sh0ebox
9th of July 2007 (Mon), 05:11
Hey everybody... I just recently ordered my first flash a few days ago from another member here at POTN, a Speedlite 430EX. Being that this is my first flash, I know I still have quite a bit to learn. However, I've been doing a little reading, and found out about the effects of a diffuser on a flash, and also managed to stumble upon a few different variations on DIY diffusers. I decided, before I go out and spend a fair amount of money on diffusers, I should try making one myself and experimenting a little to learn how they actually work first!
So, in preparation for my flash's arrival, I went out and bought some foam paper/velcro/elastic to construct some DIY diffusers (A better Bounce Card and Gardner's Diffuser). They were very easy to make, and with about $17 worth of material, I was able to make 10 total diffusers (8 A Better Bounce Cards --- 2 full size and 6 "baby" ones, and 2 of Gardner's Diffusers). The Fun Foam was very easy to work with and the diffusers ended up coming out very clean looking!
Here is a link to a few pictures of the diffusers I made:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Camera%20Stuff
Also, I saw on the ABBC website that Peter was selling attachment bands. I figured, "well maybe I can make my own for a much cheaper price." Peter mentioned several different methods of attaching the ABBC to my flash, but I wanted mine to look professional while doing it, as his attachment bands do. I avoided velcro, however, as I did not want to adhere anything physically to my flash that could later leave residue that might be a little too tough to remove. I ended up purchasing about 4ft of 1.5" wide black elastic from Walmart for only $1.70 or so. I then proceeded to have it cut short and sewed together to form essentially a fat elastic band, very similar to that of the attachment band that Peter sells, just not made out of rubber. It turned out looking very good, much more professional than I would have imagined. It fits very snugly on the flash, and blends right in. Here is a picture of what the elastic band ended up looking like. For those of you who are looking for some type of attachment band and are wanting to keep it on the cheap side, I highly recommend giving this a shot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/IMG_2135.jpg
Now, on to the actual testing. I did a very quick and rough test tonight. The test subject, as you will see, was not a person, unfortunately, as it's too late right now. I just used the 430EX case set on a table in front of the wall with my Digital Rebel XT and kit lens mounted to my 3021bpro/488RC2 about 3 feet away from the case.
All pictures were taken in Shutter Priority (Tv) mode at 1/125s, f/4.5, ISO200, and 34mm focal length with center-point focus. I left the camera on AWB mode and the flash on auto (E-TTL). Absolutely no post-processing was done, just resized to 640x480 in Photoshop.
Below are the results with the type of diffuser or flash method used. For convenience sake, the pics are posted in 640x480, so if you want to see the full size, click on the picture to view it.
Direct Flash
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/direct.jpg (http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/94/img2130nt4.jpg)
Bounced Flash
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/bounced.jpg (http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6117/img2131tu3.jpg)
A Better Bounce Card
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/abbc.jpg (http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1729/img2133tq3.jpg)
Gardner's Diffuser
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/gardner.jpg (http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/4017/img2129jy2.jpg)
As you can see, the direct flash did produce the harshest shadows out of all of them, and also produced slightly bright spots on the case, although it's really not so bad. It also did the worst job of lighting the background. Bounced flash looks almost as if it is purely ambient light, with a very light orange-ish color cast (sorry for the slight blur, I told you this test was very rough :p). A Better Bounce Card and Gardner's diffusers both produced very, very similar results in this test. However, If you look closely, the ABBC did still produce a slight shadow behind the case just above the table. Gardner's diffuser did the best job with reducing the harsh shadows and looking nearly like the flash was not even used.
Even though this is just a very rough test that only skims the surface of what these things can do, it's fairly apparent that the diffusers make a HUGE difference in flash photographs. They offer a great advantage over direct flash as they eliminate harsh shadows, and I also find them superior to bounced flash as they allow bouncing, as well as throwing some of the light from the flash foward to act as fill flash, which also helps bring out subtle details in the photograph.
For only a few bucks, I think these diffusers are definitely worth it. I don't have any consumer diffusers, such as the Sto-fen Omnibounce, Gary Fong Lightsphere, or Lumiquest Promax, but as I've read, they do offer almost the same performance for a fraction of the cost. Pretty fun project too!
So if you have a flash and are looking for a diffuser, I highly recommend giving this a try. Hopefully it will suffice for your needs and save you from spending more money on a consumer diffuser later on! :)
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope at least some of you find this helpful. This community has done so much to help me ever since I started getting into photography, I felt I had to pay you back somehow. And this is my lackluster attempt at doing so :D
So, in preparation for my flash's arrival, I went out and bought some foam paper/velcro/elastic to construct some DIY diffusers (A better Bounce Card and Gardner's Diffuser). They were very easy to make, and with about $17 worth of material, I was able to make 10 total diffusers (8 A Better Bounce Cards --- 2 full size and 6 "baby" ones, and 2 of Gardner's Diffusers). The Fun Foam was very easy to work with and the diffusers ended up coming out very clean looking!
Here is a link to a few pictures of the diffusers I made:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Camera%20Stuff
Also, I saw on the ABBC website that Peter was selling attachment bands. I figured, "well maybe I can make my own for a much cheaper price." Peter mentioned several different methods of attaching the ABBC to my flash, but I wanted mine to look professional while doing it, as his attachment bands do. I avoided velcro, however, as I did not want to adhere anything physically to my flash that could later leave residue that might be a little too tough to remove. I ended up purchasing about 4ft of 1.5" wide black elastic from Walmart for only $1.70 or so. I then proceeded to have it cut short and sewed together to form essentially a fat elastic band, very similar to that of the attachment band that Peter sells, just not made out of rubber. It turned out looking very good, much more professional than I would have imagined. It fits very snugly on the flash, and blends right in. Here is a picture of what the elastic band ended up looking like. For those of you who are looking for some type of attachment band and are wanting to keep it on the cheap side, I highly recommend giving this a shot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/IMG_2135.jpg
Now, on to the actual testing. I did a very quick and rough test tonight. The test subject, as you will see, was not a person, unfortunately, as it's too late right now. I just used the 430EX case set on a table in front of the wall with my Digital Rebel XT and kit lens mounted to my 3021bpro/488RC2 about 3 feet away from the case.
All pictures were taken in Shutter Priority (Tv) mode at 1/125s, f/4.5, ISO200, and 34mm focal length with center-point focus. I left the camera on AWB mode and the flash on auto (E-TTL). Absolutely no post-processing was done, just resized to 640x480 in Photoshop.
Below are the results with the type of diffuser or flash method used. For convenience sake, the pics are posted in 640x480, so if you want to see the full size, click on the picture to view it.
Direct Flash
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/direct.jpg (http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/94/img2130nt4.jpg)
Bounced Flash
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/bounced.jpg (http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6117/img2131tu3.jpg)
A Better Bounce Card
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/abbc.jpg (http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1729/img2133tq3.jpg)
Gardner's Diffuser
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/sh0ebox/Flash%20Test/gardner.jpg (http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/4017/img2129jy2.jpg)
As you can see, the direct flash did produce the harshest shadows out of all of them, and also produced slightly bright spots on the case, although it's really not so bad. It also did the worst job of lighting the background. Bounced flash looks almost as if it is purely ambient light, with a very light orange-ish color cast (sorry for the slight blur, I told you this test was very rough :p). A Better Bounce Card and Gardner's diffusers both produced very, very similar results in this test. However, If you look closely, the ABBC did still produce a slight shadow behind the case just above the table. Gardner's diffuser did the best job with reducing the harsh shadows and looking nearly like the flash was not even used.
Even though this is just a very rough test that only skims the surface of what these things can do, it's fairly apparent that the diffusers make a HUGE difference in flash photographs. They offer a great advantage over direct flash as they eliminate harsh shadows, and I also find them superior to bounced flash as they allow bouncing, as well as throwing some of the light from the flash foward to act as fill flash, which also helps bring out subtle details in the photograph.
For only a few bucks, I think these diffusers are definitely worth it. I don't have any consumer diffusers, such as the Sto-fen Omnibounce, Gary Fong Lightsphere, or Lumiquest Promax, but as I've read, they do offer almost the same performance for a fraction of the cost. Pretty fun project too!
So if you have a flash and are looking for a diffuser, I highly recommend giving this a try. Hopefully it will suffice for your needs and save you from spending more money on a consumer diffuser later on! :)
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope at least some of you find this helpful. This community has done so much to help me ever since I started getting into photography, I felt I had to pay you back somehow. And this is my lackluster attempt at doing so :D