A looooong time ago I promised I would have explained how to make what I call a Guerrilla Softbox.

Stuff You Need:
-A big enough plastic tupperware with a lead
-A portable flash (possibly with a built in IR unit)
-A cutting knife/scalpel 
-Double sided tape (optional)
-A lighter or any flame that you could use to heat up the blade (optional)
-Some white soft paper (I used paper tissues, but there are many other materials that can be used, kitchen rolls paper, rice paper, tracing paper, even cloth)
-Some reflecting material (I believe tin foil would be the better option here, but in the example I’m gonna show you I used the inner side of some metallic gift paper) 
That should be all!

1) The first thing you have to do is to place the flashgun head on the tupperware, try to position it in a central position, once you think you found the right spot, put a mark on the 4 corners, these will be your references to cut the hole.

2) Using the marks as references, start cutting the shortest sides of the hole. Try to keep 1 or 2mm of distance from the marks themselves and the cutting point. In this way you avoid to cut a too wide hole and consequently making the opening too big to fit the flashgun snuggly. If you deal with hard plastic, you might find that heating up the blade will make the job much easier, limiting at the same time the risk to crack the tupperware or chop one of your extremities off!

3) Now that you have 2 sides done you have to cut the frontal side (the side closer to the tupperware opening)

4) Carefully lift the plastic tongue that we made folding it on the backside and try to insert the flashgun’s head in the resulting hole. At this stage you might have to remove with the knife some more plastic in order to allow the flash gun to accommodate in the hole.

5) It’s time now to cut the hole on the lead, it is pretty straight forward, just remove everything except the part that allows the lead to stick to the tupperware

6) Cover the inside of the tupperware with some tinfoil (use the opaque side as reflector to get a better diffusion). To do that you can use the help of some double sided tape, just stick it on the tupperware base, edges and corners. Once you applied the foil, remove all that part that covers the previously cut hole. You can secure it on the edges with some tape if you feel like.

7) Insert your flash

8) Place the paper on the top of the tupperware, but keep it loose! It will get in tension when you apply what remained of the lead.

9) The Guerrilla Softbox is done!

How To Use It:
Well, here it is up to you really..
It depends from how you trigger your flash, you can use it on-camera or off-camera, if the second it’s your case, just be sure to use radio triggers (cheap ebay stuff will do) or set your flash as IR slave (this can be really handy when you use a compact camera that doesn’t have a hotshoe)
If you don’t know how to set your flashgun as slave, just check the its manual or on the internet how to do it ;)
Have fun!

 

A quick detour to Agra. I couldn’t be in here and don’t see the Taj Mahal, I know I know, I’m such a tourist bla bla blaaaa…
It doesn’t matter, it was definitely worth it. The thing is just emotional, I’m already shorter than average, but this building has a power to make you feel so tiny second only to universe.

Another day in Jaipur, since the place itself pushes you to be a tourist, lets embrace this fate, or shall I say doom…
Since deep in the heart I’m a geek who’ve never been smart enough to become a scientist, I particularly enjoyed Jantar Mantar an astronomical observatory, I won’t get you bored describing it, just remember, if you ever come here, go to check it out.
I also finally had the chance to fully test my guerrilla softbox and I’m satisfied with the results. As soon as I’m back to Gandhinagar I will build another one and write a step by step guide on how it’s made, promise!

Jaipur is truly touristic, you can perceive that from how the people interact with you, business all the time and a rip off is behind any corner, it gets exhausting at times.
I must have been asked if a wanted a guide for everything about a thousand time, at first I felt bad keep saying no, but it didn’t take long before I started ignoring the continuing never ending amount of offers.
I had do gave up on an offer that I couldn’t refuse though, a childhood dream that came true, riding an elephant.
It was magnificent, while the pachyderm was moving it felt like sitting on an slow earthquake.
Despite my joy for the experience, I can’t say that I didn’t feel sorry for these creatures, used as entertainment for people like me, paying customers…
…in Jaipur I felt a tourist, more than ever.. 

Unfortunately we had to leave Bombai pretty soon, this time heading towards Jaipur.