Well. Recently I obtained both a Canon 430ex II speedlite, and an old flash that my dad used to use on his old SLR before it was destroyed by rain. I wanted to make a lightbox after reading various DIY photography blogs.
Wanting to do this ridiculously cheaply, I thought long and hard about what to make it from. Then it dawned on me: a beer box! So, we start with a nice, fresh, Coopers Pale Ale carton, which will become our lightbox:
First thing to do is cut one end so it is slightly more square. I cut mine to be 26cm long, matching the width of the box.
Next up, we cut windows into three sides, leaving the bottom as is. I cut the windows 3.5cm in from the edges.
I covered the windows with baking paper.
Testing whether the baking paper worked ok.
Here are a couple of examples with a single flash in the left window:
Here's an overview image. I have bought some cheap wireless flash triggers from ebay. However, they haven't arrived yet. So, these images were taken in the following manner.
o F22, so that virtually none of the light in my bedroom would make it into the final photos
o A shutter speed of 1 second.
o Hand hold the camera, and fire the shutter
o While the shutter is still open, manually fire the flash (hence the long shutter time)
When my triggers get here I want to try it with two speedlites. However, I'm pretty happy with how things are looking so far. Total cost: zero dollars, but at least one hangover.
Flickr stream of these photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7497191@N08/sets/72157624310470101/