Here at DIYP we love DIY projects, hence the name! There are quite a few camera and filmmaking-related projects you can easily take on. They are fun and you can save a lot of cash in the process. Reflectors and mirror boards are certainly one thing that you can easily make yourself. I’ve honestly never understood why they are often so expensive, especially when a silver cake board or inside of a coffee bag will often do just as good of a job.
In this excellent video, Epic Light Media shows you how to make your own mirror board that can be mounted on a light stand and used at an angle.
For this project, you will need a wooden board, some screws, a monitor support mount that fixes onto a C stand, and some silver electrical duct tape. You basically cover the board with strips of the tape making a nice reflective surface. It couldn’t be simpler.
The result is a portable reflector or mirror board which you can put on a stand and angle it to reflect the sun at your subject. You can use it as a fill light, key light, rim light…anything you light. And it’s really bright, so you can also use it with a diffuser.
What’s so different from a 5-in-1 reflector you may ask? Well, for one, this is smaller and more portable, you also don’t need an assistant to hold it for you. These are actually used a lot in filmmaking when they want just a little hint of specular light in a particular part of the frame. It looks nice and natural and you can also use more than one if necessary.
You can see from the examples of using it in the video just how effective these things are. So what are you waiting for? Go and make your own mirror light for the price of a couple of lunches. Or one beer if you’re in Denmark!
