I recently purchased some of the gels suggested on the strobist site from Midwest Photo Exhange. I pretty much did what was suggested and placed the velcro on the gels. The one thing that I didn’t want to do was to permanently attach the other piece of velcro on the flash… at least on my nikon flashes. I did put it on my vivatar flash but my nikons have multiple uses and the velcro would just be in the way.
I also purchased an 8″ HonlPhoto speed snoot and one of the speed straps. I am very happy with my purchase of the snoot and like the fact that it will lay flat in my bag and the construction of it is very good quality. I know that there is a lot of people that prefer to go cheaper (as I did when I started) but this is one piece that I do not regret purchasing. On that other hand I was a little disappointed that the strap was not included and that it was a little pricey. I again feel that the product is constructed well but would rather spend the money on items like the snoot rather then the strap. That is what brings me to my post. I decided that I needed one more velcro strap but felt that making it out of items I already have is a better route to go.
Removable velcro strap
I did have to make one purchase to create the strap and that was non-slip drawer liner. It cost all of 98 cents. The velcro is something that I already had but I am sure would cost less then 4 dollars.
WA LA! A reusable non-slip velcro strap. The only little fall back to this route is that I ended up with a lot a drawer liner that had no purpose. I figured for 98 cents I couldn’t go wrong…. I could always use the rest as actually drawer liner. As I stared looking at it though… I wondered what else I could make out of it.
Cookie
I played around with folding the liner and placing it in front of the snoot. What I got was some nice “random” patterns. I decided that since I had the time and materials I would go ahead and make some cookies. I stared by sizing up the liner so that it was bigger then the snoot.
I cut a long strip of it so that I had enough to make two cookies. The smaller one was folded in half and the longer one was folded twice (in thirds). I did this to so that it would create more area in front of the flash. I decided to use thread and stitch the loose edge to hold the whole thing together. I played around with tape but found that it made it a bit too stiff and also ate a little to much of the surface area up.
This is also creates a bit of a pocket in the middle which will have its use…. and allows the fabric to be manipulated, twisted, stretched and moved to create different effects.
What I end up with was a two ply and and a 3 ply cookie. I applied some velcro to the top and bottom of the front of the snoot and also to the cookies. I fired a couple of test shots and was pleased with the subtle effect that it created.
I also played around with using a combination of the cookies and the gels. The nice little side effect of the the folding and stitching the material is that it creates a pocket in the middle. This worked perfect for slipping the gel in to. I placed the gel in between the folds and fired away.
Well there you have it! Hopefully some of you creative types can make something out of this mess. I really like the almost “instant canvas” feel that comes from these cookies… kinda looks like material a bit. As a final note I would like to say again that the snoot and other products that I referred to are very good quality and I plan on purchasing more of them in the future. In no way am I attempting to draw business away from anybody but saving a little money in one department allows you to splurge in others.
As always all the images are available in larger format on my flickr page.
