I built this light after visiting this Blog. alexcampagna.blogspot.com/2008/04/diy-spiderlight-strobe....
And here it is will bulbs. There are switches on the back to allow me to turn off the top and/or the bottom pairs of lights. That allows me to burn 2, 4 or all 6 lights. The Bulbs are 26W (roughly equal to 100W) each and are 6500K daylight color.
My light kit is mounted on a stand from a halogen shop light. The shoot-thru umbrella is an inexpensive convertible 45" Impact with a removable back. I reversed the back to prevent excessive light spill. I opted for a shoot thru umbrella because I don't have room to store a large solid softbox.
I made the backdrop after reading this article. www.diyphotography.net/homestudio/chaep-diy-muslin-photog.... It is clamped on the curtain rods above my window. The white foam board fill card is clamped to an old shop light stand made from 1" pipe.
EDIT: July 2011, since building this DIY set up, I've taking apart the light and just started using small flashes and an Alien Bee.
My ugly mug taken in my make shift studio. ie, my bedroom. You can't even tell I'm holding a cable release while I take this.
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