ver since becoming interested in photography, I was never a big fan of the camera flash, but now I am hooked. Up until last week, I had only captured a handful of photos I really liked using a flash because the lighting was almost always harsh and flat. Granted, I only had my built-in camera flash to work with, and that’s still all I have, but I never realized how much of a difference a flash diffuser can make until just last week.
Recently, I began to notice that a lot of macro and bug photographers whose work I enjoy use flashes, but their photos have smooth lighting, with rich colors and details. At first I thought this was because they have better cameras, lenses, and flashes (which they do), or because they are great editors (which they might be), but they also have something else in common – they use flash diffusers.
This discovery led me to research more about flash diffusion. There are a lot of inexpensive diffusers available, but many photographers simply make their own out of a wide range of materials. I decided to go the DIY route.
For the diffuser itself, I used a polystyrene take-out box lid. I also used aluminum foil, an empty peanut butter jar (lid removed), rubber bands, a twist-tie, and some tape to attach it to the camera. I based my design on several DIY diffusers I saw online that use foam board or cardboard and foil.
The peanut butter jar wrapped in foil is because I wanted to contain the light from the flash until it reached the diffuser. I wrapped the sides of jar with foil and left some excess on the top to wrap over the flash.
It’s attached with rubber bands and a twist-tie, and the to-go box wedged nicely between the jar and lens.
I used another sheet of aluminum foil to cover the gap between the end of the jar and the styrofoam.
It’s not very pretty or robust, but it was very easy to stick together.
And most impoprtantly, it was effective!
Here is a comparison I made with a cooperating mayfly. These were shot hand-held, and the images are cropped so it’s easier to see the differences.
Natural light only – the image is noisy and blurred because I had to compensate for a lack of light.
Flash with no diffuser – I could have been less shaky, but you can still see how harsh the lighting is, especially with the highlights on the wings.
Flash with diffuser – the image isn’t noisy because there is plenty of light, and the lighting looks very smooth because the light is spread out by the diffuser!
I am glad I spent the first two-and-a-half years of my photography life shooting with natural light because it has helped me understand composition, but if I had known that a flash diffuser would make such a big difference for macro photographs, I would have done this a long time ago! Part of the challenge of learning something yourself is not knowing what you can do next to make the biggest improvement.
5 Responses
Lynn
Amazing the difference in those last three photos…cool on you homemade diffuser! And those ants are crazy looking on that blade of grass too!!
Mark HortonAuthor
It is surprising how big the difference is.
Barb
I would never have known this! I makes a world of difference! Great!!! 🙂 Keep up the good work!
[…] year. I think the biggest step I made this year was beginning to use the camera flash with a homemade diffuser, which opened up many new macro opportunities because I no longer had to find naturally well-lit […]
Amazing the difference in those last three photos…cool on you homemade diffuser! And those ants are crazy looking on that blade of grass too!!
It is surprising how big the difference is.
I would never have known this! I makes a world of difference! Great!!! 🙂 Keep up the good work!
It really has opened up the possibilities.
[…] year. I think the biggest step I made this year was beginning to use the camera flash with a homemade diffuser, which opened up many new macro opportunities because I no longer had to find naturally well-lit […]