I’m sure all of you have been waiting with baited breath to see whether some of the photography hacks I wrote about in my last blog post worked. Well wait no more, as here is our first follow up.
Disclaimer – I couldn’t find any models for the shoot, so I used a trusty toy duck and a fabric rose. Also apologies for the scratched and shiny table.
Paper Softbox
First up I tried this supposedly simple . Now I was only joking when I said that origami would help, but boy was it needed. I almost screwed up the paper multiple times trying to get it to look like the photos in the link. In the end though I used some masking tape to get it right and it worked. For just some paper and masking tape, it is pretty effective, and you could save yourself at least £20. The photo on the left is with the regular flash, and the right is with the softbox on.
Business Card Bouncer
The next hack I tried was the  that’s in your wallet. While not quite a hoax, I wouldn’t really call it a hack. Just resting the card on the camera created a horrible shadow, as you can see in the left image. When I angled it and stuck it with some masking tape, the results were better, as you can see in the right image, but nothing to write home about.
DIY Ring Flash
°Õ³ó¾±²õÌý was definitely the most labour intensive hack, and I would rate it a medium on a difficulty scale, but I’m actually quite happy with the results. I didn’t have a remote flash, so had to hack this hack, and create a sort or periscope instead, directing the flash into the ring.
As you can see from the above, I wouldn’t advise any professionals to use this if you want to be taken seriously. Unless you can make it look tidier, and less like a child did it. That being said, the results were really good, so if you are just shooting within the confines of your own home, get that Stanley knife out and try this yourself, but you know, be careful with it lest you cut your finger. The image on the left is taken with the external flash, and the results on the right are from my tinfoil contraption.
Barf Bag Flash Diffuser
I’m no jet-setter, so don’t have access to barf bags. Thankfully I had a box of paper lunch bags that I used for a . It’s a close tie between this and the softbox for my favourite hack. This is a lot simpler than the former, but is a lot less elegant looking. The results were very similar to the softbox, so I’ll let you judge which you think is better. On the left is sans barf bag, and on the right is with.
So far I haven’t come across any hoaxes, but check back next time for our final follow up. If you try any of these hacks, let us see your results by tweeting us, or posting in the comments below.
Update
You can check out the final part of the series here.