I'm love with my home-made snoot!

Well, I was going to buy a 7D and 200Lf2.8 at the new camera shop where I live, but they wanted 20% more than my regular shop......so I bought some Kenko extension tubes instead and then made myself this snoot from some cardboard lined with white paper, a 45° silver-foil reflector at the end, and some black cloth tape (which cost me ￥１０５ = about 60p, or $1).

These two shots, including the bottom one with my 100-400L for size comparison were taken with my mobile 'phone, so excuse the poor quality, but then come the results, which I'm ecstatic about.

Any thoughts appreciated....

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So....the first shot is of the stabilizer switch on my 100-400L taken with just the 100mm macro - no flash, all handheld.

I deliberately used ISO100 to see what would happen.
The best I could get was f/2.8 and 1/4s.

Next is with all three Kenko tubes attached:
f/2.8 1/3s
Ouch!

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Now with my snoot!
ISO100
f/5.6 and 1/160s

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Next pair is of a photo in our daily newspaper.
The skier's goggles are 5mm wide in the photo.

First shot 1/80s f/5.6 ISO100.

Second shot is cropped, to see how my 30D copes.

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This last pair is my son's arm.
First shot is the full image, and the second one cropped onto the mole - which I'm not happy about, as I think his tennis-playing is making it look a bit cracked on the surface....which for a 16 year-old ain't so good!
(But that's about health, not photography )

The picture, I'm stunned at!

Again, ISO100, f/5.6 @ 1/80s.

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In summary, I'm amazed at the effects of my (virtually) free snoot on what I can achieve with my 100mm macro and Kenko extension tubes.

If there are any other new macro POTNers out there who haven't tried a snoot on their flash, I can only say to you - DO IT!!!!

Regards,

Simon

Good one - looks like it's working well.
Only concerns were whether there was a chance of firing light straight into the lens but guess the hood stops that and secondly the snoot getting in the way with some subjects (ie bashing the subject)
Brian v.

LordV wrote in post #9656179
Good one - looks like it's working well.
Only concerns were whether there was a chance of firing light straight into the lens but guess the hood stops that and secondly the snoot getting in the way with some subjects (ie bashing the subject)
Brian v.

Thanks for the comments, Brian.

If you look at the first shot, you can see that I extended the white paper inside all the way to the end, which creates a really soft light. And the cardboard stops just after the hood, so I think the angles are on my side regarding light into the lens.

As to "hitting" the subject. Maybe...but I've tried rotating the Speedlite left or right and using a white-card reflector, to re-re-direct light at the subject, and it still works.

Not the most gainly of objects, but all part of the fun, IMHO.

Next comes some "live" - and much smaller than so far - subjects.
It's still a little cold here for insects, but I don't have long to wait....

Reminds me of Pinochio's nose.

Good thinking skygod44.

lukeap69 wrote in post #9656661
Reminds me of Pinochio's nose.
Good thinking skygod44.

Maybe...
But it's the truth governor!!!

Anyway, I've trimmed about 10mm off the flash-end of my snoot, and am thinking of making a kind of support to "attach" it to the lens hood so as keep the whole thing more stable.

Tell you what though - the first set of pics I posted (the switch on my 100-400) just goes to show that without the right light, trying to take macro is 1000x harder, and much less likely to show what the lens is capable of resolving.

I need to make something like this, as my flash bracket and cord are taking forever from dealextreme

damnlamb wrote in post #9657533
I need to make something like this, as my flash bracket and cord are taking forever from dealextreme

It took me about an hour, and I think the results speak for themselves.
I'm particularly amazed by the clear difference that heart-beat induced motion had on the first set of pictures of my 100-400 stabilizer switch.
Through the viewfinder, with the 100mm macro + tubes, every "pulse" from my heart made the subject jump!
So an exposure time just to arrest that motion is needed! And that's irrespective of any subject motion.

Can't wait to try it out on some insects!!!!!!
And I think I'll try LordV's suggestion of baiting, using some honey....and see what comes along!


More soon (I hope!) from "SnootGod"

Thats pretty neat,1st application I have ever seen, in fact I had heard the term "snoot" but didn't really know what it was.I have a question,you stated it was lined with white paper and a 45 degree reflector at the end,,,,,,,,,would reflective material thru out be better???????

dick

dicklaxt wrote in post #9663923
Thats pretty neat,1st application I have ever seen, in fact I had heard the term "snoot" but didn't really know what it was.I have a question,you stated it was lined with white paper and a 45 degree reflector at the end,,,,,,,,,would reflective material thru out be better???????

dick

Hey Dick,

I really don't know, but I didn't find silver foil very responsive to the glue I used, thus the white paper - which stuck perfectly inside the cardboard snoot, and then automatically created the softer light as it exits from the hole cut in the cardboard just above the end of the lens which you can see in the first pic.

Thanks for asking and commenting