Quick popup flash diffuser

[DzRbenson]

Im going to check this out, My mrs went to the local photo shop and got a few for free.

Any pics on how it actually looks on the camera

[matilda]

oh wow that is very clever.

now to get my hands on a film canister.

[Viper]

Im going to check this out, My mrs went to the local photo shop and got a few for free.

Any pics on how it actually looks on the camera

Checkout the first post with pics attached.

[DzRbenson]

my bad, Long day at work

Cheers, Was it just a straight cut you used?

[Viper]

my bad, Long day at work

Cheers, Was it just a straight cut you used?

Yep its Friday mate i understand

Just a pair scissors and cut till the bottom then bend the flap and cut that off.

Cheers Harry.....

[Seesee]

...Nikon people, they are the smartest ....good simple idea that looks eay to do and to place on, good stuff !

[smorter]

Hey guys it's a good idea but I think unfortunately you are wasting your time, batteries and risking damage to your flashes.

Light Diffusion is a function of light source size, and distance to subject. That's why HUGE soft boxes, Umbrellas and bouncing light off ceilings and walls are used to diffuse light

There is a very minor source of diffusion in that this half film canister enlarges the surface area of the flash by about 100-150%. Sounds large, but in absolute terms, it's still smaller than a Speedlight's head.

The other possible source of diffusion is that some of the light is bouncing back from the translucent film canister material, and that may lead to a Gary Fong/Stofen [bare bulb] like effect where it scatters light to the walls behind you and the ceilings on top of you, and the walls to the side of you, but given the low degree of translucency of the material, and the low GN/power of the on board flash, this effect would be marginal.

Other than that, you are just wasting your batteries as the flash will have to work harder to compensate for the light loss for having to fire through the film canister, and also your flash range will be dramatically cut, as is evident from the sample shots on the previous page

I guess you have to ask yourself, if putting these materials in front of the flash help, why couldn't Nikon and Canon just have included something like this with their cameras? Why do Canon and Nikon use a clear material in front of their flash tubes instead? I

t's because the translucency of the material does nothing for light diffusion, it just cuts power and range. On the bottom of Page 2, there is a "before and after" shot. There actually is no diffusion - in the after shot, the material is just blocking a lot of the light, and consequently less of the flash is hitting the subject, hence it is darker looking, and more saturated in colour (because more of the ambient light is visible as the flash is having a lesser impact)

Is this better than nothing? It's a good idea, I guess it's helpful for macro where range is not important, but scattering some of the light downwards is important, so I guess so, but for other applications probably not.