DIY Speedlite Grid

Aaron Koolen — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:58:11 +0000

Being an amateur photographer that doesn’t make a cent from shooting I can’t justify spending cash on many accessories in order to experiment with a new technique. This means I have to build my own and today I want to talk about my most recent construction – a grid.

A grid is essentially a, well, grid of honeycomb, circles or other shapes designed to funnel light into a narrow beam. The result is a spotlight type of effect that feathers off at the edges. The major benefit to this is that you can then control where the light spills or doesn’t, highlighting your subject or background as you see fit.

Now, if you had a spare US$24.95 + shipping, you could purchase a well made pro grid for your Speedlite from HonlPhoto like this one. Your friends would envy you, you would look cool, and you would be able to have a little more control of your light. But if you’re like me, you have to give up the envy and the cool by building your own; although you will still get some control over your light.

Before I start I want to say that this is NOT my invention. I first came across a homemade grid via Strobist which took me to a couple of sites; DIYPhotography.net and lightingmods. Visit those sites for some more indepth information and other DIY treats. I’ve posted instructions here for both posterity, and also to help you locate those black straws if you’re in New Zealand. I couldn’t find them anywhere else.

First you will need to get all the equipment.

Scissors (The Warehouse, $1.95 if you don’t have them already)
Black straws ($4 from Carlton Party hire for enough to make about 6 grids, or 1 grid and a cocktail party)
Tape (Black Gaff is the best) (About $4 from The Warehouse and it will last you forever)
Cardboard (Cut up a book on programming in Java)

Equipment (Minus card)

Now measure the width and height of the front of your Speedlite and work out how many straws across, and rows high you’ll need to cover it. My 430EXII needs 7 rows of 13 straw pieces.

Cut all the straw pieces you’ll need but don’t worry about being too perfect, just get them pretty even in length and you can trim them later. I originally made a 5cm long grid, and later made a 2cm long one. Check the bottom of the post to see the difference in spot size generated by the different length straws.

Straw Pieces

Place a number of straws side by side to make one row, and tape them together by placing a piece of tape on top of them, wrapping it underneath if you want. Once taped, you can then trim along then ends to make them all uniform.

Row of straws

Once you’ve built up your rows of straws, stack them and tape them all together.

WARNING: When you join your rows of straws together, make sure there are no gaps along the row joins. Otherwise you’ll get horizontal strips of light coming out of the sides of your spot. Use glue if you need to.

OK, next measure around your flash unit, cut a piece of card that length which is as wide as the length of your straw pieces + an additional 3cm. The picture below shows the grid of straws and the mounting box. The industrial design astounds me even now!

Grid and Mounting Box

Push the grid into the mounting box so that one end is flush with the box end.

Assembled

Tape around the entire box to make it “pro” black and then push the other end of the mounting box over your flash head and voila!

All ready to shoot!

I had originally made this unit without the box, and attached velcro strips to the side of the grid which could then be attached to my very own “speed strap” (Yes, another post that you’ll be itching to read about I’m sure), but upon seeing a variation using a box I decided it’d be much faster to mount and remove so switched design. The lost R&D costs may bankrupt me.

I’ll finish off this post with a few of test shots for you to see it in action using my ever-ready world class model. Notice the light drop off? Even though the camera settings were exactly the same, it looks like the grid drops about 1.5 stops of light; something to keep in mind.

Without Grid

With Grid

Here’s a couple of absolutely awful photos showing the difference in spot sizes. For reference, the screen they are being shot against is 2m wide. I’ll try and do some real world shooting with them soon to show you better how they work.

Grid using 2cm long straws

Grid using 5cm long straws

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