How do you make your own light diffusers and backgrounds in photography?

I am an amateur with the ability to take great pictures, but always mess up on the stills where you photograph an object/person in a studio setting. I can't seem to get the right light setting on the camera and don't have any equipment to work with.

The others are right when it comes to backgrounds. From fabric materials to textured rugs, anything can be used as a background.
The biggest tip I can give you about diffusing light would be to use your ceiling. If you have a white ceiling and a flash that can be directionalized, then point your flash towards the ceiling about half way between you and your subject. The light will bounce of the ceiling and hit your subject, but the bouncing diffuses it.

Just keep Practising!

Diffusion is tough .. it is actually less expensive to buy a $25 Lowel photo umbrella for diffusion.

Backgrounds can be as simple as four feet of black, white or coloured material purchased at the $1 yardage table at Wal-Mart

See http://strobist.blogspot.com, for DIY lighting and uses for inexpensive flashes, and non-dedicated photography lighting.

Also, try http://www.photo.net and http://www.dpreview.com for forums and tutorials on studio work, and other topics.

You can get low cost materials from Lowes or Home Depot, fabric stores, crafts stores, 99 cents stores, thrift stores, yardsales, craigslist.org, etc...

I made lighting and background stands from PVC irrigation pipe and thin wall metal conduit.

Lights from the round silver aluminum shop lights, and 48 inch flourescents with 5600k tubes.

Paintable backgrounds of 1 inch styrofoam insulation, in roofing dept. The styrofoam can even be carved a bit to add textures. Its very lightweight for moving and storage.

You can cut down the plastic sheets used to diffuse flourescent lighting to diffuse other lights. Aluminum car window shades can be used to reflect light. Foamboard can be used with mylar (silver & gold), for reflectors.

These things will give you a good place to start and learn, and when you get an idea of how to use these things, you will know which higher end items to purchase.

making a home made studio don't have to cost a fortune.
background. buy 6 meters of white sheeting of the roll the sheets come off the roll at about 3m wide and is not expensive. tape to the wall and floor with gaffa tape
stretch out with a curve at the bottom and along the floor to make seamless floor to wall line
machine mart Twin 500W Halogen Floodlights 拢29.36inc.VAT each 1 or 2 of this will more than do you
make reflectors from white sheeting tapped on to old picture frames also can be used for defusing light by holding over lights
also make reflectors from kitchen foil tapped on to old picture frames
use daylight where possible

I think you should take a studio lighting class... sometimes you can find them at the rec centers, photography studios, camera stores, or community colleges in your area.

If you have a DSLR then make sure you look at the manual settings... you can set the white balance to auto, daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, flash, or custom... use what's necessary.

Sun shields from your car, cheap black and white mat boards, and mirrors can make decent reflectors.

Sheer cloth can be used to diffuse lighting, and can also create a nice color cast.

Hope this helps. Best of luck!