At the Southern Short Course this weekend I got to listen to David Hobby, of Strobist.com fame, teach about using strobe flashes to replace the big light kits most photographers use.
Upon arriving home last night I decided to use his DIY approach to lighting and constructed a snoot for my 580 EX II. I found a mini-cereal box that my roommate had placed in our recycling bag and applied black gaffers tape to it.
For those who don’t know what a snoot is, check out the photos after the cut so I can better explain it.
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| The mini-cereal box now converted into a snoot. Price, virtually free. Money saved from not paying for one, about $23 before shipping. |
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| Snoots work by directing the flow of light, the longer the snoot, the more restricted the light is. This is a photo lit with on-camera flash without a snoot. |
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| Same scene as above, but with the snoot in place. Notice how the light is now restricted to that rectangle? |
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| Now lets look at more practical purposes. A scene lit with off camera flash not bounced off of anything. Notice how the light spreads and illuminates everything in the area. |
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| Same scene as above, but with the snoot on. Notice how the snoot turns the flash into a spotlight of sorts leaving the Rubik’s Cube lit and just about everything else completely dark. Also, the closer the light is to the object being lit the more isolated the light will be. |
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| Although I used a Canon 580 EX II, the technique or even the cereal boxes themselves should still work on just about any other strobe out there. Here is my EX II without the snoot on. |
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| Here is my EX II again with the snoot on. |
Read More:
Strobist: Lighting 101: Cereal Box Snoots and GoBo’s
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you and your damn rubik’s cube. but this is a really interesting article!