I'm starting to get into shooting with off camera flash, so I ended up ordering a couple of e-bay 40" Reflective Umbrella Softboxes.




As you can see from the light source in the image, they weren't specifically designed for a flash unit. Although they do fit, I didn't like the way it put stress on the camera to radio trigger hot shoe or the radio trigger to light stand hot shoe.



Here is my DIY bracket for a horizontally mounted flash unit. First you start with a 5"x5" zinc plated T-bracket. The holes are the perfect size for a 1/4"-20 threaded bolt.



After grinding the corners round (Optional), I bent the sides up to cradle the flash and painted it flat black. I used a hammer and a brick to bend mine but a vise would be much easier.



I then glued padding on the sides of the cradle portion and the end of the flat section (I used Fun Foam Sheets from a craft store) and then some self adhesive rubber bumpers, high enough to support the flash over the 1/4"-20 hex head mounting bolt. There are several sizes and styles of self adhesive bumpers and felt pads that you should be able to find the combination of sizes that will support your flash.



Then you mount the bracket to your light stand (I needed to add a 1/4" nut as a spacer due to the knob on the light stand) and then I used a couple of DIY Bongo Ties to mount my flash to the bracket.



As you can see, it lines up rather nicely with the softbox umbrella with no stress on the hot shoe mounts.



These would also work for regular reflective and shoot through umbrellas.

Tim