Buit the first "diffusor" ( omni style ) ... oh boy

[PedroDuarte]

Ehhehe, ok, today i was bored so i decided to do a quick experiment. I thought about doing a stofen "omni" diffuser kind of ... diffuser ehehhe

Of course, since i think giving 25 Euros for a Stofen is a lot of money for the results, i tried something my self.

So, here goes the pictures of what i came up with. I'm doing 2 of these diffusers. A yellow one and a white one. The first to come to life was the yellow one, so, you will see a yellowish color cast






Basically, what i did was take a platic folder, with yellow "semi-opaque" material. Next, i glued some of that foam that comes with monitors, that protect the screens from scratches.

And that was it... The result was something like this.

With the "diffuser"


Without it:



I need your opinion ... my eyes are tricking me ... but i guess with the diffuser, apart the yellow cast, there's a little more "even light" ... or is that just me?

I did see slightly softer shadows when pointing the flash forward ... but i guess i need something better i did this in 10 minutes or so ...

[KevinBarrett]

I'd say there is very little advantage with that particular experiment, but don't let the DIY spirit cease to act upon you. The minimal light diffusion is not worth the putrid color cast, but what's worse is the material used--it is too opaque. Just from these pictures, and no EXIF data available, I can't imagine it stealing less than two stops of light.

[PedroDuarte]

Just some help ...

what kind of material do you think it's the best bet to make a bounce cap?

It should be opaque or semi-transparent?

I don't know what "level" of "opaqueness" i should use on this. I did a test with the material from a folder cover ( semi-transparent ) and, well, it turned out to be weird because, it's almost the same effect than without it ehehehe

[KevinBarrett]

Let's see, I'll cover my bases first and direct you to this wonderful site: strobist, where I learned everything I now know about lighting and light modifiers.

Next, you might try using the material from a gallon or half-gallon jug of milk or water. Covering the whole flash head is one option, as you have done here, or you may just make an extended bounce card out of the material. Plain white paper can make a good bounce card, or use card-stock for something sturdier and less light leakage.

There might be another member here who can better advise you--I kinda went straight to umbrellas after being dissatisfied with the Gary Fong Lightsphere (which is actually a very good product, except for the too-large-to-fit-in-a-camera-bag thing).

[PedroDuarte]

unfortunately, in Portugal, it's hard to get some of the best diffusers.

I did a bounce card yesterday. I did a big one that was bouncing too much light to the front, so i will do a smaller bounce card today or tomorrow.

Although, i feel that the diffuser ( Stofen style ) will have some good resulsts in some situations, like, where you don't have anything to bounce the light to... that's why i'm trying to find 1 or 2 good solutions.

[harvey]

unfortunately, in Portugal, it's hard to get some of the best diffusers.

Maybe you could try something like this as well.

Harvey