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October 31, 2005
Diffuser.
When I got home after coffee today, Kerry had just finished watering the garden and it was all glistening with little water beads. I thought I might take the opportunity to try out some macro photography, something I've never really done before. Daylight savings has started now, and it was still quite light, but not light enough, and I really needed to use a flash. The shadows cast from my built-in flash are really harsh and especially prominent in close-up shots, so I made a makeshift light diffuser out of the top of a slide box, lined on the inside with some thin paper. It worked pretty well, as you can see, the photos have a nice soft light.
The flash still puts out plenty of light, in the photo below it has completely drowned out the natural background light. It reminds me of this photo.
This photo was taken in the same light, but with the flash on slow sync and turned right down.
This is the diffuser:
And this is the effect it has on shadows:
Without the diffuser:
With the diffuser:
Works pretty well, I think. The only drawback is I need to hold on to it, which makes zooming and pressing buttons inconvenient. Plus it looks a bit silly.
***UPDATE***
I've made a bracket to attach it to the hot shoe, and covered the back of the body to stop light being thrown out onto my forehead. Handsfree operation!
The tab underneath slides into the hotshoe.
I would like to show a photo of the camera with the diffuser on, but I only have one camera. It can't photograph itself from the side. This is the best I can do:
***UPDATE***
Here's a couple of photos I took using Kevin's digital camera. They're not very clear, but they show a sense of scale.
Posted by Piers on October 31, 2005 at 09:51 PM
Comments
"I would like to show a photo of the camera with the diffuser on, but I only have one camera. It can't photograph itself from the side. This is the best I can do:"
Or you could use two mirrors?
Posted by: Ry ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.listsanddiagrams.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 2, 2005 11:39 PM
I thought of that, but the only mirrors I have are fixed to the wall. Plus, I can't really be bothered.
Posted by: Piers at November 3, 2005 12:02 AM
Very handy to have in your bag. I used to use a bit of #216 diffusion taped to an old Sunpack flash all the time on my Nikon 950 (the on camera flash was not all that strong). Now I use a LumiQuest pocket bounce Velcroed to an old Vivitar that I have attached to my D70. Makes a monster of a difference when you diffuse the light like this. I love how you used the hot shoe to hold your camera diffuser in place, very clever!
Posted by: John K at November 3, 2005 04:36 AM
What material did you use as the diffuser? Is it just non-clear plastic?
Posted by: brob at November 3, 2005 05:05 AM
I made the diffuser out of two of the little plastic boxes that slides come in when you get them back from the developers. The bottom half of the box is black plastic and the top half is translucent plastic. The translucent plastic part is lined with thin white paper, to help spread the light out a bit more.
You could get the same result using any clear plastic box, lined with thin paper. Your standard photocopy paper is probably fine. Maybe you could use a small tupperware container, it would probably be sturdier than mine.
Posted by: Piers at November 3, 2005 05:42 AM
Hey that's pretty cool! Much cooler than my crappy DIY polarized lens (which I still use, by the way, i just had a lot of people laugh at me).
Posted by: Carl (theWAREHOUSE) at November 3, 2005 07:21 AM
back in the day when i was shooting 35mm alot i made a diffusion kit out of the bottom of a 1/2 gallon milk jug. I used cardboard to fashion a frame that fit onto my Sunpak 555 handle mount flash, and a bunch of random skateboard stickers to attach the frame to the milk jug. I think i had to cut little slits into the side to make the jug fit the frame properly. It definitley looked janky, but it worked. Nice soft diffused light. aiight peaace.
Posted by: gonzo at November 3, 2005 09:49 AM
Whats janky? Jerking off with a hanky?
Posted by: Jammy at November 3, 2005 11:16 AM
Ooh, handy. I've been forgeting to make my own flash soft-box for a while now ... So thanks for the reminder!
Cheers!
PS: A solution involving a bit of cardboard can be found here: http://creativebits.org/photography/small_camera_softbox Possibly a more lighweight solution for some? :)
Posted by: Tim at November 6, 2005 10:09 AM
Just an idea, but you could have a machined piece from http://emachineshop.com/.
Could be a neat thing to have, if you spend the time and find a material that fits your needs
Posted by: Convictus at November 8, 2005 08:26 PM
Just wondering what you made the hotshoe attachment out of ? It looks like plastic ?
Posted by: fbleagh at February 3, 2006 09:21 AM
yep, just a bit of the slide box.
Posted by: Piers at February 3, 2006 09:38 AM
how did you attach the bottom hot shoe tab to the box?
Posted by: encarna at April 11, 2006 01:27 AM
Won't having a piece of paper that close to the flash cause the relection off it to burn out the flash gun's inner coating?
Posted by: Naeem at April 28, 2006 12:04 PM
Hi i'm new here and i gotta say the diffuser rocks i will try to make one but also i had an idea 15 min before and i tried it with my nikon d50, listen: just take some scotch tape you know the very common one the one we all got in our desks but the one that the texture is simmilar to the rice paper. tape one or two on the built in flash and believe the results are much better
Posted by: T at August 22, 2006 09:21 AM
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