Flash Diffuser

[loves_guitar]

Why don't you? So you can see for yourself if and how it works. Then you can tell us!
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, after all.
Of course a coffee filter is an expensive purchase....

Hey, sorry Fresh Prince. I literally was sitting in the doctors office at 5pm, read it in an article, and then was reading about flash diffusers on here at 9pm! I just thought I'd throw in my two cents and see if anyone had heard of it before.
I don't have a flash aside from my on-camera flash (D70s), but I will try in the coming days.

Say hi to Uncle Phil for me.

/j

 

[W.Smith]

Hey, sorry Fresh Prince. I literally was sitting in the doctors office at 5pm, read it in an article, and then was reading about flash diffusers on here at 9pm! I just thought I'd throw in my two cents and see if anyone had heard of it before.
I don't have a flash aside from my on-camera flash (D70s), but I will try in the coming days.

An on-camera flash through a coffee filter? We can't wait of course.

Say hi to Uncle Phil for me.

Phil is now on his island in the Caribean. I'm handling the garbage and the numbers businesses now.
Oh, BTW, Vinnie and Baby Face are coming to see you about business this week. Be nice.
:greenpbl:

 

[loves_guitar]

Well, after much demand, here are the examples of using a coffee filter as a diffuser.

Regular flash:

Flash with both layers of the coffee filter:

Flash through just one side of the coffee filter:

So, after trying, I think that magazine was full of coffee grinds!
Unless someone thinks I didn't do it probably.

Let me know.

/j

 

[markc]

Well, like I was saying, it's not going to do much more than just reduce light output. You need to enlarge the light source. Mike's attachment will do this somewhat, because the area the light is bouncing off is larger than the face of the flash. You can do that with shoot-through material also, but it can't be right up against the face of the flash. You need space so that the light can spread out and light up the whole diffuser, which then becomes a larger, if dimmer, light source. I'm guessing the filter was pretty close to the flash. Try it with a single filter closer to the subject and see if there is a difference. There may not be. I'm not sure how a coffee filter will behave.

 

[W.Smith]

Well, after much demand, here are the examples of using a coffee filter as a diffuser.

Regular flash:
Flash with both layers of the coffee filter: [IMG]
Flash through just one side of the coffee filter:[IMG]

So, after trying, I think that magazine was full of coffee grinds!
Unless someone thinks I didn't do it probably.[/QUOTE]
(properly'?)

Thanks for going to the trouble, lg. Appreciate it. One more urban legend deflated.
Hey! There's an idea! Why don't we have an 'Urban Legends' section? You could stick stuff like lg's experiment there and point newbies with their repetitive questions to the section.
Might save a lot of time all around.
I'm sure all of you have candidate thread subjects for this, don't you?

 

[fmw]

Again, Marc is right. Diffusion doesn't create soft lighting. Making the light source larger relative to the subject is what does that. If you could have bounced it off the filter, you would have had some results. It wouldn't have been very efficient. There are better things to bounce it from.

That's why portrait photographers use umbrellas and soft boxes. They enlarge the light source and soften shadows.

 

[W.Smith]

Again, Marc is right. Diffusion doesn't create soft lighting. Making the light source larger relative to the subject is what does that. If you could have bounced it off the filter, you would have had some results. It wouldn't have been very efficient. There are better things to bounce it from.

That's why portrait photographers use umbrellas and soft boxes. They enlarge the light source and soften shadows.

Home-made reflectors do an excellent job as diffusers for a main light.

Just wrinkle alu foil (wrinkle it good! You want thousands of itsy-bitsy 'mirrors'), then stretch carefully and spray-glue (the matt side!) flat onto a piece of foam board. The shiny side of the alu foil must of course be visible, because that is the most reflective side. Iron it (if the foam can handle the heat; you can use other materials for that board too of course) to make extra flat. And hey presto! you got a reflector you can use to diffuse a main (flash) light, or to open up shadows (place opposite the main light just outside the FoV).

OR you can spend a hundred bucks on one of those snazzy collapsible reflectors, of course.