Own made pop-up flash diffuser!

[EchoingWhisper]

Materials: An eraser (preferably one that is rough and hard), 2 paper clips (preferably a strong a thick one), tissue papers and cellophane tape (yellowish ones).

Step one: Straighten the paper clips.
Step two: Poke both of the paper clips into the eraser, side by side.
Step three: Open the tissue paper and cut it two half.
Step four: Fold it to a reasonable size (at least 1 time larger than your pop up flash).
Step five: Tape it with cellophane tape is keep it strong. The more cellophane tape you tape on it, the more suitable it will be for tungsten light, but don't put too much because it'll turn greenish. I suggest those transparent tape though, they're much better without those odd colo
Step six: Fold the paper clips and place the tissue paper in a way that the paper clips will be clipping the paper to prevent it from falling.
Step seven: Place the eraser above the pop-up flash and you could start using! If you wanna go more crazy over the light, you could actually place gels in front of the tissue paper.

Sorry for the image quality!






I just found out kitchen paper works better, cause' it doesn't need any cello tape to stay on the the clip - so there is no color tint.

 

[Edsport]

Cut a slit in a table tennis ball and place it over your flash...

 

[sm4him]

I use a piece of a plastic milk jug, cut out and then shaped to my camera's flash--stick it on with a little clay on the bottom and voila! It's worked really well.

 

[EchoingWhisper]

I use a piece of a plastic milk jug, cut out and then shaped to my camera's flash--stick it on with a little clay on the bottom and voila! It's worked really well.

I've heard of the transparent film rolls too. But I don't shoot film. :/

 

[sm4him]

I use a piece of a plastic milk jug, cut out and then shaped to my camera's flash--stick it on with a little clay on the bottom and voila! It's worked really well.

I've heard of the transparent film rolls too. But I don't shoot film. :/

Yeah, I actually DO have a few rolls of film, and I'd heard that too. But I tried one, and didn't like the result nearly as well as my milk jug diffuser.

 

[Big Mike]

What are you hoping to get from that? You're not making the light any softer, if anything, you're just spreading the light out and making the flash work much harder than it needs to (also severely limiting it's already limited range.).

 

[EchoingWhisper]

What are you hoping to get from that? You're not making the light any softer, if anything, you're just spreading the light out and making the flash work much harder than it needs to (also severely limiting it's already limited range.).

It's softer, by just a little bit. I tried evening out the exposure of my subject in Lightroom, and the one with the tissue paper is softer, by a little bit, but I get more than 1 stop darker exposure (in a fully dark room). I've tried the one with the kitchen paper, it doesn't seem to lose as much light, and looks nicer than the naked pop up flash. I didn't do a real comparison in Lightroom for the kitchen paper though.

 

[Big Mike]

But the flash is probably working in TTL (auto) mode, isn't it? So if your exposure is different, it's probably because you're blocking so much light, the flash doesn't have enough power for a proper exposure.

When using something like this, you shouldn't really be comparing the brightness/exposure. What you should be looking at, is the quality of the light. Usually, the thing we can do to improve the quality of light, is to soften it, and you can only do that by making it bigger and/or moving it closer to the subject. Simply covering it with diffuse material doesn't really soften it (besides the very slight difference in size).

Now, if your contraction spreads the light out, and there are surfaces close enough for the light to bounce off of, you can get a wrapping effect (similar to what the Fong Dong does). But you need to have those surfaces close enough to be useful...and the more light you block, the harder it's going to be to bounce the light.

If you really want to improve the quality of light from the pop-up flash, find a way to bounce it off the wall or ceiling, or a way to increase the size of it (relative to the subject).

 

[EchoingWhisper]

But the flash is probably working in TTL (auto) mode, isn't it? So if your exposure is different, it's probably because you're blocking so much light, the flash doesn't have enough power for a proper exposure.

When using something like this, you shouldn't really be comparing the brightness/exposure. What you should be looking at, is the quality of the light. Usually, the thing we can do to improve the quality of light, is to soften it, and you can only do that by making it bigger and/or moving it closer to the subject. Simply covering it with diffuse material doesn't really soften it (besides the very slight difference in size).

Now, if your contraction spreads the light out, and there are surfaces close enough for the light to bounce off of, you can get a wrapping effect (similar to what the Fong Dong does). But you need to have those surfaces close enough to be useful...and the more light you block, the harder it's going to be to bounce the light.

If you really want to improve the quality of light from the pop-up flash, find a way to bounce it off the wall or ceiling, or a way to increase the size of it (relative to the subject).

Which means I have to decrease the size of my subject? Yes, it is in TTL mode, but I could get around it by shooting manually or changing the exposure compensation/flash compensation.

 

[fsquare]

buy a $50 flash

 

[o hey tyler]

But the flash is probably working in TTL (auto) mode, isn't it? So if your exposure is different, it's probably because you're blocking so much light, the flash doesn't have enough power for a proper exposure.

When using something like this, you shouldn't really be comparing the brightness/exposure. What you should be looking at, is the quality of the light. Usually, the thing we can do to improve the quality of light, is to soften it, and you can only do that by making it bigger and/or moving it closer to the subject. Simply covering it with diffuse material doesn't really soften it (besides the very slight difference in size).

Now, if your contraction spreads the light out, and there are surfaces close enough for the light to bounce off of, you can get a wrapping effect (similar to what the Fong Dong does). But you need to have those surfaces close enough to be useful...and the more light you block, the harder it's going to be to bounce the light.

If you really want to improve the quality of light from the pop-up flash, find a way to bounce it off the wall or ceiling, or a way to increase the size of it (relative to the subject).

Which means I have to decrease the size of my subject? Yes, it is in TTL mode, but I could get around it by shooting manually or changing the exposure compensation/flash compensation.

When I made a business card flash diffuser for my old T1i, I had to generally shoot on ISO 400 and @ 50mm or greater. You should give this simple setup a try and compare the light intensity, and quality of light to see which would work better.

I feel like your diffuser may be eating up too much of the flash...

Here's a quick photo I threw together around Christmas time for a friend:

 

[paigew]

@tyler what would this do? Provide the extra light of the flash without it being so direct on the subject?

 

[o hey tyler]

@tyler what would this do? Provide the extra light of the flash without it being so direct on the subject?

Basically, if your indoors and your ceilings are of average height, this will work as a diffuser/bounce card. It redirects some of the light so that there aren't those harsh pop-up flash shadows that you'd expect from pop up.

 

[EchoingWhisper]

But the flash is probably working in TTL (auto) mode, isn't it? So if your exposure is different, it's probably because you're blocking so much light, the flash doesn't have enough power for a proper exposure.

When using something like this, you shouldn't really be comparing the brightness/exposure. What you should be looking at, is the quality of the light. Usually, the thing we can do to improve the quality of light, is to soften it, and you can only do that by making it bigger and/or moving it closer to the subject. Simply covering it with diffuse material doesn't really soften it (besides the very slight difference in size).

Now, if your contraction spreads the light out, and there are surfaces close enough for the light to bounce off of, you can get a wrapping effect (similar to what the Fong Dong does). But you need to have those surfaces close enough to be useful...and the more light you block, the harder it's going to be to bounce the light.

If you really want to improve the quality of light from the pop-up flash, find a way to bounce it off the wall or ceiling, or a way to increase the size of it (relative to the subject).

Which means I have to decrease the size of my subject? Yes, it is in TTL mode, but I could get around it by shooting manually or changing the exposure compensation/flash compensation.

When I made a business card flash diffuser for my old T1i, I had to generally shoot on ISO 400 and @ 50mm or greater. You should give this simple setup a try and compare the light intensity, and quality of light to see which would work better.

I feel like your diffuser may be eating up too much of the flash...

Here's a quick photo I threw together around Christmas time for a friend:

I tried this, and it worked well! Now I have two options, outdoors/high ceiling - my own diffuser, low ceiling - your idea!