DIY Ringflash

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by Saphire

Not yet Don, I am still searching for a bowl, but I am following what you are doing to see if I can come up with some way of lighting up the bottom half of the reflector. I picked a roll of aluminum tape from the £1 shop I may use that instead of tinfoil. its very shiny but will give that ago.
To make the equivalent of a stofen diffuser you could use a plastic milk bottle and cut it to shape its roughly about the same density.

Christine,

I will take a pic of my new, ( have not cut any holes in it yet ), bowl, and do a graphic tomorrow. £1 for the tape sounds good. If you have a stofen then you will be able to do it for no more than another pound.

Don

[Lello]

Thanks don, Getting us to think outside the box, Keeps us busy is fun and above all It's cheap
I now need to and find some bugs to really try out this macro ring.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by Lello

Thanks don, Getting us to think outside the box, Keeps us busy is fun and above all It's cheap
I now need to and find some bugs to really try out this macro ring.

Hey great avater Lello, just noticed it.

Trust me when you find a bug no probs at all. My sample in the gallery. This is lots easier than multiple flash set ups. Did I just say that !!

Don

[Lello]

Perhaps when we have got the finished thing sorted out we should go into production
At this rate the manufacturing costs will be under £3.00 we could sell for at least £25.00, who knows maybe in 15 years we could have made our first million

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by Lello

Perhaps when we have got the finished thing sorted out we should go into production
At this rate the manufacturing costs will be under £3.00 we could sell for at least £25.00, who knows maybe in 15 years we could have made our first million

Love it.

Don

[Saphire]

I have now finished doing my blue Peter bit.
I had a go at trying to refine what Lello has done. I made the center hole much bigger to allow the lens to go in a lot further, this allowed the af to work without having to constantly re-align the diffuser and plus I don't need the lens hood.. The first two photo are with the 50mm lens and a plant taken with the finished result. The second two were with my 300mm lens set at max 300mm and I stood 6 feet away.. The last photo is the result of this, its soft but I am quite pleased.
Thanks Don and Lello I now have my very own ring flash.
I will be trying the setup with the ext tubes to give me macro and see how that goes.
What is tomorrows project

[Lello]

Very good Christine, Did you use a plastic bowl? and what material have you used for the front diffuser? Since last night I have modified mine, I have folded the door in wards to try and cut out the light at the top, I will take a few shots later to show you.

[Don Hoey]

I will catch up with your post in a sec Christine.

This will be a 2 part post to stay within image download limits.

2 pics attatched here.

Pic 1 deals with selection of the bowl. First row shows my prototype bowl on the X to show relative position of standard hotshoe mounted flash, and on D100 to show relative position of pop-up flash. Rows 2 and 3 are my Sunday purchases from Morrisons. Centre bowl is a 220mm mixing bowl cost £0:68, and right hand is a food storage container for £0:99.

Looking at these the thingst work out are : Potential subject choice, and therefore lens to subject distance and then pop-up or main flash gun. If pop-up then 220mm becomes a minimum diameter unless a cowl, as in my yesterdays post is also made, to deflect the flash beam downwards. Bowl style will be affected by lens to subject distance.

Pic 2 is to show two other considerations. 1) Lens hood. A lenshood that protrudes beyond the light source inside the bowl is an absolute essential. I taped two together for mine, but I could have used a bit of drain pipe. For use the outside of the hood needs to be wrapped in kitchen foil to assist light spread in the bowl. 2) Mounting. Consider how you will mount the bowl to the lens. I have a number of 52mm screw fit hoods, so for the inside I taped 2 hoods together and then screwed another from the outside of the bowl, allowing me to mount using the filter thread. If you have a Cokin filter holder then the adator ring can be used for the bowl to lens mount. These are available as an accessory but cost about £4:50. If the pop-up route is chosen then this can be taped to the outside of the bowl ( electrical tape or gaffer tape, NOT masking tape ). If a seperate flash unit is to be used the mounting of this would need to be more secure to carry the weight of the flashgun. So possibly drilled and held by screws.

Part 2 tomorrow

Don

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by Saphire

I have now finished doing my blue Peter bit.

Cool, Christine.

Three of us, and we have all taken a slightly different route.
Your pop-up even closer to the bowl than mine. ............................. MORE POWER

Looking forward to a shot taken with the tubes.

Don

[Saphire]

Lello the bowl is 15.5cm, the inside I lined with the aluminum tape as it stays put being sticky backed.
The diffuser was a bit more difficult to find. I had a clear piece of plastic, which I cut slightly bigger than the bowl so I could score and bend it over the edges, I then cut the center circle out, I also found one of those opaque plastic sleeves you keep documents in. I split the sleeve and sprayed a clear adhesive to the clear plastic on both sides and stuck the sleeve on to it. Then I just cut around the shapes. On the outside I used black duck tape to hold the edges down of the diffuser and also covered the complete outside.
The center hole had to be much bigger to allow the lens to come further forward or come through it to stop flare. When its all put together you can't get your hand inside to put a lens hood on so it has to able to slide down the lens barrel and poke out if possible.
I will be having another play tomorrow to see whether it will work with my ext tubes and my macro rails. It will be great if it does work.