Modded flash set up and couple of test shots

Lord Vetinari

Just modded my macro rig to give me a bit of flexibility on flash positioning.
My old rig is shown here.


I've drilled a hole through the top flash bracket on the vidcam flash bracket (still leaving the bracket in working condition) and fitted a small tripod ball head to it and then fixed the off camera flash cord end to this. This enables me to position the flash in several ways, but the most interesting seems to be just above the lens.





Couple of test pics with the flash in this position.






Brian V.

Rohirrim

Awesome shots! clap and thank you for sharing the infor on your flash rig.

Regards,

Phil U.

ah, very cool. I like the look of the light - the angle really helps to show off the textures. great shots!

photodoug

Phil U. wrote:

ah, very cool. I like the look of the light - the angle really helps to show off the textures. great shots!

flies...why so many flies??!!! (making a joke!). nice hardware work...keep things like this coming. I found your work to be very interesting and right on. thanks!

Red Bull

So what flash and lens is that? I like the setup.

Lord Vetinari

Rohirrim wrote:

Awesome shots! clap and thank you for sharing the infor on your flash rig.
Regards,

Thanks Rohirrim
Brian V.

Phil U. wrote:

ah, very cool. I like the look of the light - the angle really helps to show off the textures. great shots!

Thanks Phil U- will have to see how other pics work out.
Brian V.

photodoug wrote:

flies...why so many flies??!!! (making a joke!). nice hardware work...keep things like this coming. I found your work to be very interesting and right on. thanks!

Thanks photodoug
Brian V.

Red Bull wrote:

So what flash and lens is that? I like the setup.

It's a sigma 105mm EX macro lens and a sigma 500 super DG flash with the wide angle dispersion element deployed and an obviously homemade light box fitted to the end. I shoot in manual mode normally 1/200th F16 with the flash in ETTL mode.

Brian V.

BigAl

That close-up of the bee's head is awesome (I assume it's a bee from the pollen).

I'd really appreciate it if you could you show some pics of your softbox attachment to see it in more detail (ie from the front and back and how you fitted it to the flash).

regards
alan

Lord Vetinari

BigAl wrote:

That close-up of the bee's head is awesome (I assume it's a bee from the pollen).


I'd really appreciate it if you could you show some pics of your softbox attachment to see it in more detail (ie from the front and back and how you fitted it to the flash).

regards
alan

Thanks Alan
The last pic is actually a hoverfly

Here's some pics of the diffuser- feel ashamed to post them really, but suppose it does work.
Made from cutting the main section out of a 2LTr milk container (thin diffuse plastic) lot of duct tape and aluminium foil lining the inside sides. Couple of strips of velcro sticky fastener on the edge that slips over the flash (no fastener on the flash)- this just helps it friction hold onto the flash. The last thing is a piece of kitchen paper towel over the milk carton face (the pattern makes all the difference! ). I also deploy the wide angle diffuser built into the flash head.
Hope that helps
Brian V.

BigAl

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Thanks Alan
The last pic is actually a hoverfly

Here's some pics of the diffuser- feel ashamed to post them really, but suppose it does work.
Made from cutting the main section out of a 2LTr milk container (thin diffuse plastic) lot of duct tape and aluminium foil lining the inside sides. Couple of strips of velcro sticky fastener on the edge that slips over the flash (no fastener on the flash)- this just helps it friction hold onto the flash. The last thing is a piece of kitchen paper towel over the milk carton face (the pattern makes all the difference! ). I also deploy the wide angle diffuser built into the flash head.
Hope that helps
Brian V.

Thanks Brian - this certainly gives Heath Robinson a new meaning . Be careful Shay Stephens may pinch it for his ShayTech designs.

Once certainly can't argue with the results you're getting with it. I'll definitely look into building something on these lines once I get my off-camera flash cable. Do you have the 300 firmware hack to allow FEC, or are you getting enough light as is?

regards
alan
ps: After seeing your stuff, I'll bet it's a hoverfly that I had on my day lily!

Lord Vetinari

BigAl wrote:

Thanks Brian - this certainly gives Heath Robinson a new meaning . Be careful Shay Stephens may pinch it for his ShayTech designs.

Once certainly can't argue with the results you're getting with it. I'll definitely look into building something on these lines once I get my off-camera flash cable. Do you have the 300 firmview hack to allow FEC, or are you getting enough light as is?

regards
alan
ps: After seeing your stuff, I'll bet it's a hoverfly that I had on my day lily!

Think you are right , it is a hoverfly!
No hack on the camera, can set FEC on the flash if I need to, but most of the time recently it's been set at +0. I do shoot RAW so it gives me some latitude on exposure.
ps I do change the kitchen towel on the front every now and then.
Brian V.

4labs

Brian as always great shots and thnxs for sharing your set up with us. If you could remember one day I would apreciate it if you could show me a shot without the flash and with the flash so I can see how much the flash helps out the shot. Thnxs in advance..

Lord Vetinari

4labs wrote:

Brian as always great shots and thnxs for sharing your set up with us. If you could remember one day I would apreciate it if you could show me a shot without the flash and with the flash so I can see how much the flash helps out the shot. Thnxs in advance..

Thanks, here's some shots of a damsel fly I did a while ago, these are not at 1:1 and the differences get much bigger as you get near to 1:1 (I still have not managed a decent non-flash shot at 1:1 handheld (the aperture tends to end up wide open with just about zero DOF).Have to admit I have not explored changing the ISO too much as I had problems with grainyness on crops at ISO200 so I tend to leave it at 100. I'll leave you to work out which are the flash shots. I actually did these to see if there were any colour differences.
BrianV.

4labs

Thnxs Brian for yoru quick response. It is clear why a flash helps these shots greatly..

TristanP

Lord Vetinari wrote:

I've drilled a hole through the top flash bracket on the vidcam flash bracket (still leaving the bracket in working condition) and fitted a small tripod ball head to it and then fixed the off camera flash cord end to this. This enables me to position the flash in several ways, but the most interesting seems to be just above the lens.

As usual, awesome pics. Thanks so much for the equipment shots, too. I have a couple questions. Where did you get that flash bracket? It looks similar to this one:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=131401&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

How is the ball head attached to the cold shoe? Nut/bolt? Also, what is that white circular piece on the back of the bracket?

I'm trying to rig up a way of attaching a x-small Photoflex softbox to a flash bracket on my F717 and you've given me some more ideas. Thanks!

Lord Vetinari

A. It's actually a generic light bracket for a video camera, so it is similar to the one at B&H. I originally modded it slightly by redrilling two of the holes holding the side mounted flash fixing so it pointed slightly downwards (you can see this in the pic).
Q. How is the ball head attached to the cold shoe? Nut/bolt?
A. Just a 1/4" bolt with some spring washers and some washers cut from butyl rubber sheet (I keep fish). This makes it rotatable but it holds it's position in use.

Q.what is that white circular piece on the back of the bracket?

A. It's my homemade shutter trigger (made from a mobile phone earpiece/microphone cable, a couple of switches from an old joystick and a round white plastic container originally holding ear protectors). I use this to fire the shutter as it helps stop camera rotation I sometimes got from the normal shutter release. As you can see I hate spending money when I can make something a lot cheaper- I also enjoy making them.

Hope this helps
Brian V.