Whilst on holiday in Spain, I brought with me my DSLR a couple of lenses and a couple of speed-lights. As I had to carry these on a plane I couldn’t bring a tripod or light-stands; so I had a couple of Gorilla hand-grips to improvise with. I wanted to get some nice pictures of my wife, tanned and looking glamorous and I wanted to use my speed-lights for greater control but wanted a softer lighting effect. My solution was simple, I found white paper Chinese-lanterns for sale for 1 euro each in a One-Euro store and put the lantern over the speed-light whilst using a paper napkin to fill the bottom hole for a complete soft-light effect. I purchased x4 for future use they are light-weight collapse flat; so easy to carry and great for portability and convenience.
I used a Gorilla hand-grip to mount and hold the speed-light remotely from my camera and the Chinese-lantern for a better quality of light.
I got this idea from the books that I have recently read for film-lighting, namely, ‘Painting with Light’ by John Alton and ‘Film Lighting’ by Kris Malkiewicz.
Setting the Scene 