DIY Homemade Softbox - Foldable Softbox

DIY Softbox - From Left - Sinu Kumar, Shibu Bhaskar

Based on the R3 concept (Reduce, Recycle and Reuse) this foldable and easily dismantable softbox is based on a child walker.

In this project we are using a square aluminium frame, we could have re used the base of the walker but that we are saving for some future diy action.

The softbox we designed is cheap to build but its very durable and could be easily disassembled.Best thing about it apart from the fine light it produces is its looks.

Supplies for Softbox Project

Folding Mechanism from Walker for children
Aluminium Square piper 3/4 inch
4 inch piper cover / dummy.
Aluminium Piece 1 inch wide
Butter Paper
Rivets / Screws / Nuts & Bolts
Adhesive
Umbrella cloth (one side black, other silver)

Tools Required for the Softbox Project

Steel Scale, Permanent Marker, Rivet Gun, Combination Plier, Screwdrivers, Sewing Machine.

The walker shown below was used by my daughter (who is now 3 years of age) it has performed its duty well and has outlived all the punishments thrown at it during its active service. It was lying in the garage waiting to be disposed off.

Shown in the picture given below is the mechanism that allows the walker to fold for easy storage. The next image shows it folded.

We disassembled the folding mechanism from the walker and attached it to a 4 inch dummy (cover for pipe 4 inch in diameter) available at all hardware stores. The holder that attaches to the folding mechanism needed to be suited to match the curve of the dummy. Easily done with a combination plier.

All the holders were riveted to the dummy. The whole setup came out quite stronger than we first expected.

Next we cut out the hole for the flash from the dummy and made a ‘C’ clamp from a 1 inch wide aluminium piece to hold the flash in place.

Now that we have successfully attached the flash we made a 20 inch square frame to form the front portion of our softbox.

You can see the skeleton of our softbox in the picture given on the left and the softbox with the umbrella cloth attached on the right. Luckily we found an umbrella with one side silver coated surface and other side black. If you have trouble finding such stuff you could get black umbrella cloth and apply aluminium paint on the inside. We undid the whole assemble including the cloth and re-cut / sowed it to match the shape of our softbox.

A metal ring was made from the aluminium piece to keep the cloth firm at the center. The cloth was glued to the inside of the outer frame. We covered the space inside the dummy with aluminium foil to ensure maximum reflection.

In order to achieve even distribution of light on all areas of the softbox we made a primary diffuser / reflector out of butter paper. Butter paper was cut in a circular shape and was glued to the top of the dummy. This acts as the primary reflector spreading the light equally to all areas of the secondary diffuser.