DIY Project: Photography Diffusion Panel

7/21/2009
My wife is an amateur photographer and does a lot of outdoor, on location photography sessions and portraits. Since many of these sessions end up being in the afternoon time frame, she struggles sometimes with sun spots on her subjects. In an attempt to help her out, I’ve used her light reflector to block the sun from creating spots. This works well when she’s taking photos of one or two individuals. However, when she’s taking photos of larger groups, the reflector isn’t large enough.

I’ve seen diffusion panels which are intended for this type of a situation. The diffusion panel is essentially just a sturdy frame with a white cloth stretched across it. The cloth allows some light to go through, yet blocks harsh light. Overall, the effect is a more even light on the subject being photographed.

My thought with this is that I can build a diffusion panel and hopefully do so at a fraction of the cost of buying a retail one. I intend to research this and continuously update this posting with the information that I find.

Step 1: Research
With my research, first I’d like to find out how much retail diffusion panels cost. In addition to that, I’d like to find the various styles and sizes that are available, materials used to make the panels and any features that they have incorporated. In addition to this, I plan to look at user reviews of the commercially available diffusion panels to determine which ones are most successful and why.

7/22/2009
I’ve looked on B and H Photo’s website as well as Adorama to determine some of the features of existing panel diffusers and their cost. At B and H Photo, it seems all of theirs are sold in pieces. I would have to buy the cloth, a frame for it and a stand to hold it up. Depending on the size, it looks like it would cost me in the neighborhood of about $300 on the low end to approx. $600 on the high end.

Adorama has a package deal for the Lastolite Medium Premium Skylight Kit which is $350. This kit looks very nice in that it includes the diffusion cloth as well as a silver/white reflector, the frame and a carry bag. It does not appear to include stands.

A couple things I’ve noted:

• the diffusion fabric is also called a stop diffuser and has ratings such as 1.25. I need to look this up a bit more to determine how the rating works. I assume it is tied to the transparency of the fabric.
• The actual panel and frame of the entire setup is detachable so it can be hand held or mounted to stands.
• Lightweight is a key feature, yet sturdy is also a key feature.
• A taut finish is another key feature. Making sure the fabric is tight ensures an even light distribution on the subject.
• Most appear to use velcro fasteners to allow the fabric to be removed and pulled taut across the frame.

7/24/2009
Been doing some more searching for retail panel diffusers and I found the DMKFoto Butterfly Panel Diffuser on Amazon. Only thing about this is it looks like there is only one. The price of this is $210.00 and again doesn’t include stands or clamps to secure the diffuser to stands.

Another feature that I overlooked in the previous bullet list is

• Quick setup and break down as well as portability.

So looking at retail panel diffusers, it sure seams like I could build one much cheaper than to buy one. Given what I’ve found, it appears that I would spend a minimum of $300 for a diffuser and the stands/clamps. More likely, it appears that the price would be somewhere around $400 or above. In order to know for sure, I’ll need to research prices for individual parts to build one. However, before getting into that, I want to find out more about panel diffusers in general and the rating system on the diffuser cloth that I mentioned above.

8/6/2009
I’ve continued researching existing diffusion panels. For anyone interested, Lastolite has a great website which includes videos of their products and how to setup and use them. They have a diffusion panel called the Skylite and it comes in various sizes. Unfortunately, their site doesn’t contain pricing information, just product specifications. I did a quick search and found the large size Skylite on Amazon and it is nearly $500. In my information from 7/22/09, I also found this product in the medium size for about $150 less.

To Do:
The following list is things that I need to do additional research on. These are things that I’ve come across that start to get me distracted from the current task at hand. I’ll start putting them in this list as things to look up for the future.

• PVC Foam sheets – one forum I saw commented that these sheets work great. Specifically the post I saw mentioned a 3/8in (10mm) sheet.
• One forum suggested using ripstop nylon as the fabric

9/18/2009
It’s been a little while since I’ve had a chance to look at this. Now I’m back. Through my search, I found the following website that shows videos of a man building his own diffusion panel. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Here is the link for everyone else to see. As mentioned above, I believe he uses ripstop nylon as the fabric. Being able to see the video, I’m not too impressed with this material. It appears to be extremely thin and actually blows around a bit in the wind. His frame looks good, but I would opt for something that is a bit sturdier for the fabric.