my DIY ring flash and sample shot

[fast eddie]

i found this photo forum where it breaks down how to make a ring flash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_flash) by using about $50-$65 in materials from Home Depot and your existing camera and flash setup: http://www.motleypixel.com/forum/index.php/topic,80.0.html . The alternative is purchasing one for over $200, easy. I'm not knocking Alien Bees (http://www.alienbees.com/abr800.html), but I can't justify paying that much for something I can make myself and get nearly the same results.


So, here's my super heavy, nearly 8.5 lb. setup (the steel bracket that everything attaches to weighs 5 lbs) taken with my cell phone:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/dangerzone949/ringflash.jpg


i am using a Nikon D40 and a Nikon SB-600 with a 55-200mm lens and some cheap radio transmitter/receiver in this shot in a pitch black room. I don't remember my exif settings, but this is the very first shot i took with the ring flash:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/dangerzone949/DSC_0385.jpg


with some ambient lighting, there will be extremely soft to non-existent shadows. i have been working on this for about a week so I can get some great shots of the Varsity skates for the next issue of Balance (www.issuu.com/k2rolla/docs).

feedback, please :D this is the first thing i have made with my hands since high school wood shop some 13 years ago :lol:

[Ozzie Sandoval]

Looks good, I wish you had the exif to know what the settings were like.
Is there a possible way you can take a pic of it when lit? I'm just wondering if the top part lights up as much as the bottom.
The AB one is weird to use and expensive!

[fast eddie]

if you look at the bottom of the ring flash in this pic from the tutorial i used, you see the actual flash head.

http://www.motleypixel.com/public/posts/diy_ringflash_07.jpg


but with mine, there is a crescent shape of extra diffusion material added to the bottom to eliminate the hot spot. see it to the right of the opening in the center in my first post? it's behind the first layer so you can't see it very well, which is a good thing.

shutter speed was 1/500, the flash was at 1/4 power, f/10 at 55mm, ISO 400.

[gRANT]

cool project, diy stuff is lots of fun, especially when it works haha

[Switch_Bcn]

Good stuff, I await more pics before attempting this myself.

[Monday]

http://www.motleypixel.com/public/posts/diy_ringflash_07.jpg

:lol:

[fast eddie]

:lol:


are you laughing at the lens cap or the bald head, because that's not me in the picture :lol:


Good stuff, I await more pics before attempting this myself.

the link in the original post has example of shots taken with the same ring flash (keep scrolling past the tutorial images), but he's using a macro lens and i am using a 55-200mm lens.


Is there a possible way you can take a pic of it when lit? I'm just wondering if the top part lights up as much as the bottom.


the whole thing is highly reflective, the light bounces around perfectly. and no, i can't get a shot of it while it's firing, my only other camera is on my cell phone and there is a lot of lag time, i'd drain the flash batteries trying.