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If anyone is interested, I've decided to make my meat tray softbox a little more efficient. A meat tray softbox is a must have :dance: ...ok, that might be a stretch! Anyway, here is what you will need:
1. A meat tray
2. Packing tape (clear is better)
3. Styrofoam packing sheets

You'll also need an Xacto, or some kind of sharp blade to cut out the bottom of the meat tray...

Once you cut the bottom out of the meat tray, save it...it's a handy reflector!

Cut out a sheet of the styrofoam packing material the size of the opening you just cut in the meat tray.


Tape that piece about half way in the depth of the meat tray...this is called the baffle.
Now cut a piece of the styrofoam material the same size as the big opening of the meat tray.

Tape that over the opening, and you have a meat tray softbox!

All you have to do now is tape it to the light source, and start shooting!

It's always interesting to see what you're doing for technique. Thanks again for posting. I've used the hamburger tray diffuse lighting already.

Now, about focus layering in Photoshop....... :angry-banghead:

Which version of Photoshop do you have?...I might be able to help.

The meat tray is styrofoam (styrene), the packing material is urethane. So, is the smaller piece of urethane foam supposed to "float" halfway in the tray, suspended by tape to the inner surface of the tray ?

Hi Bob...nice smooth light. It's amazing what you can do with a cell phone...maybe I should get one! If you get a sheet of plain glass, paint one side black, it will give you nice, clean reflections.

This is beyond excellent! Never thought I would be getting great photography tips on HRW, but here they are.

Many thanks,
Rick V.

I have an amendment to the original construction...instead of the packing material as a diffuser, just use plain writing paper! The packing material shows as stripes on any reflective surface (like a car roof or fender!), and writing paper doesn't! You also don't need the baffle, which makes the light a little more efficient. Sorry...this is kind of a work in progress!

Thanks Doug!

I tried this Light diffusion technique with just a large sheet of regular weight white paper and it worked very well. The large sheet also kept background reflections minimal.

Very cool. Thanks