I'm always looking for ways to optimize the storage in my studio and one way to do that is to have good storage options for my lighting modifiers. One thing I'd rather not do is put together and take apart soft boxes before and after every shoot, so I usually leave them assembled and just put them on the floor in the corner of the room. When you're shooting in a space as small as mine (400sq/ft), every inch of floor space counts. If you're a Profoto shooter (this could probably work for other brands too) and you've been looking for a way to mount your modifiers on the wall without breaking the bank, I've got good news. I found two options that work great, they're packed full of protein and taste pretty good too. This is actually turning into great news!
Option 1 - The Tuna Method
For this option, you'll need a 12oz can of tuna which is roughly 4" in diameter. In order to around ripping a hole in your wall, I would highly recommend drilling the can into a stud. If the stud doesn't line up with where you want to hang the modifier, you can take a piece of wood (I just used a scrap that I had in my shed) and drill that into 2 studs. This allowed me to put the can wherever I wanted as long as it was on that piece of wood. I actually used 2 cans so I could hang both of my 1x4 strip boxes next to each other. Check out this video that explains in a bit more detail how to get this done.
Option 2 - The Peanut Butter Method
This is going to be the same as the tuna mtethod, but you guessed it, instead of a tuna can I used a jar of peanut butter. To get really specific, I used a 40oz jar of Skippy which again, had a diameter just under 4". It's clearly a smaller diameter than the tuna can because the soft box slides on and off a lot easier. The added bonus of using the jar of peanut butter is that it doubles as a storage container for any little nick knacks you may have laying around. I'm still tryin to figure out what I'm going to put in mine, but I don't think I'll have any trouble filling it up. Check out this video for a couple more details.
To wrap this whole thing up, these are both two very affordable options to get your modifiers off the floor. The benefit of the tuna option is that you can easily eat a can of tuna in one sitting in order to use the can. On the flip side, it takes a whole lot longer to eat a 40oz jar of peanut butter. You could be like me and just put it in another container and give the dogs a big ole treat, but either way, the cleanup process was anything but clean. I do however like that you can use the jar as a storage container that stays hidden most of the time. I encourage you to give one or both of these a try and let me know what you think.
Until Next Time...
-Jeff C.
I still have a couple tickets for my NJ workshop on Jan 28th, and early bird ticket sales end in just a couple days!