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DIY: Use a Shopping Bag as a Flash Modifier

Chris Gampat
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06/09/2015
1 Min read

Last Updated on 06/09/2015 by Chris Gampat

Screen Shot 2015-06-09 at 10.59.13 AM

The idea of a GoBo is one that many experienced photographers are aware of, but many inexperienced strobists may not know. Basically, you use a GoBo to go in between a light source and the subject in order to modify the look of the light. The folks at Good Light! magazine have a nifty trick for you involving the use of a large white shopping bag. Of course, it needs to be semi-transparent, but basically it turns into a softbox for a flash that can be used off-camera and diffuse a subject with very soft lighting because of how large it is.

They show it off by shooting the upper half of a subject–which makes sense due to the size of the bag. The photographer is able to effectively produce soft light onto the subject and give a great look by also killing the ambient lighting.

The video is after the jump give it a try and use a bag as a flash modifier.

diy flash gobo Photography portrait shopping bag video
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.