Hot Air Balloon Flash Diffuser

There are all sorts of ways to diffuse a photography flash unit (or strobe if you like). Some of them are as simple as slitting a ping-pong ball and slipping it over the camera's own flash. Others are more involved, sometimes very much more involved indeed. A camera accessory company has made a reputation for itself selling just such kinds of products. Unfortunately, they believe their product is more than it really is. There's nothing like opening the little box you just bought and thinking to yourself "I just bought a fancy ping-pong ball for 80$". The internet is awash with DIY ideas to do pretty much the same thing for a lot less money. Hell, sometimes all you need is a convenient piece of bubble wrap!

Anyway, this weekend we were having a discussion about those kinds of DIY things and I hit upon the idea of using a kid's tissue hot air balloon toy to maker a diffuser. This morning while I was at the dollar store I found a roll of "Window Cling Privacy Film". Just the thing for a homebrew diffuser.

After scouring  the 'net for a decent pattern I found out there are no decent patterns. I just had to draw one for myself. I then made a "proof of concept" out of paper and sticky tape. Well, it works, and if I'd been more careful with the sticky tape it might even look good. Then, I hit a snag. I do not own either a flash unit or strobe or anything like it...

So here are my patterns. Scale them up or down as you need to make it fit your peculiar flash. I suggest making a paper model before committing to the real thing.

This is the one I used for the "proof of concept". The fact that they're tied together makes five less seems to do.

 Here's the single from the ones above.

 And here's one exactly the same except for the fact that the straight lines have been replaced by smooth spline curves. This one has the possibility of being the roundest of the lot, but construction is probably going to be much harder.

I've got .pdf files of the patterns (which are much nicer to work with) but no place to put them up on the 'net so if you want them, leave a comment or send me mail and I'll send them to you!