Is a ring flash worth it for macros?

Andyman

That's my question. I've never had a chance to try one or have seen many people talk about them. How useful/profitable are they if you are doing macro shots?

wxwax

Andyman wrote:

That's my question. I've never had a chance to try one or have seen many people talk about them. How useful/profitable are they if you are doing macro shots?

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=14448

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=37029&page=2

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=17138

http://www.google.com/search?q=ring+flash+macro+site%3Awww.dgrin.com&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

Andyman

Thanks. I conclude that I don't need one right now.

wxwax

Andyman wrote:

Thanks. I conclude that I don't need one right now.

You have a way of getting your flash off the camera?

pathfinder

Andyman wrote:

Thanks. I conclude that I don't need one right now.

Depends on what kind of macro subjects you are shooting, as I said in several of those posts that were linked.

The Canon ringflash is made to fit on the 100mm macro, and when used near 1:1, is capable of giving directional lighting to a certain degree. But nowhere near as directional as a flash removed and placed 90 degrees to the subject. The ring flashes' forte is coins, stamps, other subjects shot near 1:1.

I have been playing with SunPak's FP38 Flat Panel flash triggered by a cord, a PW, or a built in camera flash, as it has on optical sensor built in the Flat Panel Flash. It requires shooting the camera in manual, but since the flash to subject distance does not change, the exposure values are easy to sort out, and then just shoot in manual. It gives a very nice soft light for macro subjects at a distance of 6 inches or so flash to subject, as the guide number is about 36.

It only costs about $75 from B&H. Kind of fun to play with, with a nice quality of light. This shot was lit with it with some additional diffusion.

Andyman

wxwax: Currently I have no equipment for off-camera flash. Of course the SB800 allows this in various ways, but not without buying some more stuff.

pathfinder: Yeah I read your and other's comments. I'd never really looked at ring (and flatpanel, etc) flashes and such before now. My needs don't really include very even and soft lighting for macros beyond what regular bounced flash can produce. I'm not a pro or anything anyway, so my "needs" generally consist of things I'd like to try. It'd be neat to try out other types of flashes sometime, but I'm going to keep it off my list for now. Thanks for the info about the SunPak model. I looked it up to check it out.

Also, Swallowtails are some of my favorite butterlies and I really like some of your shots of them.