Flash for Canon 60mm lens

With handheld out-of-date Fujifilm S100FS bridge and handheld off hot-hoe 550EX Canon flash,

Pictoraider wrote in post #18126915
I suggest you practise for free with your EOS 7D Mark II on tripod and your off hot-shoe gunflash handheld : so you can test all positions, all distances and all orientations relative to your dead beetle. And not be limited by any flash bracket.

For example, the light source in "shower position" above the subject produces nice results...Be aware most flash brackets do not allow such light source positionning.

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That is a good idea, although of course if position x is good but unreachable in the field then it will not be very helpful

At home, I put my Canon 550D and Canon 60 mm lens on a tripod and tried lots of different diffusers and flashes with a dead stag beetle (I found it dead).
E.g. 2 commerical diffusers, tissue paper, ping pong balls, plastic ,what might be diffuser gel and polystyrene.
The least bad combination was a neweer flash with the light going away from it and plastic underneath to diffuse it.
However even that was not that good.
I wonder if a softbox like this would be any good?
https://www.amazon.co.​uk …fRID=TS9X57RE0F​ASJWQGXMHW

davholla wrote in post #18133460
At home, I put my Canon 550D and Canon 60 mm lens on a tripod and tried lots of different diffusers and flashes with a dead stag beetle (I found it dead).
E.g. 2 commerical diffusers, tissue paper, ping pong balls, plastic ,what might be diffuser gel and polystyrene.
The least bad combination was a neweer flash with the light going away from it and plastic underneath to diffuse it.
However even that was not that good.
I wonder if a softbox like this would be any good?
https://www.amazon.co.​uk …fRID=TS9X57RE0F​ASJWQGXMHW

It's hard to know how even the light will be with this. It might be OK or might have a hotspot. If it is reasonably even then you would probably want it off-camera so you can locate it closer to the lens and subject.

Archibald wrote in post #18137000
It's hard to know how even the light will be with this. It might be OK or might have a hotspot. If it is reasonably even then you would probably want it off-camera so you can locate it closer to the lens and subject.

How would I support it off camera? I have looked but without spending a lot I am not sure how to this.

davholla wrote in post #18137437
How would I support it off camera? I have looked but without spending a lot I am not sure how to this.

Yes, supporting it is a problem. You can rig brackets, but they can be expensive, heavy and ungainly, and can swivel crazily. The best for now might be to hand-hold. You might even find you don't like the light, so don't spend much for now.

davholla wrote in post #18103432
I have tried to diffuse it, I tried using a pringle can on a top up flash with a tissue paper at the end and it did not improve.
I put a piece of paper between the flash and the dead stag beetle and there was no improvement, just less light.

RELATIVE SIZE matters! The end of a Pringle can is scarcely larger than the original pop-up flash! it needs to be truly 'bigger' in area, like this...

Wilt wrote in post #19335809
RELATIVE SIZE matters! The end of a Pringle can is scarcely larger than the original pop-up flash! it needs to be truly 'bigger' in area, like this...

...as absurd looking as this ice cream container is, it is far larger and softer a source of light than the original flash.

Yup. Diffuse a flash really well and get it close to what you are shooting. Better light quality and more detail. Recently took another pass at my diffusers cause I wanted better light quality between 1x and 2x with the MP-E 65mm. New diffusers:

IMAGE LINK: https://imgur.com/bf0w​7nR

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2n12​zzb