Flash for Canon 60mm lens

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David
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I like my Canon 60mm lens and for most photos I am happy using the pop up flash. Although it could be better it is a good compromise with ease of use.

Please bear in mind that all my photos are aimed to make me good at taking photos when I am in the cloud forest when I go to Colombia on holiday and so techniques must not be too difficult to use in the field and carry in a backpack.

IMG_8375grasshopper by davholla2002, on Flickr

or
IMG_8216butterfly by davholla2002, on Flickr

(I am a big fan of https://www.flickr.com/photos/itchydogimages and I like the black backrounds that I often get, like he does, I know some people hate this and I like their photos too which is strange.)

However for beetles I don't like the effect. Any ideas?

IMG_8342beetle by davholla2002, on Flickr
 
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I dont know what you did for the 2nd one though I think it is pretty much on point. I think a bit more work in PP would make them much better, get some more details from the highglights and the shadows
 
Cheapest and easiest to start off is a ring flash. Few reasonable ones on Amazon that'll get you started. Depends on your budget.
 
Have a read through this macro thread to see what other folk have for their macro rigs
 
I dont know what you did for the 2nd one though I think it is pretty much on point. I think a bit more work in PP would make them much better, get some more details from the highglights and the shadows
To be honest (and others may disagree) I only dislike my set up with beetles and bugs. I use a ring flash for my Canon MPE65 mm and will try it on this one and maybe invest in a second one.

A lot of people dislike ring flashes - I don't BTW - so I was surprised that it was recommended.

I will try the post processing idea.
 
I like my Canon 60mm lens and for most photos I am happy using the pop up flash. Although it could be better it is a good compromise with ease of use.

Please bear in mind that all my photos are aimed to make me good at taking photos when I am in the cloud forest when I go to Colombia on holiday and so techniques must not be too difficult to use in the field and carry in a backpack.

You might want to try something like this (cheaper version).
 
That looks quite good although I might get this
http://www.jessops.com/online.store...sops/universal-flash-diffuser-93726/show.html

Instead as I can get it today and not in 25 days time.

If you are going to use an external flash that may be much more convenient. I have one similar to the one I linked to and it "wobbles" a bit on the camera lens, and it also gets in the way of seeing the subject.

Using an external flash opens up loads of options. Have you looked at fold-flat soft boxes? I have one of the 23cm ones and it produced nice light, but I found it rather unwieldy (it flopped down on to the lens barrel.) A slightly smaller one might be rather more convenient.
 
If you are going to use an external flash that may be much more convenient. I have one similar to the one I linked to and it "wobbles" a bit on the camera lens, and it also gets in the way of seeing the subject.

Using an external flash opens up loads of options. Have you looked at fold-flat soft boxes? I have one of the 23cm ones and it produced nice light, but I found it rather unwieldy (it flopped down on to the lens barrel.) A slightly smaller one might be rather more convenient.
I find that my external flash gives less light, I think it is because of the size of the flash YONGNUO YN-560 II ELECTRONIC SPEEDLIGHT and the lens. This means that the light from the flash is not the correct place.
I need to find an external flash bracket but I have not seen

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer-Fla...&qid=1472151103&sr=1-9&keywords=flash+bracket


I think the diffuser might work with a flash bracket, without it is was not any good :(
 
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I find that my external flash gives less light, I think it is because of the size of the flash YONGNUO YN-560 II ELECTRONIC SPEEDLIGHT and the lens. This means that the light from the flash is not the correct place.
I need to find an external flash bracket but I have not seen

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer-Fla...&qid=1472151103&sr=1-9&keywords=flash+bracket


I think the diffuser might work with a flash bracket, without it is was not any good :(

With the flash in the camera hot shoe, does the diffuser (which one is that?) throw the light too far forward? (Presumably the 60mm is a fairly short lens, especially with it being EF-S.)
 

It looks a bit long to me for macro/close-up, and it doesn't have any diffusion material in the direct path of the light as far as I can see. The beauty of building your own is that you can experiment with different materials and layering for diffusion, and build it to fit your particular kit/lens/working distance (and in your case, for your holiday journeying, presumably it needs to fold up quite small as well).
 
It looks a bit long to me for macro/close-up, and it doesn't have any diffusion material in the direct path of the light as far as I can see. The beauty of building your own is that you can experiment with different materials and layering for diffusion, and build it to fit your particular kit/lens/working distance (and in your case, for your holiday journeying, presumably it needs to fold up quite small as well).
I hate building my own, it takes for ever and always look rubbish - when I do it anyway. I would rather make my sandwiches every day, buy cheaper food, go on a diet etc and use the savings on buying something good - but sadly there isn't a massive choice.

However in this case even if I bought this even I could put a diffuser in front of the snoot. This folds up a lot better than anything I could do would, I just need to do the sums to work out where the light would go.
 
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/gp/product...t_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TS9X57RE0FASJWQGXMHW
 
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/gp/product...t_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TS9X57RE0FASJWQGXMHW

I have one similar to that but it has two layers, the outside one like you can see there, but a smaller inner one to have an extra effect in the central area where the light is brightest. (I borrowed that idea when building my current diffusers.) The one I bought also has aluminium foil or some similarly reflective layer on the inside surface. It produces nice light but it proved to be a bit too big in practice, and got in the way. That one looks just a bit smaller and might be ok from that point of view. At that price, worth trying I suppose, although I expect it is single layer - I think it would say if it had an extra layer.

You may have been working with a rather difficult example. Shiny creatures like that drive me nuts sometimes because I simply can't avoid ugly highlights that I don't like the look of, no matter what I do. It's possible that you might be expecting too much. Just a thought.
 
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