This DIY ‘Daylight Control System’ Lets You Shape the Light in a Bright Studio

Faced with a massive bank of windows in a new studio space, YouTube’s Koldunov Brothers came up with a creative and customizable “daylight control system” that lets them alter the amount and shape of the light they let in.

The idea may not be very practical—the time and money you spend on materials and installation might be better used to cover the windows up and get some studio lighting. Still, it’s creative and probably much cheaper overall than buying monolights and modifiers.

Basically, they built a wooden frame made up of 1-meter by 1-meter “cells” inside the window frame, to which they stapled velcro. Then, they cut semi-opaque fabric into 0.5-meter by 1-meter rectangles and sewed the other side of the velcro onto those.

They have enough fabric to cover the whole window, but they can attach it in whatever configuration they want, letting them control exactly how much light gets through, and what shape it takes. Here are some sample portraits and the fabric “configurations” that produced them:

Practicality argument aside, we really enjoyed this cheap “daylight control system” and are betting at least a few cash-strapped photographers will, too. Check out the video to see how this “system” works and then head over to the brothers’ website to see more of their work.