Poor Equipment with Good Results
This is the setup I used to photograph my Victorio-Nixie Tube project. This was the first time I used my cardboard-and-paper light box, and I was pretty happy with the results.
The ShutterPod
In order to take some photos for an Instructable, i needed a way to position my camera over my head while keeping both hands free. I also needed a way to trigger the shutter remotely, a function which the A530 doesn’t natively include.
Ordinarily I’d have no trouble accomplishing the latter by modding the camera electronically. With the gadget being so new and shiny, however, i vowed not to meddle with her internals for quite a while 🙂
Anyway, I gathered some wood from the scrap-pile and whipped up this little rig. It’s super simple to make, so feel free to do so!
Like most modern, pocket-sized digi-cams, the flash on my lovely new PowerShot A530 was too bright and concentrated for its own good. The old index card trick helped a lot, but i knew i could improve on it.
Neither of these two devices took much of any time, money, or effort, but the results are pretty good!
Jake of All Trades 
Nicely cobbled! I’ve got one of those cardboard lightboxes to play with too – with some nice A3 paper curved at the back, and a cheap white tablecloth over the top. Always surprised how well it works!
Nice brass diffuser holder you’ve made there too! I think there are filters you can get for flashes (i.e. gel filters) that will match your flash to incandescent light (for light balance), but I’ve not tried that myself. Well done!
Your ‘photo studio’ looks classy! Like the brass diffuser holder too. Can I order one?