Sommar Straw Grid

Well shoot, my laziness has bit me in the ass. Not all too uncommon I'm afraid.


This week I was going to introduce an easy way to make a grid from Sommar (apparently 'summer' in Swedish) straws . . . but dash it all I was beaten to it, sort of. The current post on Strobist, at the time of writing, links to another DIY lighting blog which already goes into detail. So, I'm going to sit back and link you there. Why beat a dead horse?

These are used by merely sticking them to your flash with Velcro, or by sticking in the end of your favorite cheap-o homemade snoot. (I used matchboxes for mine, a style choice)

Here's the link to Lighting Mods. (don't get too creative with naming now. ;-) )

However that is only for assembly, and I've got some of my own opinions to throw in. Used in the linked demo are black straws, I use white. Why? Mmm, preference mainly, arguably you may get a minute amount more light. I won't argue that point though. However, benefits of the Sommar solution do include:

1. You don't have to be 21+ to steal a bar's straws. I am, but have bad luck with stealing . . . in the past, right.

2. There are many colors of Sommar. I have and use white, as stated, and blue when I'd like a little cooler tint. There are also orange (for warmer), and pink (backgrounds maybe?) iirc. (sounds like an excuse for me to go to Ikea again) On top of that, each pack of Sommar comes with the obvious color (100), and clear (100). So in fact its like two sets of straws for the price of -CHEAP! That's enough for 4 or so grids depending on your small flash's face.

3. Even if a bar doesn't mind you yanking a bunch of their straws, the Sommar pack contains 200 units and cost $1. Each of my grids have 78 holes, I was able to use 39 (long part cut in half) straws for each. I don't feel right about taking 78 straws from a bar (you'll want at least 2 for redundancy if nothing else), maybe I'm too nice. Whatever.


I can't tell you what degree of grid a straw is equivalent to, but with enough practice using them it won't matter too much if your flash's power is adjustable. If it isn't, I'll be addressing another great Ikea grid solution in a near future post which is much less restricting.

*A note on assembly.
Rui Leal, the writer of the demo, uses glue to painstakingly assemble his grid. Notice I emphasize painstakingly? As noted at the beginning of this post, I'm lazy, which leads me to the most efficient methods possible, while maintaining a level of quality.

Use tape.
I used the white, thread lined packing tape. It adds no color cast, and all you need to do is lay out a strip, and simply place the straws on it in a row, do it a couple (6 in my case) times total, and tape the bunch together.

Example