[Keith Alan]

My flash system is slowly growing, with an all-important umbrella now added to my meager (but effective) arsenal of equipment.

Last night while exercising my neck and forearm muscles by tipping some beers back, I made a decision: Rather than buy a real flash umbrella I'll just make my own.
The first plan was to strip the blue and green fabric off of one that I've had for years, replacing it with white material of some kind. Lots of work, right? I don't sew very well unlike my brother.
But while working on another project at the same time I came across a full can of flat white Krylon® spray paint I didn't remember buying.

A quick spray on a small section was allowed to dry, then tested for whiteness, adhesion, and durability to handle folding and unfolding repeatedly.
It passed.
Today I went into the back yard and emptied the entire can of paint on the inside of the umbrella, then went out for the afternoon.
I priced a smaller one at the camera store as well as a stand and adapter.
Hmmm, just saved myself a bunch of money!

After returning home I assembled the rig shown, using a microphone boom-stand I had lying around (I have a lot of them, including one I use to hang up my laundry as I take it from the clothes dryer).



The flash is a cheap ($20) slave that I trigger using my hotshoe flash.
As you can see, it fully lights the umbrella and I can adjust the boom to place it farther away which will reduce the output a bit, as well as angle it in myriad different ways to get even more versatility.



There's some drawbacks compared to real photography gear, like a height limitation of 7-8 feet.
And the umbrella is "secured" by a spring clamp that might let go in a stiff breeze.

But everything used was already paid-for and laying about the house gathering dust, and now I have a complete umbrella flash system that works rather well according to my tests.
I did a quick portrait and a product shot, and the output is within my desired aperture range while the coverage is excellent, so I'm very pleased with my little project.
The umbrella is 1 meter across.

I plan on getting a Sunpak 383 Super manually adjustable flash soon, which will also attach to this stand perfectly until I can get a "real" umbrella for it, at which time this entire slave system will become my secondary fill.

I guess you can tell that I'm excited.
There are a few paying jobs coming up for Christmas Card photos and now I can spend the profits on vodka instead of equipment.

[matthew]

Congrats on the gear -- free is good, functional is good. I'd keep that rig out of high winds, but that's true of any brolly.

I was looking for the Sunpak 383 years ago, but couldn't find one anywhere. I think this was before the whole "shopping on-line" thing, so I was limited to what I had in local stores. And so I bought a Sony F32X flash instead.

I was looking at the price of the 383's again just recently. I wish I had the money that I spent on TTL flashes back!

[Keith Alan]

Yes, the value per dollar is certainly high with the 383.
There was one at the store yesterday for $100, but I like the $79 online price better.

The Vivitar 285HV is another contender at only $90US.
Pros:
Gel holder
Zoom head

Cons:
Head doesn't swivel
Less power settings vs 383
The recently manufactured ones have an alarming failure rate

[shuttertalk]

Nice work Keith! Love it when a little bit of creativity and ingenuity comes together..