Ineffective lighting can destroy otherwise beautiful pictures of friends, family members or pets. While flashes add light when there isn't enough, they often bleach detail out of the closest subjects. Use a flash diffuser to minimize the light that washes every trace of color out of your subject's face. Diffusers range in price from very low (under $10) to more than $100, at the time of publication, but you can make one from paper for free.
Instructions
1. Fold the paper in half along its horizontal middle. Open the paper out flat again, and fold it along its vertical middle. Open the paper so you see the square piece of paper with a cross of fold lines in the middle.
2. Fold each corner of the square in toward the center of the paper where the creases from the previous folds connected. Make sure you have a square shape with corners pointing up, down and to the sides. Rotate the square 45 degrees so that flaps open to the top, bottom and sides.
3. Fold the top flap down into the center and the bottom up to the center to create a rectangle half the size of the previous square.
4. Open up the two flaps you just folded. Flatten the paper, unfurling the top and bottom corners from the center point of the square so that you now have the paper fully opened with the left and right flaps still folded into the center. Rotate the paper 90 degrees so that the points are now on the sides.
5. Fold the top and bottom sections in to meet in the center, creating the same creases you created in Step 4 on the other two sides.
6. Unfold the top and bottom folds halfway so they are perpendicular to the base. Turn the box 90 degrees.
7. Place your thumbs on the the top corners of the base and lift the top triangle. Press your index fingers into the side corners until they touch. Fold the triangle into the center to create the third wall of your box.
8. Turn the box 180 degrees and repeat Step 7 to finish your box.
9. Place the box over the flash of your camera.
Tips Warnings
Try different styles and sizes of paper to achieve different effects.
Reinforce the sides and base of the box with tape if you wish.
It is easier to see the folds you create with colored paper or paper that has printed on one side only.
Tags: make, flash, diffuser, into center, center create, degrees that, middle Open, middle Open paper, Open paper, sides Fold, Turn degrees
