DIY Fixed Lamp Softboxes

Mark a hole on either side of the rectangular plastic drain fitting. Line up the hole along the center of the fitting with your ruler. This fitting fits around your camera's flash to hold it into the light box. If your flash doesn't fit the drain fitting, look for a similarly-shaped fitting at your hardware store. Try an electrical box and cut away the front with a reciprocating saw or X-Acto knife.

Check that your light stand receives 1/2-inch bolts. If it takes a different size, drill a different sized hole. Otherwise, drill two 1/2-inch holes where you marked them on the fitting with your power drill.

Glue a nut onto the outer surface of one of the holes. This surface is now the top of your fitting. Insert one of your bolts through the nut when the glue has dried. This bolt is used to press the flash into the fitting so it stays put but can be loosened to remove the flash.

Place a washer over the insider surface of the bottom hole. Insert the second bolt through the bottom hole so that its head exits out of the outer surface of that hole. Tighten the bolt in the hole with another nut. Make sure the bolt is long enough to fit into your light stand.

Cut out a small square strip of bubble wrap with your X-Acto knife or scissors. Glue this square to the bottom bolt. Your flash rests on top of this square. Cut another strip of bubble wrap that is long enough to fit around the perimeter of your flash. Wrap it around the perimeter of the flash, ensuring that it does not cover the lamp, and insert the flash into the fitting. Tighten it into place with the top bolt.

Press the front of the fitting to a translucent plastic sheet. Mark the silhouette. Remove the fitting. Cut the silhouette out of the plastic with your X-Acto knife. Place the rectangular piece of plastic you just cut on top of the fitting. Mark the inner width of the fitting on the plastic top. Cut out this inner window from the plastic top. This way the plastic top does not block the light from the flash.

Create four large triangular shapes out of your construction paper. Create one first and use the shape of that one to construct the others. Bend the tip of the triangle down and cut it so that the shape is no longer a triangle but a trapezoid. In other words, cut the tip so that the top of the triangle is a plane parallel to the base. Fold that top down enough so that the folded surface can be glued to the plastic top window you just made.

Glue all four trapezoidal sides to the plastic window top. Duct tape the edges of the sides together so that you create a hollow pyramid shape, with the window top at the top of the pyramid. This is your light box.

Glue the window top to the plastic fitting that surrounds your flash. Take your flash out of the fitting while you do this so that glue does not get on it. If you're worried the glue will melt over time under the heat of the the flash, drill small holes in the window top and the fitting top and screw them together.

Place your light box with the flash installed onto your light stand. You're now ready to take photographs with your fixed lamp light box.