Claire’s DIY Hacks

Make your own grid

Honeycomb grids are a type of photographic accessory that you attach to a light source. The idea is to cut the light so you end up with a concentrated spot-lit area. It’s great to use for portraits, but can also be effective with still-life. It’s mainly used in the studio, but you can make a DIY hack for your flashgun and use it wherever!

For this project you will need a pack of straws, ideally black and large in diameter. (We painted ours but this isn’t crucial.) You also need A4 black card, sticky tape, glue, scissors, a ruler and a flashgun.

Step 1

Get a piece of the A4 black card. Down the long side, measure a strip that is about 4cm wide. Cut it out. Wrap the card tightly around the end of your flashgun and tape it in place. You should be able to slip this on and off but it needs to be snug-fitting.

Step 2

Next, cut the straws roughly into 2cm pieces. You’ll need around 40-50 pieces depending on how wide your straws measure. We used a ruler and lined each piece up to get them to a consistent length.

Step 3

After that, grab your cardboard outer ring that you made earlier. Starting around the edge, glue each straw inside it. Line the top of the straws up with the top of the card ring, leaving a gap behind the straws so that the grid can be slipped onto your flashgun later.

Step 4

Keep gluing each straw into place (it does get a bit fiddly) until you have filled the space. Now when you look down, you should have created a honeycomb-like grid that will do the job of an expensive piece of kit!