Mag-lite photo lamp
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Andreas Krautwald has built a simple hood which attaches to a MAGlite. It is a very low-tech solution to the problem of lighting, but it is powerful enough to use for creating a handy, soft light in connection with macro photography and similar.
The concept could theoretically scale up – increase the dimensions and use a small Halogen desk lamp (beware of heat, though!), or a larger light. The important bit is the diffusor on the front, although the addition of a reflector means you lose less light in the process.
The whole process is explained in words and glorious technicolour on Krautwald’s website
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Insights, suggestions and comments
some electronics products are packaged in, among other things, very thin sheets of what looks and feels kind of like white rubber foam. maybe even your camera came wrapped in that stuff. found some? good. now you need a desk lamp that uses one of those energy saving fluorescent tubes. not one of those curled up to resemble the shape of a light bulb, we want a long/wide lamp. got that? now just make a tube out of the white foam sheet, put it over the lamp, and fix it in place with sticky tape. the larger the tube, the softer your shadows. not perfect, but quite nice for what you can achieve in 20 seconds.
the maglite hood takes longer to make, but it _would_ have the advantage of portability, if only you could fold it up. oh please could someone come up with a collapsible design? as it is, it’s useless.
here’s an idea: take old umbrella, line inside of screen with something reflective (e.g. aluminium foil), tie maglite to handle, pointing towards screen. instant *covert* photo lamp! but again a flawed design, you would need to make the maglite’s beam cover all of the screen. suggestions?
I made a PDF template for those of you that want to try to make one: http://andreas-krautwald.com/photolamp/template.pdf
Sweet!
Another thing I forgot to mention is that if you use the Maglite, keep in mind that you can adjust the focus of the beam to get the best results.
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