Off camera flash (OCF) has been in the spotlight (pun intended) recently with the concept and practice made popular by guys like The Strobist and FlashFlavour.

We’ve been using OCF for a while now and are always looking to add more creativity to our images. This is where this DIY project comes in. Often as wedding photographers, we’re sometimes faced with difficult lighting conditions to work in, like the unflattering noon sunlight.

To overcome some of these adverse shooting conditions we require strobe lighting to balance the lighting and some time even overpower the Sun’s light (check out Ed Pingol for some inspiration).

Let’s get on with the project:

This is the end assembly

The mounting made from a PVC electrical conduit T-joint.

A UNC hex bolt attached to the hotshoe mount. The holes at the bottom are for the allen key to tighten the bolt.

I have a center bolt that fits in to the flash umbrella stand.  The bolt is narrower than the pipe diameter but the nuts are are a perfect fit and prevents the bolt from moving when attached to the umbrella adapter.

A closer look. I had to saw off a bit of the T-joint so the bolt would fit perfectly in the flash umbrella adapter.

I also use a dual 3.5mm headphone socket so I can trigger the two heads with one PocketWizard.

Here is a picture with the flash umbrella adapter, so I can use an umbrella too.