When I first got started in this business, I remember being absolutely overwhelmed with the expense of it all. I was shooting all natural light and it didn’t take much to get started outside of my camera and a few good lenses. I called it my minimalist approach, but truthfully, I wasn’t ready yet for the cost of off camera flash. Business picked up and then the problems started when the seasons changed. The days got longer and it became increasingly difficult to get people to shoot only during the morning or evening, or as I lovingly called it, the “good light” times of the day. I was on a shoe string budget and needed to grow, so I improvised with this DIY Scrim to help me shoot during times of the day when I had less than ideal light.

A 6×6 scrim would allow me to diffuse that harsh, direct sunlight and create an outdoor softbox.

Here are the material I used:

• 4 10ft 1in PVC pipes with 4 90° elbow pieces (Home Depot)
• Roughly 2 yards of white rip stop nylon (Joanne’s Fabrics)

I only needed 6ft pieces of PVC, but they only sold them in 10ft pieces. I had the hardware store cut them for me into 6ft and I decided to take the scrap 4ft pieces to save for a separate DIY reflector project. Keep in mind you can make your scrim any size you see fit. I did some research and decided 6ft would be big enough for me to get some coverage in the sun, but still a size I could pack up and throw in my car.

Next, it was time to deal with the rip stop nylon fabric to create the diffusion panel with. The fabric wasn’t quite wide enough to give me a 6×6 ft square, so I had to seam together some extra pieces to make up for it. I worried that doing so would cause a shadow when light was shone through it though so I gave it a quick test on a scrap.

It’s probably a good time to mention, I’m the world’s sloppiest seamstress. I’ve never had any idea what I’m doing on a sewing machine and know only enough to be dangerous. This project was purely utilitarian and absolutely no effort was made to make it look good. All my seams pretty much look like this. ANYWAY, so yes, it did create a slight shadow, but not enough, in my opinion, to cause a deal breaking concern. I made sure that the part that was patched ended up near the bottom so it had the least impact on the overall end result.

Did I mention my lazy sewing? So the laziest, easiest way I could think of was to make two what I would call “curtain loops”  on either end that I could run the PVC pipe through. After very little measuring for accuracy, some quick pinning and sloppy sewing, I had my loops! I tried to get it as tight as possible without pulling the PVC pipes down and bowing them. Here is a very obvious picture on how to assemble PVC pipe into the elbow.

Now, I didn’t glue this because I wanted to be able to make this portable, but herein lay the problem. Not gluing the PVC makes it rather unstable when you are working with pieces taller than yourself. So I had the problem of it popping apart quite a bit when I was moving the finished piece around. My temporary solution for that was going to be just black electrical tape to keep it together during a shoot and removing that when we broke it down. My husband mentioned something about drilling and screws and then I don’t know, I glazed over. That all seems like a lot of work, and remember, this project was LAZY! So this would do for now, for me anyway. Below is the finished scrim, shown without electrical tape.

Using the Scrim

Once it was all assembled, using the scrim was pretty simple. When the sun is out and you have unflattering harsh sunlight falling on your model, simply place the scrim between  the model and the direction of the light and it will instantly soften the light.

Look at her all nice and even! Remember, when you use the scrim, you are cutting down the amount of light falling on the subject. How much? That depends on how opaque your material is. I slowed down my shutterspeed to get the right exposure for her face, but notice that brightens my background since it has more time to expose.

A quick adjustment in Lightroom CC to the curves gives me more of a finished look.

You’ll need a couple of willing assistants to wield this and keep it from flying away on the breeze or perhaps one extra strength husband assistant to suspend it in the air like so.

Cons

But wait, there are some cons to this beast. It’s huge, it’s awkward, and as I mentioned earlier, it takes two people to hold, especially if the sun is at an angle where we need to hold it up to match the angle. Those handier than me might attach arms to it so it can be clamped onto a background stand. Handheld though, the 6×6 size is going to be at least a 2 person job without the model and photographer. When we used it in studio, we attached some Manfrotto Double Super Clamps to it and attached it to light stands to hold it up without the man power. If I had purchased a real scrim system, there are stands with fancy rotating clamps and yes, that would be more convenient. But this is about budget, right? For the time, for the money, and for the return, I can definitely say I got my use out of this project.

Price Comparison

DIY Scrim Frame and Diffuser Panel Project Base Cost: $48.89

And just to compare, this is the most comparable product from Adorama

Westcott Scrim Jim Cine 6×6′ Frame and Diffuser Fabric Retail: $399.80