Diy Flash Diffuser for Macro Photography Using Styrofoam Plate

This is perhaps the easiest flash diffuser project ever. Take a styrofoam plate, the larger the plate the better, it need not be circular even rectangle or oval shaped plates work quite well.

diy flash diffuser

Take out your lens filter, press it gently on the styrofoam plate so as to make a mark, then cut out the circle,  (cut the inside of the line so that the plate attaches tightly on to the lens filter) attach the filter back on to the lens, slid the styrofoam plate on to the filter and you are good to go.

styrofoam dish flash diffuer

There is some light loss with this setup as a considerable amount of light gets reflected back from the white surface of the styrofoam plate. But the impotant thing for us is that most of the light will pass through the plate, the surface of the plate now acts as the light source which is many times larger than the flash head also the light gets spread in all angles evenly illuminating the area ahead.

With this diy flash diffuser it is possible to get soft light very close to the lens which is not possible without it as the lens itself would cast its shadow on the subject. 

macro photography flash diffuser

This will also work with a dedicated flash unit mounted on top of the camera. The most important thing to remember is that this setup is only effective for macro photography, for subjects that is a little bit distant from the camera this wont work well due to the light loss and spread of the light beam. But for macro photography this works like a charm.

Here's a shot taken with our diy flash diffuser

flash diffuser for macro photography

Related Reading

1. How to turn any Lens into a Macro Lens the Lens Reversal Technique
2. How to Lock a Lens at a Certain Aperture
3. Stacking Lenses with Coupling Rings for Extreme Macro Photography
4. Macro Photography Using Extension Tubes
5. Lens Extension and Effective F Stop

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5 Tips For Using your Flash Creatively

1. Fill Flash into a Scene

Photo By  Dustin Diaz

When shooting against the light, you can use flash to fill in some light into the subject. for example, fill flash works well when you are shooting a person against the setting sun. The camera will expose for the sky, but the flash will ensure that the subject is also lit and not silhouetted. The same can be done by using the Night Portrait or Backlit Portrait mode.

Photo By Sabrina C

2. Avoid Direct Flash

Direct flash means the one that is built in to your camera or flashes mounted on the hot shoe. Shots taken using direct flash more often than not end up with red eye, and also have a flattened feel to them. So best alternative is to use off camera flash and if you really need to use your on camera flash try some method to either diffuse it or bounce it.

Photo By David McNeil

3. Use Flash But Also Capture Some Ambient Light

One common problem faced by amateurs while using flash is that the background appears dark and all pictures look the same. In order to capture an environmental portrait kind of shot you should also try to capture some ambient light. The trick is to expose for the ambient light by using slow shutter speeds and firing your flash to light up your subject. If you are shooting with a point and shoot camera, use the flash in the slow sync mode, or use the night portrait mode in your camera. These modes fire flash during a long exposure thereby capturing the ambient light and giving a sense of the place the image was shot at.

Photo By Brent Pearson

4. Get Creative With Flash

You could introduce colour casts to your shots by using gels on your flash. Gels come in many colours and sizes, simply choose the one that will suit your specific requirement. Gels could be used to either warm up or cool down the feel of the shot, shades of yellow and red warms up the scene while shades of blue cools it down. Gels could also be used to match the colour temperature of light coming from your flash with that of ambient light in the scene.

Photo By Cyril Gravelier

5. Control the Spread of Light from your Flash

Controlling the light coming out from you flash units is important to get the right kind of lighting. You could use attachments to your flash heads like, diffusers, snoots, grids etc or you could use cutters/gobos/barn doors to modify and shape the light coming out from your flash.

In the next article we will discuss about Photography - Lighting - Flash - Understanding TTL Flash – Mastering Flash Photography - How To Get Better Lighting From Your On Camera Flash

Photo By Paul Cox

In the next article we will discuss about Photography - Lighting - Flash -  Mastering Flash Photography - How To Get Better Lighting From Your On Camera Flash

Related Reading

1. Understanding TTL Flash – Flash Terminology, Anatomy, Functions and Features
2. Stroboscopic Flash Photography
3. Fill Flash
4. Slow Sync Flash
5. How to Trigger your Off Camera Flash

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Stroboscopic Flash Photography

Stroboscopic flash photography is the technique used by photographers to capture a sequence of images of a moving subject in a single frame. The trick behind stroboscopic flash effect is to fire a rapid burst of low power flashes during the course of a photographic exposure. With each pulse of flash an instance of the subject at its then state is captured and thus at the end of the exposure the frame will have various instances of the subject. The number of instances captured will depend on the number of flashes fired during the exposure.

Photo By Patrickkwk

The Three major elements of Stroboscopic Flash Photography

•     Hertz (Hz)
•     Flash count
•     Flash power

Hertz (Hz) denotes the frequency at which the flash is fired. Hertz is measured in seconds 1Hz = once a second and 5Hz = five times a second so higher the value, the more is the number of flashes happening per second. When in stroboscopic mode the flash allows you to set the frequency, generally modern flash guns allows values between 1 – 199 Hz.

Photo By ?UG?

Flash count is the total number of pulses emitted by the flash during the exposure. Only the latest flash units allows you to set this manually, in earlier models you just set the frequency and shutter speed and do the Flash Count calculation manually

Photo By AveLardo

Flash count = Shutter Speed * Hertz (Hz)

For example if the shutter speed set is 2 seconds and the frequency (Hertz (Hz)) set is 5 then flash count will be 2 * 5 = 10

In latest flash units you set the frequency fist (Hertz (Hz)), then set the number of pulses (Flash Count) and based on it calculate the required shutter speed using the following equation.

Shutter speed = Flash count / Hertz (Hz)

For example to calculate shutter speed when the flash count set is 10 and the frequency (Hertz (Hz) set is 5, then the shutter speed should be a minimum of 10/5 = 2 seconds to allow all the pulses to fall within the exposure time.

Flash power is not determined by the flashes brightness but by the duration for which it’s emitting light. So when you change your flash setting to 1/4 power from 1/8 power you are actually doubling the flash duration and not doubling the flashes brightness.

Photo By Aaron Geller

Most flash units only allow a maximum power setting of ¼ th power or less when in stroboscopic mode.

All the three elements mentioned above are interlinked and changes to each affect the exposure of the image. When the frequency of flash (Hertz (Hz) is increased the flash has only less time per each pulse so the power of the flash will decrease and when the frequency is decreased the flash need to fire only fewer bursts and so greater will be its power.

Flash recycling time is also an important aspect, the faster the flash frequency the lesser the recycling time and so lesser the flash power and vice versa.

In order to cope with the decrease in power you will have to decrease the flash to subject distance considerably to correctly expose the picture. Remember the earlier article on Inverse Square Law of Light.

How to use Stroboscopic Flash

Photo By Aaron Geller

1.     Set your camera on a tripod and switch it to Manual mode
2.     Attach flash and set it to stroboscopic mode
3.     Set the Flash count
4.     Set the Frequency (Hertz (Hz)
5.     Calculate and set the shutter speed required (Shutter speed = Flash count / Hertz (Hz)
6.     Focus on the subject and shift focus to manual to keep it locked
7.     Use the table in the instruction manual or use trial and error to find the right Aperture value
8.     Press shutter, check the image in LCD and make corrections to aperture or flash power values if necessary.

Photo By Dave F

Stroboscopic effect is best achieved when done on a bright subject in a dark background. If the background is not black the light from multiple pulses will be added together to expose quite a bit of details in the background and will create many issues. Shooting at night out in a dark open ground is the best and easiest way to experiment stroboscopic effect as you need not worry about the flash illuminating anything in the background. All you need to focus will be on the flash power and subject to flash distance.

Photo By Robbie Veldwijk

While experimenting with stroboscopic flash photography effect; it should always be kept in mind that firing multiple flashes consecutively is a strain on your flash units and as a result it may heat up and cause damage to the flash. So never attempt more than 10 trials before giving the flash a little time to cool off. Or better work at a slow pace allowing time in between each trial.

In the next article we will discuss about Photography - Lighting - Flash - Understanding TTL Flash – 5 Tips For Using Your Flash Creatively

Related Reading

1. Understanding TTL Flash – Flash Terminology, Anatomy, Functions and Features
2. Fill Flash
3. Slow Sync Flash
4. How to Trigger your Off Camera Flash
5. Focal Plane Shutter

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High Speed Flash Synchronization

High speed synchronization or high speed sync is how modern cameras and flashes attain speeds that are above their normal sync speed. FP flash function is set on the flash control panel.

How Does High Speed Flash Sync Work?

High speed flash sync also referred to as “long burn” flash, works by increasing the time duration of the flash to put out a constant stream of light till the moving slit formed by the focal plane shutter completes its journey across the sensor. We are now familiar with our compact flashes and know that they fire at speeds far greater than 1/1000 of a second. So in high speed sync mode the flash is made to fire many times per second practically producing a continuous beam of light. Although it is a lot of work for the small flashes to do but it is possible because what we are talking about here is actually a very very short period of time. Speeds in excess of 1/200 th of a second (standard sync speed of digital camera employing focal plane shutter). As the light output stays for the entire duration of the exposure, each area receives the same amount of illumination from the flash and hence there are no issues of parts of the frame blacking out. High speed sync permits the use of very high shutter speeds even as high as 1/8000 of a second.

Photo By Photo Art

One major drawback of the high speed sync feature is that it reduces the power output of the flash unit, the faster the shutter speed used, the lower the power of the flash. For example if a shutter speed of 1/500 second is used for a shot, the guide number of the Speedlite becomes less than half its normal rating, and if the shutter speed is further increased to 1/2000 the flash power drops to less than a quarter.

Uses of High Speed Flash Sync

Stop Motion

The most important feature of high speed sync is that if facilitates the use of higher shutter speeds that Stops Motion. It helps you ‘freeze’ the movement of the subject while the flash acts as a fill light source adding details to the shadow areas.

Depth of Field - Balance Flash Light with Ambient

By saying balance flash power with ambient we are always referring to sunlight. High speed sync flash is mostly used when shooting portraits outdoors in broad daylight as it helps you use wider apertures facilitating creative use of depth of field in your photos.

Photo By Scottbaldwin

In the next article we will discuss about Photography - Lighting - Flash - Focal Plane Shutter

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1. Types Of Flash Synchronization
2. Flash Synchronization
3. Flash Guide Number
4. Flash Bulb
5. Flash

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