Commercial Flash Diffusers

Haven't been entirely happy with the amount of light I get to the subject with my home-made globe flash diffuser . So I was thinking through what I could do to improve it.

Turns out, in the past few years the macro diffuser market has really matured. Before, I couldn't find anything good unless I was willing to spend about $700 on a dual flash setup which was rather fussy. Now the Pope Shield Diffuser appears to be almost a duplicate of what I built. A large plastic diffuser connected to the threads of the lens plus a cover to keep light in it. The cover looks to do a lot better job of directing the light where it is needed though.

Also, it appears that AK Diffuser has a really good model with a similar concept. Both of those really make good photography a lot easier than anything before them.

Posted on August 20, 2022 04:55 PM by glmory glmory

Comments

I just got an AK Diffuser. Not sure how I feel about image quality (still need to do more testing) but I like the ergonomics and the built-in light. Zamir is also really nice.

Some photos I've taken with it, on my Nikon Z6 with the Nikkor 105 f/2.8 Z macro lens:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131540446
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131540444
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130869515
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130869505
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129511443
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129511445

I think it works pretty well for really small organisms that you can get close to. For larger things that you can't get too near (eg the rattlesnake), I don't think it's wide enough.

I'm going to experiment with adding more diffusion layers (like foam or paper towel) to it.

Posted by tiwane over 1 year ago

Yeah, flash diffusers for a Rattkesnake need to be huge.

Because it allows me to add a scale bar, I do most my photography at 1:1 magnification. So I pretty much photograph with the flash at that scale than don’t use a flash for photos further out.

Posted by glmory over 1 year ago

You can see in your rattlesnake photo one thing I dislike about this style of flash diffuser. You can see the shape of the flash in the eye of the snake. A square flash or a round flash would look better in this scenario.

It is a reasonable trade off for really good diffusion though.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129511445

Posted by glmory over 1 year ago

You can also see in that snake eye that the diffuser is very evenly dividing light along its surface. Don’t expect more diffusion layers would improve it much. Probably needs to simply be larger at that distance.

Posted by glmory over 1 year ago

Yeah, I think it does come down to size. And I hate carrying a big piece of equipment.

FWIW these rattlesnake photos were taken with an 8"x8" diffuser on my flash: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13396767

Posted by tiwane over 1 year ago

As much as I love the lens mounted flashes that go around the subject for 1:1 macro, the 8"x8" diffuser was the right flash for that rattlesnake. Might also be the way to go with spiders where you see the same reflections in their eyes although probably only I am picky enough to notice that.

If I was more of a reptile person would definitely think of carrying a big square or round one instead. Looks less funny as well, although the larger the better so I suppose at some point it stands out just as much.

Posted by glmory over 1 year ago

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