DIY Grid Snoot Flashgun Add-on

If you are a DSLR owner, chances are you own a flashgun. And you probably own a couple of flashgun add-ons such as diffusers and such. But sometimes one’s budget simply won’t stretch further – what do you do? You squeeze your creative juices, of course. Now I am by no means a poor kid, but I have an artsy side to me that really likes how one can turn frequently disregarded everyday objects into something fully functional.  I shall share with you readers a couple of easy-to-make DIY grid snoots that I have found on other cool photography blogs. All credits are due to the respective owners of each blog.

Please note that every flashgun do not have the same dimensions, so measurements of the items needed to make grid snoots that fit your flash gun shall be done yourself. More often than not, the measurements may have already been someone on the Internet. So Google it.

1) Method A (as shown on SGStrobist)

You need: Black construction paper, black corrugated board, black cloth tape.

The website doesn’t offer any instructions, but how hard could it be, right? They did post the end result, though.

End Result

You can view more pictures on the SGStrobist blog here.

2) Method B (as shown on Lighting Mods)

This method is much more complicated than the method SGStrobist showed, but the end results seems great!

You need: Black duct tape, cereal box, a LOT of black straws.

Measuring

You measure your flashgun’s dimensions and apply it into a cereal box (cut-out). Then, you cut the measured part off the rest of the cereal box and bend it on the lines to give it a rough shape of a grid snoot’s main body. Do not glue/staple it together yet.

Folding

Next, you start cutting the tip of the black straws into 2cm macaronis. Use strong glue like UHU to paste it into the inside of the box.

Pasting Black Macaronis

Keep on filling the bottom row with more and more black plastic macaronis.. it should like this:

Bottom Row

Once you’re done with the first row, you know what to do next.. start a new one! Keep on stacking. After some time it’ll look like this:

Completed Rows

Once you feel that you’re done, wrap the box around the straws – if there’s any empty space, fill it up with more straws so that everything fits evenly, like so:

Complete Wrap-up

The only thing left to do now is to wrap the entire grid snoot with black duct tape to give it a professional look. Once you’re done, the final result would be like this:

Final Rendition

Front View

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Once you’re done assembling your own DIY grid snoot following either (or both) methods listed, you can just slip it on your flashgun and test it right away. Happy flashing!

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