With some diffuse on my Ringflash

Just seen these on flickr and my first thoughts were you made that diffuser quick! The improvement (to my eye) is great, but I'm a bit confused. Have your sellotaped the material directly to the ringflash? If so I guess it's doing a really good job of scattering the light.
 
@TimmyG

I think the light is getting slightly better but sometimes it can be too dark. When I get away from the object around 5cm, then the light doesn't take any effect.

I sellotaped the cloth thing directly to the ringflash, it doesn't look nice at all but who cares as long as it does it job.



 
Yep quite right! Thanks for the shots! I must say it does seem to be working very well.

A couple of things to think about. Don't confuse diffusion with blocking the light (something I did for a long time). You don't want to hinder the light at all (in reality you will always block the light to some extent when adding a diffuser). The idea is to scatter the light particles so they don't hit the subject directly and different materials will have different abilities to scatter the light whilst not blocking too much light (the reason you don't want to block the light is it will mean your flash has to work harder to get the optimum exposure for your image. As a result it will take longer to recycle, and you will reduce your battery life). Anyway, there is lots of room to experiment with different materials, but I would say you are off to a good start with this stuff. It could be, however, blocking too much light and this is why you are experiencing issues lighting the subject at longer distances.

Another element you may consider is that you want to make your light source as large as possible to the subject (the same way that light gets diffused better on cloudy days when shooting with natural light. It's because the whole sky, when there is complete cloud cover, is acting as the light source. Rather than the hash light created by the sun on clear days; which appears to be a smaller light source for your subject). By sellotaping your material directly to the ringflash, you aren't really increasing the size of the light source all that much (which is why I asked the question). This is something that is much more difficult, I imagine, to achieve with a ringflash than with a single flash gun (see my earlier post in your other thread - the ice-cream box is increasing the surface area of the light source), but I know a couple of people on this forum have some good ideas for ringflash diffusion.
 
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Thanks Tim again for the explanation :) I think it will be an on going learning issue, the best way is to try with different materials and set up till I find the best that suit me.

I definitely will try your ice-cream box idea, seems easy and cheap to do. The reasons why I want to use the ring flash are because it is lighter than the flashgun (if using the flashgun, have to put it on the C-bracket, remote cord and a small soft box, all those add up ). secondly, with this set up, I tend to hit on the leaf or plant which freak out the bugs which make them run even faster before I can get a near focus.

Too much to learn, too much to play with so much fun but too little time:p
 
Very nice details and light in the first one
they are all good to be honest the one without diffuser looks good too
great explanation from Tim
thanks for that
I understood it so you did a good job of simplifying a complicated subject!
I never understood before the point of larger diffusers but get it now:)
 
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LCPete said:
Very nice details and light in the first one
they are all good to be honest the one without diffuser looks good too
great explanation from Tim thanks for that I understood it so you did a good job of simplifying a complicated subject!
I never understood before the point of larger diffusers but get it now:)
Click to expand...

Thanks Pete :) I am still trying to control my lighting, especially of my ring flash.

Once again, thanks Tim:plus1: the explanation is beneficial to everyone who reads this post.
 
hoftwi said:
Thanks Pete :) I am still trying to control my lighting, especially of my ring flash.

Once again, thanks Tim:plus1: the explanation is beneficial to everyone who reads this post.
Click to expand...

What make is the ring flash.... what you could do is instead of taping on top make it go at an angle by taping card to outside edge then tape diffusion material to inside of ring flash you have done and the the other side of material to the card.

But as Tim rightly said be careful not to confuse diffusion with blocking... try tissue/tracing paper or a muslin (not to be mistaken with 'Muslim' :p) 1 layer first.
 
TimmyG said:
Another element you may consider is that you want to make your light source as large as possible to the subject (the same way that light gets diffused better on cloudy days when shooting with natural light. It's because the whole sky, when there is complete cloud cover, is acting as the light source. Rather than the hash light created by the sun on clear days; which appears to be a smaller light source for your subject). By sellotaping your material directly to the ringflash, you aren't really increasing the size of the light source all that much (which is why I asked the question). This is something that is much more difficult, I imagine, to achieve with a ringflash than with a single flash gun (see my earlier post in your other thread - the ice-cream box is increasing the surface area of the light source), but I know a couple of people on this forum have some good ideas for ringflash diffusion.
Click to expand...

Forgot to quote this..... this is what you need a big fluffy cloud in front of your light source lol....

but what Tim says is true.
 
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