On-Board Flash Diffuser

[Dr. Harout]

A do it yourself flash diffuser.
If you have a transparent (translucent ) film can, marker and a cutter, than this will cost you nothing.

1- Take the film can

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2- Take the dimensions of your on board flash (width and height), mention it with a marker on the film can and cut it sliding carefully.
Important notices: do not cut the edge of the can, begin from the inner side. And be careful not to harm yourself.

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3- Gently slide it on the onboard flash (you surely don't want to break it)

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Enjoy.

P.S.: You may want to shoot in RAW to fix a bit the temperature and tint.

BTW, all shots with a700 + 30/2.8 Macro + HVL-MT24AM

I would love to hear of your successes.

[mvanrheenen]

Great DIY solution, Doctor!

I tried using some thin paper and some shamefull origami skills to get some diffusion for the on-board flash of my a580. Suffice to say, it didn't really do the job

[Birma]

Great idea Doc and a very nicely illustrated set of instructions. Just not sure what these film canisters are that you're using .

[Dr. Harout]

Usually Fuji films were in such "translucent" cans.

[David Kilpatrick]

Excellent idea. Now maybe if the black cans turn out to be transparent to infra-red we also have a flash trigger!

Seriously - just wrap some unexposed, processed slide film inside the can and that will convert it to an IR trigger, but you still need a programmable or digital-savvy slave flash cell (or studio flash like the Elinchrom D-Lite 2/4 IT)

David

[pakodominguez]

Wow!
Where did you find the film can?


Enjoy!

[UrsaMajor]

Wow!
Where did you find the film can?

I think it is safe to assume that you are joking - especially since you work at Adorama.

However . . . if you actually want one of the Fuji film canisters for a project like this, I have some empties that I can spare, plus some that contain unexposed film and cannot spare - yet. I've found these to be handy storage containers for small items, and have been using them for that purpose for years.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Dr. Harout]

Wow!
Where did you find the film can?

I think it is safe to assume that you are joking - especially since you work at Adorama.

However . . . if you actually want one of the Fuji film canisters for a project like this, I have some empties that I can spare, plus some that contain unexposed film and cannot spare - yet. I've found these to be handy storage containers for small items, and have been using them for that purpose for years.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

And that's the way I found my film can.

[Mr_Alpha_2011]

coffee filter works well too

[pakodominguez]

Wow!
Where did you find the film can?

I think it is safe to assume that you are joking - especially since you work at Adorama.

However . . . if you actually want one of the Fuji film canisters for a project like this, I have some empties that I can spare, plus some that contain unexposed film and cannot spare - yet. I've found these to be handy storage containers for small items, and have been using them for that purpose for years.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

I start working in photolabs back in 1988, at that time we didn't know what to do with thousands of plastic film's cans... Now: try to find one! (AdoramaPix became 100% digital 5 years ago) I have my own collection of canisters, transparent and black, just in case one day I'll need them.

Back on subject, I always found that a diffuser on a flash is a "lazy" solution (but better than nothing) and I have a lot of respect for a guy like Gary Fong, specially his business model, but I'll never recommend one of his diffusers.

Regards.

[Dusty]

My 2 year old handed me one the other day. Of course, I'd been storing computer screws and small parts in all of them for years, so it was a bit to scratched and dirty to use. Maybe I can find one laying around unused. Mosly, it's the black ones that are unused, since I can't see contents from the outside, I didn't use them for storage.

Dusty

[bakubo]

I used to have so many Kodachrome metal film cans, grey plastic Kodak film cans, and translucent (correct usage of the term, I think ) plastic Fuji film cans, but a few years ago I finally threw most of them out. Can't keep carrying stuff around forever. I think I might still have a couple of the metal cans somewhere and a few of the plastic ones. Also, I still have some old unused Fuji and Kodak film in the freezer.