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There are plenty of tutorials online for building diffusion panels and the frames necessary to support them. Most of the frame structures rely on humble, yet extremely versatile, 1″ PVC pipe and fittings. The only problem with PVC is that it’s sort of bulky especially when considered for a portable system.

In a previous life, I was a kite builder of some regard (at least in local circles), so I know my way around a sewing machine and even have half a clue about building light yet sturdy structures. I’ve been working up a plan for a diffusion panel system for a few weeks and over the course of this weekend I finally produced a working model.

The finished panel measures 27″ x 54″. The framing relies on some tricks from my kite building days. I didn’t take pictures as I went along (I know, dumb), but the methods are easy enough to explain. The panel material is just white nylon banner cloth.

Here’s the panel itself.

As I mentioned, a lot of what I did here was taken from my kite building days. Edge Binding was a common method of dealing with the fray that nylon is prone to. Here’s a detail. Notice the multi-step zig zag stitch as well as the two straight stitches on either side. The binding is a strip of 3″ wide ripstop nylon double folded.

The frame is made of 1/4″ sold carbon kite spars joined together with home made delrin couplings. Each stick is 39″ long.

Unless the spars are held together, the panel is really useless. Here I’m using a home made speed strap (see a good tutorial on how to make your own at DIYPhotography.net) to hold everything together.

I used grommets at each corner to attach the panel to the spars. As for the ends of the spars, I cut a 1″ collar from the same delrin to be used as a stopper and to clean up the ends I used a 1″ long vinyl end cap (super glued in place). Since Delrin is difficult to glue, I finally came up with the idea of “pinning” the stopper in place. After positioning the stopper, I drilled a 5/64″ hole through one side of the stopper and into the spar without going all the way through the other side of the stopper. I then cut a short piece of a 12 gauge romex wire and hammered it into place. The wire happened to be the perfect size and was malleable enough to work perfectly. If any pins eventually come lose, I’ll just add glue to the pinning process next time around.

Here I have the diffusion panel setup in front of the DIY Beauty Dish. Notice how the “X” of the frame sits nicely on the umbrella clamp. The other thought I had was to use a spring clamp to the hold the diffuser in place.

And here is a quick self portrait using the above setup. I think the light produced is pretty nice, even if the model leaves a lot to be desired.

There you have it. If you have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll see if I can help.