Went online and found a place called Abetterbounccard.com
His bounce card wasnt all that interesting, but he put me on the trail of a nifty material
Its called cool foam, and its a large 12x18 sheet of thin foam that is really flexabile, very white, and reflective. Costs 79 cents @ Michaels...
Basiclly I took this, and cut to to a specific shape, as I dont so much like All the light to be so diffuse.
So what i did was measure the flash head around and cut down a 8-10" sheet to go around the flash. Then I cut a 2-3 inch section off the front, so that a little more light is pushed forward, while the rest still diffuses nicely, and some still goes up into the ceiling for nice diffuse shots..


The best thing about this stuff is its so cheap you can cut and make ALL sorts of weird ideas and see how it effects the light.
And let me tell you, There are a lot of options and many dont look all that much different
I would say this is probably about 90% of a gary fong..

awesome!

i can't afford that.

Originally Posted by SlvrScoobie

Went online and found a place called Abetterbounccard.com

That would be my cat, on a diet, except the fur on his nose would have probably driven him insane in 3 seconds

How was the flash aimed for those shots?

Nice, I love cheap lighting ideas.

Originally Posted by jjswee

Awesome! How much light transmits through the foam?

Originally Posted by user errors

How was the flash aimed for those shots?

+1

Originally Posted by jjswee

Awesome! How much light transmits through the foam?

About the same as a gary fong, probably 60-80% of what hits it

Originally Posted by user errors

How was the flash aimed for those shots?

Flash pointed up

i think i have to go to michael's friday or sat. so maybe i'll pick some of this up.

Yeah, what exactly is this material called?

it's some type of craft-y closed cell foam, polystylene possibly

The straps are both practical and comfortable

what greg said.

Originally Posted by jjswee

This is gonna be one of those big NSOP fads that everyone uses... like those silly straps.

omghi2uben

ICEE

Fibre Craft Cool Foam

I saw that stuff at the craft store a while back. I need to go pick some up.
http://www.creativehands.com/kids/coolfoam.html

Are you sure 60-80% of light gets through the foam? (not out the top) This stuff didn't seem very transparent.

I'm at the craft store right now and Cool Foam doesn't look translucent at all. They only have the $5 scene packs.

They do have 2mm thick white Darcie Foamies sheets that look like the same. Neither translucent.

scratch my last comment. The stuff appears to be slightly translucent. If I hold it to the light with my hand behind the foam & infront of the light, I can clearly see the shadow.

Also I got mine for $0.59!!!

cool, I'll be making a stop at Michael's in the near future

here is mine. I hot glued the seem together. since this shot I rounded the top edges a bit more.



It has pretty good results. At first I thought it was the same as the Omni-Bounce, but its slightly different.



You can even point it at the subject and get a snoot effect

(I don't know if that is the right effect, I'm just learning my new flash)

Wow - mine definetly doesnt have that much "snoot" effect when pointed forward

after I posted this, I looked back at your OP. your's has more of a bowl shape that seems to be more "fongish." mine is more cylindrical.

I have more than half a sheet left over, I need to try some other configs.

Since I had about half of my $0.59 sheet of cool foam left, I decided to make one of these - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...unce_Kit_.html

I think it came out ok.




I even tested all my modifiers to see the differences: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchb...85359/sizes/o/

here is the DIY bounce on the dog - http://flickr.com/photos/frenchbrown...33492/sizes/o/

compared to the Sto-fen Omni-bounce - http://flickr.com/photos/frenchbrown...7606406782577/

Found this little gem at AC Moore today while I was picking up a frame:



Looks like our "cool foam" friend, and Its shape is rather pleasing, but you will need to do some cutting:



So yea, cut that stupid cord off. I realized after that you could easily just pull it out of the foam, its not secured in and would not damage the end result.



Now attach this guy to the flash.. please ignore the paper clip, this was a temp setup for these shots, I'd recommend hot glue to secure the overlapped flaps.



Another shot:



Finally a test shot:



Works the same as the other setup shown in this thread.. cost me $1 at AC Moore, but it comes ready to go. Additionally, these came in a few colors, Pink, Orange, Blue, Purple, and Red I think. Could potentially be used to bounce a little color onto the subject.

Thought these were just great for the "additional" cost on the cool foam uncut.

nice find.