A jug of water will set you back only about a dollar, but it has two very helpful photography uses.
Flash diffuser
Here's something every photographer knows : built in flash photography is harsh. The kind of flash common to most of our cameras is called "direct flash" which fires a burst of light directly at your subject. The result - shadows, little depth of field, red-eye and reflections. We've seen it all in our flash photos and if you're like me, you don't enjoy demon eyed, washed out subjects.
Expensive external flash units give us more flexibility, but if you're looking for a quicker and cheaper method you can go D.I.Y. There's plenty of great examples of home made flash diffusers on the web including this cigarette pack diffuser.
One of my favorite diffusers, however, comes from frosted water jugs such as the ones made by Poland Springs (note : clear frosted milk jugs tend to get discolered by the milk - and they don't smell as nice either). So get out some scissors or an exacto blade and cut out a piece of the jug. Also cut a hole the diameter of your lens because that'll help position your diffuser.
Quick and dirty lightbox
A lightbox spreads light evenly over your subject allowing you to get a nice even background and minimize shadows. Lightboxes usually come in two forms : the kind that bounces light from the inside such as this example or the kind that diffuses light from the outside through a thin material such as a lightbox tent.
For a simple and quick lightbox, you can use a water jug to diffuse the light in the same way a lightbox tent does. Simply slice off the bottom, pop off the top for your lens, put your object inside (preferably on an even background) and you're set. You can use your flash which will get diffused through the jug, or for even better results, aim some lights at the jug.
