Phaim (fāme) — Larry Becker’s Blog

I’m all for DIY, but look at Honl first

Posted on 10 June 2009

So last week I spent a little time sharing my budget-minded justification for buying SB-600 speedlights. Assuming you’ve got a flash (or 2 or 3) it won’t be long before you’ll want to make a light modifier purchase or two.

In the earliest days of experimenting with my speedlights, I used dome diffusers with (very) limited success. I bought one of those tupperware domes and the chrome inserts. I got the clear and the cloud versions. Honestly, these just didn’t do it for me. I even bought some of the reflectors and diffusers that you Velcro onto your flash, but something inside me just hated putting sticky-back Velcro on a $200 flash.

Then once I started learning lighting by watching the pros (using speedlights and studio strobes) I started to realize that these flash-mounted diffusers weren’t the best answer. In fact, if you’ve ever seen David Ziser, you’d know that it’s almost always better to bounce your flash off a large white wall, ceiling, somebody’s shirt who’s standing there, etc. instead of trying to use one of the goofy stick-on diffusers. That’s because it’s better to have a big, white light source rather than just a soft, diffused, yet still small and bright (just barely bigger than the flash head itself) light source. I stopped worrying about little snap-on, stick on diffusers and started looking for ways to bounce my flash off something big and light colored. - I was growing as a photographer and my images started looking richer and less flat (like a snapshot). 

Then as I learned more and more about lighting, I realized that there are times when you want to control the light rather than just bounce it off something big or shoot it through a ($10) translucent umbrella (which are great options normally, and much better than a small light source). For instance, sometimes it helps if you can precisely aim your light by shooting it through a tube (snoot) or simply manage the direction of the light by shooting through a grid attachment. 

The DIY Temptation
I read on several DIY sites out there, how you can make grids by cutting and gluing together black drinking straws. I read about what materials make good snoots. In fact, I read about all kinds of cool little light modifiers that made way more sense than a clip on diffuser, and since there were some lighting effects I wanted to try, I bookmarked all those web pages, promising myself I would go back and make/build these cool little projects. Well, I never had the free time and just never did any of them. 

Not exactly DIYs, but close
Then I happened to be at a trade show in Phoenix in January and I saw my friends from ExpoDisc. They had just started carrying the product line from photographer/inventor David Honl, and they showed me the gear. It is simply brilliant! It’s all kinds of those DIY projects, but with better materials, better workmanship, and a really clever mounting system, all for a reasonable price.

The core of the system is the Honl “Speed Strap.” It’s simply a Velcro strap with a grippy rubber back instead of adhesive. That’s really cool! All the benefits of Velcro without gluing something to my speedlight! Then it’s a bunch of gear like flags/gobos, snoots, gels, grids, and more, which attach to the Velcro straps. Basically it’s a bunch of light modifiers that are usable, durable, and fully removable. I looked at their $95 starter kit and thought, ’sure, I could make all that stuff in my garage some weekend,’ but even though I had a ton of DIY web pages marked, I had never gotten around to it. Besides, my time is worth more than it would take to create all this stuff, and in the end, mine would look junky and probably come apart in no time.

Pros like this stuff too
This is a really cool set of light modifiers, and in spite of the reasonable pricing, even the serious pros aren’t ashamed to use this gear. If you want a little more than the few items which come with the starter kit, you can always get separate items like gels, grids, speedstraps, etc. or you could just opt for the even the more complete kit (which, ironically, they call “The Complete Kit”).

I like this stuff and I think that the product line is pretty much a no-brainer purchase, even if you’re on a budget, and even if you normally don’t mind doing the occasional DIY. (But just to reassure you I haven’t given up my cheapskate roots, I bought a neoprene zippered computer sleeve from a bargain bin at Marshall’s discount store for $10 so I wouldn’t have to fork over the $30 for the Honl brand carrying bag. I guess that kind of extra purchase is for the pros.)

 

  

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