More Cheap and Easy Grid Spots

Are you frustrated with your lighting skills?

Have your creative and/or mental blocks ever led you want to drink?

Fear not. It might be a good thing. Just keep an eye out for a special little item that can frequently be found in bars - the black drinking straw.

Why? Because when you cut them into pieces and glue them up in cardboard next to their little friends, they make great gridspots.

We have talked about making these with cardboard (free, easy, but warms up the light a lot) and coroplast (the black stuff makes fantastic grids, but is tough to find.)

But now you have an excuse to visit every bar in town. Just in case they have the little black straws.

("No, honey, it's okay. I am getting free supplies for lighting...)

Strobist reader Rui M. Leal has started his own neato-mosquito DIY Lighting Mods blog, and shows you how to make them here in excrutiating detail.

Check out Part 2, where he shows you how to use them, too.

And if you feel shy about asking the barkeep if you can grab a handful of straws, just grace him with a little visit from your friend, George Washington to appeal to his generous human instincts.
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Related Link:

:: How to Make a Coroplast Grid ::