Nevertheless, creating your own modifier will provide the most individual solution and will teach you a thing or two about lighting on the side. By locating the diffuser on the lens, you avoid the problems I mentioned. You get a major advantage in that you can adjust the angle of diffusion, and through that the shadow intensity as well. The perfect angle of diffusion is 45°; that gives you enough diffusion and ideal shadow softness. To minimize the shadows, tilt the diffuser so it’s almost parallel with the lens. For sharper shadows, increase the angle of diffusion to 90°. The Diffuser Itself Note on top of the diffuser is a white piece of plastic. This can be removed and placed below the lens to produce some fill light (ingenious). Additionally, a diffuser can also help to improve the overall quality of the image, making it look softer and more natural. Do I Need a Diffuser with My Flash?

What I did not like so much, in comparison with the other 2 diffusers, is the separately sold ‘roof’, which is supposed to channel the flash to the front and intensify the light output. White nylon is another popular option because it is strong and flexible, making it easy to shape into different forms. White tissue paper is also a good option, but it is more delicate and may need to be replaced more frequently. There are many different materials that you can use as a diffuser for photography. Some popular options include white translucent plastic, white nylon, and white tissue paper. You can also use a softbox or umbrella to diffuse the light from your flash unit.

Shapelock - Make Any Shape Diffusion

I like to line the inside of my horizontal flash diffusers with kitchen foil to maximise the amount of flash that actually reaches the diffuser surface, and use various materials as the actual diffuser. Kitchen tissue worked very well indeed but it tends to be a little warm colour temperature wise. Two sheets of vellum tracing paper or a combination of vellum and normal tracing also works well. Heavyweight a4 office paper of the highest quality will also work well but you have to oil it first - oiling bleached 120mg office paper makes it into a tracing paper type transparency. My favourite macro diffusion material though is polystyrene foam, because it scatters light so nicely and is uniform, leaves no central hotspot at all.

So how do you diffuse the light from your internal or external flash? One possibility is to buy a specialized diffuser that you mount onto your flash. If you buy one of these, you have to take into account that it’s a commercial product that’s made to sell, but maybe not to serve your needs. I personally own two of these commercial diffusers made for mounting onto an external flash. One of the biggest challenges of macro photography is finding the right lighting. The small size of the subject makes it difficult to light it evenly, which can result in harsh shadows and uneven exposure. Yield: The yield of light is quite bad; light bounces into all directions and only a small portion actually shines on the subject. One solution is to use a focus light. A few flashes have built-in focus lights, like the one I showed earlier. Other times, you can potentially put a small light on top of your camera or use a ring light for this purpose. Size: In terms of size, shoot-through diffusers are ideal. The store-bought version is collapsible and takes no room at all, The DIY versions are pretty much flat and will fit in almost any camera bag.Here is the diffuser mounted on my Olympus camera with the 60mm macro lens. This first image is a side view, the second a top view, and the third from the front. If i go on a planned fieldtrip my primary diffuser is the AK, simply because i will leave it on the camera setup all the time and it is stable and offers me the most freedom in my personal workflow. Most flash modifiers fall into the category of diffusers and usually serve two purposes: Diffusing the light and redirecting it to our subject. This way, our subject will be illuminated evenly and we can keep the flash power low. What makes a good diffuser? Which one works best for you, depends on what you are looking for and what your personal style and approach look like. are the perfect material to build macro diffusers from; stable tubes with a reflective inside and the ideal diameter to fit on almost any speedlight.

He is a well-known photographer in the macro community and has spent lots of hours and dollars in his ‘search for the perfect light’, as he states himself. To get good light diffusion that makes your pictures look the way you want, you have to take into account both of the factors mentioned above: the need for the diffuser to be far enough from the flash source, and the need for the light to be diffused behind the lens, not in front of it. So where should you put your diffuser? Don’t place the diffuser on the flash; instead, put it on the end of your lens, and ideally on the start of your lens hood, so that it’s pointed in front of the lens, as you can see in the picture below. My makeshift diffuser “mounted” right on the lens. It’s an awful sight, but it does a great job.

Flash Diffuser or Macro Diffuser?

Size: Excellent; it’s small size would make it perfect for photography in the field if it would be more effective. With a diffuser, you can manipulate the light to get the best results, whether you are shooting in natural light or using a flash unit. This makes it an extremely versatile tool that can help you achieve the perfect lighting for any situation. The annoying part is that I cannot direct you to a diffuser available online that does this perfectly. Although there are lots of flash diffusers available online, I’ve yet to see one that is really designed to light subjects at close range. I recommend making your own instead.