I'll take an example from my gear, that can be replaced "ghetto"-style very easily. I have a collapsible circular reflector. Its silver on one side and white on the other. I use the white side 95% of the time. I do not recall exactly what it cost, but probably around $60-$70. That is a lot of money for something that just bounces light around. I can achieve the same results with a large $8 sheet of foam core. So, why do I have the reflector? It is much easier to carry around, it folds down to a measily 20" or so across! Indoors it is also very easy for me to hang it on a stand. I also like having it for those few times I want the silver side. This can be mimicked by gluing some foil to the back of foam board, but I always had issues with that staying put, especially when carrying it around. I continue to use foam board a too, so that is my first example of modifying light cheaply. Don't forget it comes in other colors!
I have made a number of small modifiers for my shoe flashes. One is a gridded snoot (see the duck in my first post?). I made it using a spaghetti box and a whole mess of black straws collected from Ruby Tuesdays. My most recent construction project is a small "striplight" made out of a Little Debbie snacky cake box. These boxes are particularly nice for this because they are white on the inside. It means I don't have to paint! If I can locate an appropriate bowl I will make a "beauty dish". There are quite a few projects across the net that show you how.
My favorite way not spend money on photography is with free software. I use two free packages. One is "free as in beer" commercially produced software, the other is open source "free as in speech" in software. The raw converter I use is Nikon's ViewNX. I have used open source alternatives, but I really like the Picture Control selections Nikon provides. For post processing, I am using the Gimp. My only complaint is it only works on 8-bit files. But, in the grand scheme of things, that isn't really costing me any quality that I miss.
This post's photo is done the cheapest way I can think of. First, the model charged me nothing for shoot. I didn't use a single strobe, or expensive light modifiers, all the light is provided by the sun. It spills in two windows and provides back and rim light, while the light from a third window provides the main illumination from the front. The fancy background, is my wall. My lens choice was a 50mm 1.8 (this is cheap and good lens, get one if you don't already have it). I converted the raw NEF file using ViewNX, with further post processing in the Gimp. Yes, I know the post-work is probably a bit overdone, I'm still learning this stuff!
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