morning.

Actually, the drawing board is where I did end up, in the form of Google SketchUp, where I puttered around with a few more ideas before coming up with this:

(Click for a larger view)

Unlike it’s plastic predecessor, this new DIY multi-flash bracket is all metal; if it dies during a location shoot, it’ll be because someone ran over my lightstand, not from plastic fatigue.  In a twist of irony, the inspiration came from the DIYPhotography blog, which shared a post back in February: “Two Flashes are Better than One + Simple DIY Multi-Flash Bracket Tutorial.” The bracket in that post is a two-flash version of the one above; I saw the picture of it and the thought popped into my head, “Why not just double it?”

The final product is very much like the plans above; I added some locking nuts to keep the horizontal mounting plates in place, and used a spacer instead of a connector between the two plates – once all the parts are tightened down, it’s pretty darn solid.

Each coldshoe mounts to the plate in the pattern of: thumb-screw+nut+fender washer+plate+coldshoe.  The nut is really just a spacer, to keep the thumb-screws from coming up through the center of the coldshoes.  There’s just barely enough space between the two plates for the opposing thumb-screws to fit.  And by using the thumb-screws, I’ve maintained the ability to rotate the coldshoes in a full circle, so I can keep the E-TTL sensor on the flash pointing in any direction.

It’s still lightweight and takes up very little room in the camera bag, although I’m afraid that it’s DIY coolness factor has fallen a bit.  But since usability is up, I guess it’s a small sacrifice to make.  And it does get that 4th flash on-board, which will go even father in terms of lighting power.

Now I just need to use it.  The model I had lined up for last Saturday bailed in the morning, so I’m looking to re-book her for this weekend.  Failing that, I’ll beg my girlfriend to step in front of the camera.  But I definitely want to take this out in broad daylight with my 50mm f/1.8 and see how they’ll play together!

But what the hell, I still built it myself!  And here’s how – photos and instructions after the break:

The parts list is modest, to say the least.  The primary body of the mount is .5 cup sized Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids container.  (Yes, you read that right.)  I searched high and low for a square piece of material suitable for a body frame, and this is all I was able to come up with.  And I’ll admit right now, it is by no means the perfect solution, nor is it one that I’m likely to stick with.  But for the moment, it works.

The Rubbermaid container is joined by 3x coldshoes and a collection of misc. hardware, all of it 1/4″ x 20 spec., just to keep things simple.

I began by measuring out the center of each of the four faces, then using a hobby knife to cut holes in the Rubbermaid container, through which the mounting/structural support rods will pass.  I also used the knife to trim off the perpendicular flange that ran around the container near the top, as it would get in the way of the coldshoes.

In step two, I fed in the 2x 3″ threaded rods and their associated hardware – some washers and nuts to keep them in position within the Rubbermaid frame.  As I mentioned before, the purpose of these rods is twofold – first, they provide mounting points for the coldshoes; and second, they greatly increase the structural strength of the container.

With the rods in place (and as you can see above, one of the coldshoes attached), I used the knife to cut two holes in the bottom of the container, and two matching holes in the “Easy Find Lid” – these are for the umbrellas, two of which can feed through the container.  Because the lid is made of a flexible rubber, I left it’s holes a little smaller, for some extra grip on the umbrellas.

Here’s the finished unit, with the coldshoes mounted and a threaded connector attached to the bottom post, so that the bracket can mount directly to the threaded post on the lightstand’s umbrella adapter.  After threading the coldshoes into place, I used a wrench to tighten down all the nuts inside the container – the finished unit actually feels remarkable solid!

And here it is in action – three Speedlites securely mounted and firing in sync.  It works!

If you’ve read this far and are any kind of photographer, you’re probably thinking that I’m crazy about now.  For sure, a Rubbermaid container is NOT any kind of secure, confidence-inspiring unit that you’re going to mount nearly $1k in flashes to.  And I’m right there with you.

What I was able to do here is build a multi-flash bracket that feels surprisingly sturdy, for under $25, in less time than it took to actually find the components.  Amazingly enough, I actually have enough confidence in this contraption that I’d use it in the studio – albeit with frequent checks for plastic fatigue and cracking.

On-location, however, even I’m not nuts enough to use this thing – I get the distinct feeling that it’s just not up to being in constant motion in, say, the hands of an assistant.  And I certainly don’t want to see three of my Speedlites take a nose-dive into the dirt.

So what was the point of all this?  Call it a “proof of concept.”  There are units out there like the FourSquare and Lastolite TriFlash, but I’m still not convinced that they need to cost $65-$100+ apiece.  I still believe that there’s a better way – and I’m going to keep looking for a way to build one of these on my own.  One, incidentally, that will actually stand up to the rigors of the field.

And that can’t be used to hold M&Ms during it’s off-time.

The key to all these multi-Speedlight shots is a little unit by Lightware Direct called the FourSquare Block, which Dave appears to have been testing for a while.  Essentially a square of machined aluminum, the FourSquare lets you mount a Speedlite to each side, quickly combining anywhere from one to four of them together on a single bracket for increased power.

Photo Credit: Lightwaredirect.com

Very cool!

Unfortunately, the price you pay for cool is pretty steep – Lighware Direct’s FourSquare is $100.  Start adding accessories, like the swivel mounts that let you keep the E-TTL sensors facing the camera, and the price jumps by almost another $100.  Throw in their softbox and handle grip, and you’re looking at a cool $400+.  Ouch – that’s a brand new 580EX!

I see something like that and my brain instantly shifts into DIY mode.  Since I just love being cheap reverse engineering things like this, I can’t justify spending a Speedlite’s worth of clams on the mount & modifier alone.  I mean, come on, at it’s most simple, we’re talking about a 4-way mount with some coldshoes on it…how hard can it be to make one of those?

Off the top of my head, I’m thinking 2x right angle brackets hooked together into a square.  Or perhaps a 4-way threaded connector, with lengths of threaded steel rods onto which the coldshoes can directly screw.  I don’t care if mine looks as pretty as the FourSquare, it just needs to hold 4x Speedlites securely and mount to a lightstand/monopod.

What all this means is a trip to the hardware store this evening, another hour or two spent wandering aimlessly to see what I can find and convert from its intended use into a flash accessory.  In all honesty, I see this project as being simpler than the last one, my DIY Right-angle Flash Mount.

I’ve got a model shoot tomorrow evening and I’d love to have this built in time to try it out.  Not sure if that’s possible, but either way, be sure to share what I come up with.

DIY Flash Bracket - side view

It’s simple, it’s cheap, and it does the job very well.  And best of all, it requires just three major parts; a horizontal adjustment track, vertical adjustment track, and a cold shoe.

I went into this project with a good idea of what I needed to complete it, although I wasn’t sure exactly where I’d find the actual components.  (I think I’d have had better luck in a good local hardware store than in Lowes/Home Depot, but in the end I did find what I needed.)

The horizontal adjustment track (silver) is the metal from a Sliding Bevel Gauge; I unscrewed the adjustment fastener and it fell right out of the plastic handle.  The side with the tape was angled to a point, which I figured was unsafe, so I used the Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to cut the point right off.  The tape is there to protect against the sharp edges of the metal.

The vertical adjustment track (gold) is a universal slide track, meant to go on a hinged box top.  There was a pivoting mount on the bottom when I bought it, which I non-too-gently removed with a hammer and screwdriver.  Bent it on the edge of a table, and there you go – a right angle piece perfect for mounting the cold shoe to.

As I mentioned before, the cold shoe was the only piece of purpose-built photo equipment I purchased for this.  It’s connected to the vertical track with a thumb screw and some washers.  Which is the same way that the rest is held together; thumb screws, wingnuts, and some washers.  Easy to adjust, easy to disassemble, and cheap.

DIY Flash Bracket - Top view

The point of this bracket vs. directly mounting the flash the umbrella adapter?  It’s simple – the optical wireless sensor remains unobstructed.  For instance, when using my ProKit softbox, the wireless sensor on the Speedlite is blocked, so getting the pre-flash signal to it is a challenge.  But with this bracket, the softbox goes on, and the sensor is lying back there free and clear, able to be rotated 360 around the cold shoe in order to best “see” the master flash.

At this point I could go out and build another of these without any trouble – it would take an hour, from the time I set foot in the store until the time the bracket was completed.  And with each bracket costing less than half the price of the manufactured version, I’m happy.  $30 and a little design time gives me a huge improvement in my wireless E-TTL control.

The bracket easily handles the weight of the Speedlite, although I wouldn’t trust it with a whole lot more.  If you’re going to start putting heavy modifiers on the Speedlite, I’d make sure they could be mounted separately, using the umbrella clamp.

Questions?  Need more detail about part of the process?  Drop me a note in the comments!

Photo credit: CheetahStand.com

Pretty ingenious – by mounting the Speedlite horizontally like this, it’s able to rotate a full 360 degrees around it’s base, which means that even with the head stuffed inside softbox, the wireless sensor window is left outside and can be positioned to best see a master flash unit’s wireless pulse.

Not so cool?  $63 price tag.  Yeah, I’ve heard it before, we spend thousands on cameras, lenses, and lights – why not drop some “petty cash” on the accessories?  In cases like this, the reason why is simple – as much as I admire the Cheetah unit above, it’s by no means part of the Space Shuttle.  I look at that and the first thought into my head is, “I can build one of those.”

Of course not everybody is a DIY sort of person – but I am.  I enjoy mulling over how to build things like this, and then prowling Lowes and the local hardware store for a couple of hours finding parts.  In fact, that’s how I spent my Monday night.  I came home with a bag full of odd stuff that I’m pretty sure I can merge into a working final product.  Total cost so far?  About $20.  At that rate, I could build one for each of my Speedlites for the cost of a single Cheetah unit.

This is a project that I hope to have tackled by the end of the weekend.  I’ll post the results – either a working DIY flash bracket, or a pile of useless junk.  But I’m pretty sure it will be the former.

Of course, being the geek I am, I couldn’t just look at the photo and go from there.  No, I had to sketch out how I planned to build my own version.  And since sketching is inaccurate and painfully low-tech, I installed Google SketchUp, watched the tutorials, and then used it to design my version of the bracket.

DIY Flash Bracket - Frontal View

DIY Flash Bracket - Overhead View

Hell, I’m impressed by how good it looks rendered like this!  Sure, it’s a bit rough and not quite to scale.  But spend some time using SketchUp and you’ll find (if you’re technically inclined) that it’s addictive.  And the things you can render once you learn some skills are just amazing!

Perhaps I should have been an engineer…

Please note: I’m not bashing the folks at Cheetah here at all.  They came up with a great looking product and are entitled to make a profit on it.  I suspect that most people will be more than happy to buy one if they need it.  Aside from being occasionally cheap, I embark on these DIY missions for fun – that’s all.

And for this one, I did in fact order several of Cheetah’s Slide Lock Cold Shoes, which look very nice, and are quite reasonably priced.

But why do you need the extender?  Consider the Nikon SB-900, the Speedlight with the longest zoom range: 200mm.  Now consider the lenses that wildlife photographers use: 400mm, 600mm, 800mm.  There’s a major disparity there.  At 200mm – of the 105mm that my Canon 580EX maxes out at – the flash is too diffuse & weak by the time it reaches a bird on a branch to do any good.  Enter the flash extender.

A flash extender is simply a fresnel lens mounted on support arms in front of the flash head.  The fresnel lens condenses the flash beam; a tighter beam suffers less fall-off and reaches farther.  There are several commercial models available, the best known probably being the Better Beamer.  It runs about $40, and I’ll be the first to admit that while I’ll drop $1k on a lens, I’m too cheap to drop a pair of Jacksons on a flash extender.  Come on, it’s a plastic fresnel lens mounted on a pair of support arms.

DIY Flash Extender

Turns out that fresnel lenses can be purchased at Barnes & Noble in the form of reading magnifiers.  Since I don’t have a Barnes & Noble within 45minutes, and my local Borders didn’t carry any, I settled for an 8×11 inch lens from Staples.  Cost $8.  I brought it home, pulled up some product photos of a Better Beamer mounted to a Canon 580EX, and took some measurements of different parts of the Speedlite and Beamer in the photo, then of the actual Speedlite.  Some mathematical magic gave me conversion ratios, which I used to calculate the dimensions I needed out of the 8×11 sheet.

Since a frensel lens works in increasing “ripples” from a central point, I plotted the center of the lens sheet using a Sharpie marker, measure out my dimensions, and cut it down to size using a Dremel tool & cutting wheel (gotta love those things!).  Managing not to lose fingers in the process, the result was a roughly  4×6 inch lens.  Since the cuts were somewhat ugly – not to mention sharp – I cut three open rectangles of black foam; one traced to fit tight around the edge of the fresnel lens, the other two wider to cover it on either side.  Some hot glue, and my lens was suddenly mounted in foam and looking better.

DIY Flash Extender Lens

Use the same mathematical magic as before, along with some hand held tests, to determine the best length of the fresnel from the flash head (about 6″).  I cut the support arms out of foamcore scraps I had lying around.  Nice and simple.  Now, when it comes to assembling the whole thing, I thought about just hot gluing it, but decided that I’d rather be able to break it down so that it would all lie flat in a camera bag pocket.  Slapped some Velcro on the end, which turned out to be sturdy enough to hold it together in use, although gale-force winds might tear it free.

Finally, a foam strap with Velcro to mount it to the flash head, and it was done.  The whole process took about three hours, much of that measuring and cutting of components.

The result?  A working DIY flash extender.  Out in the field it works as expected; I’m able to throw a flash beam onto a bird that I’m shooting at 400mm.  The beam is tight and balanced, and not only does it allow the flash to work, but it allows the flash to fire at less than full power, which is what it defaults to at that range without the beamer.

Black-capped Chickadee photographed with DIY flash extender

Of course it’s not as simple as all that to use – there is a learning curve.  The trick is figuring out how much flash compensation to dial in.  The amount varies depending on the ambient conditions, but it’s almost always a negative amount, since you’re looking for fill light, a catch light in the eye, instead of full-on primary lighting.  You also need to make sure that the flash head is aligned with the fresnel lens, otherwise the beam won’t be straight and centered, but off to one side.

There’s still a rang limit, as well.  Although the extender will reach to 400mm (my maximum focal length), it works best on subjects that fill a significant portion of the frame at that range.  If you try using it to light a bird that is very small in your frame, you’ll still see fall off, to the point where you may not notice the flash’s effect at all.

Bottom line, if you’re shooting birds or wildlife, this is something to really think about having in your bag.  Is it worth building your own?  That depends on how much $40 is worth to you, vs. $15 in supplies and a few hours of creative energy.  For me, part of the drive to make DIY gear is the fun I have in the process – I like designing and building useful tools out of unlikely stuff.  But if that’s not you, go for the commercial option.

I use the Strobist system of lighting.  For anyone who’s been living under a rock for the past two years and doesn’t know what Strobist is, check out the link and prepare to learn a ton.  Strobist is the brainchild of former photojournalist David Hobby, who started blogging about the wonders of using off-camera flash.  His system is centered around hotshoe-style Speedlight strobes (by any manufacturer), used off-camera in manual mode.

The perks of this system are huge.  Speedlight strobes are smaller, cheaper, far more mobile, and easier to use on location or in the studio.  Consider this: when I was working as the assistant university photographer in Binghamton, going on-location with the studio gear involved taking two suitcase-sized bags for the lights alone, plus another for light stands and accessories – we used a folding luggage cart to carry it all.

My kit is much easier to manage.  All four of my strobes fit into an old Army shoulder bag, plus my radio slaves, gel pack, roll of tape, and spare batteries.  An old tripod bag holds two light stands, two umbrella adapters, and two umbrellas.  If I need the third light stand and adapter, I use ball-bungies to attach it to the bag holding the others.  That’s all there is to it.

Granted, if I am taking the entire studio setup with me, it gets a bit more complicated, as I then have another bag for the backdrop stand, the roll of seamless, and the beauty dish & softbox.  But more often than not, I try to work with what I have on hand – in my university days, that was easy.  If I was shooting in the gym, I put three strobes on stands in a large triangle around my subjects and bounced off the ceiling.

Shooting in the pool was the same idea, except I lined all 3 strobes up along the side of the pool and bounced again.  At f.4 and ISO 800 I had enough light to shoot at 1/60th or better, depending on which dark cave I was in.

This is why you need to take the Strobist system seriously.  If you’re never, ever going to leave your studio then perhaps AlienBees or White Lightings are the way to go.  But if you’re going to be working on location, especially by yourself, you need mobility.  I can take my kit anywhere, indoors or out, and light anything.  If I can’t bounce off a wall or ceiling, I can place the stands and throw on umbrellas.  I don’t need outlets; I have a dozen sets of rechargeable AA batteries that I cycle through.  And if I were ever to burn through all of those, I carry some regular AAs along just in case.

And now the part that should really get your attention – cost.  A single studio strobe (never mind light stand or anything else) runs $200+.  In my kit, not a single strobe cost over $100; the average is closer to $70.  That’s because I buy older model Nikon Speedlights off eBay.  (These used to cost about $25 each on eBay, until Strobist hit the scene and drove the prices back up).  Instead of the obscenely expensive PocketWizards, I use Cactus 16-channel studio slaves (also an eBay unit, from Gadget Infinity).  And I finish it off with light-duty light stands and umbrella adapters; I’m only putting a Speedlight on there, after all.

The Cactus radio slaves (sometimes known as “Poverty Wizards”) are a mixed bag.  Their V2 models are built for Speedlights , but don’t usually work well (in my experience).  The 16-channel ones work much better, but are made for studio strobes and come with studio jacks.  What do I do?  I cut the studio jacks off and use some simple crimp tubes to splice on PC adapters, which plug into all my flashes.  Finish it off with some shrink-wrap tubing or electrical tape, and the receivers are good to go.

Likewise with the Cactus transmitter units – out of the box they have really bad range and tend to mis-fire or not fire at all.  But order $5 worth of parts from an electronics store and open the transmitter up (which involves removing a single screw), and you’ll see that there’s a spot on the circuit board for an antenna.  So you drill a hole in the top of the case (very easy), solder a single wire from the marked spot on the circuit board to the antenna you bought (easy), put it all back together, and you suddenly have great range and a dependable transmitter (very, very cool).

Total cost: $30 for a Tx & Rx set, plus $20 for each additional Rx, plus $15 for all the extra parts.  My ENTIRE radio slave kit cost me HALF the price of a SINGLE PocketWizard unit.  And I’m no electronics genius; I had never soldered anything before in my life.  But it was easy – really, really easy – to perform all the mods.  Consider the price and how well the whole kit works, and it’s a no-brainer.

For all the details, take a look at the following links:

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Strobist - again, if you want to learn to light, check this guy out.  Start with the Lighting 101 tutorials and work your way up to the current posts.

Rants of a Well-Meaning Madman – this is where I got the directions for the Tx antenna mod.  I ordered the parts from the shop he suggested and followed the steps.  It took about an hour and was easy.  Only the soldering worried me, but my uncle lent me his soldering iron and gave me a 5-minute crash course, and I did just fine.

Another Tx mod – this guy takes the prize for simplicity!  Apparently he simply soldered a longer, firmer length of wire to the circuit board and ran it directly through a small hole in the case, and viola – instant antenna.

Gadget Infinity – the eBay store that sells Poverty Wizards.  They’re based out of Hong Kong, so shipping can take a few days longer, but the stuff still comes quick.  Don’t expect the units to work great out of the box – the mods listed above are required to get great results.  I use the “16 channels wireless studio flash triggers” – NOT the ”16 channels wireless studio flash triggers 220V” model.

And as I said last time, I’m used to working with a P&S part of the time, out of convenience or chance.  I got some feedback on that post and it seems that others out there can relate.

So I got to thinking, “Let’s take this a step further – what else do we have to work with?”  The answer is – space.

We all have space, usually in limited quantities and strange configurations that lead us to quickly decide that it isn’t well suited to photography.  So instead of using our space, we sit around and bemoan our lack of a studio to work in.

Most of us don’t need studios.  As much as I’d love to have one, right now even I don’t really need one.  I’m lucky enough to have a huge living room with 10′ ceilings in my apartment, which generally goes unused.  I can set up a backdrop and lights and have just enough room to do what I need.

But how about those of you who don’t have backdrops and studio gear, who simply have a camera, a single artificial light source (strobe, work light, living room lamp), and an average room?  Can you still make good portraits?

Frankly, that’s not the question I’m interested in asking, because I know what the answer is- of course you can!  What I really want to know is, given an average room and a single artificial light source, how many portraits can you make?

(I keep saying “artificial light source” for a reason; so long as you’re shooting during the daytime, you are guaranteed to have the sun as a natural light source.  So really, with both the sun and an artificial light, you have two lights to work with.)

In my living room, the answer turns out to be at least nine.  My living room is large, but also rather featureless, and shows a surprising dearth of furniture.  Since I’m also plagued with a lack of models, I used my girlfriend, Mandy.  I shot everything with my wide angle lens and a single off-camera Speedlight through a white umbrella.

If you don’t have strobes, use a regular lamp.  Take off the lampshade for hard, direct light; keep the lampshade on for semi-diffused light; and put a white bed sheet between the bare lamp and the subject for a softbox effect.

Keep in mind that these were shot quickly as the light was fading outside.  On an afternoon with bright sunlight streaming into the room, the images would come out entirely different.  In another room, they’d look entirely different.  The point here is that there are many variables, all of which can be manipulated to achieve a new set of images.

So there you have it – simple and requiring no fancy tools and no specialized space.  Anyone can do this, with any camera, in any room.