Homemade ring-flash

Took it in the water on the final dive today. Performed really well. Main impression was how easy it was to use. No fiddling with strobes. Just high quality light, shot after shot. Really easy to change between landscape and portrait orientations. Excellent for lighting in difficult to reach places.

I wouldn't want to use it for every macro dive - because ring flash light gets a bit boring after a while, but it works and it certainly has a place.

Alex

Looking very good Alex. I suppose that you are pretty limited with lighting whilst using the ring. meaning that you are only able to light the subject from the front. the lighting seems to be well balanced though and coming through the ring evenly. its funny as every thing i look at now i think " what could i use that for ". safe diving, happy drinking. Stew

Looks very nice Alex; are you taking orders? I have a name - Magic Flash.

Send my regards to the folks there with you particularly botso (bassim) and his lady Lisa.

Thanks guys.

Basim is down next week, Jeff. He's on week 2 - when I actually have everything figured out!

Here are some pictures of the ring-flash in the pool on Sunday. The one with me in, was taken by Julian Cohen.

Alex

Here are a few more. Having done a two more dives with the ring flash - I am pleased that it works reliably. But it does seem to cost quite a bit of light. Only over sand can I get up to F22! The main downside is that the style of lighting is very repetitive. Certainly wouldn't want to use it on all my dives.

Alex

The main downside is that the style of lighting is very repetitive. Certainly wouldn't want to use it on all my dives.

Yes, I'm bored already.

The stuff I like the most are the real close up shots with patterns, like #1 and #4 in the first series, the fish portraits just seem too flat

Here are some more images. This was my first dive using the ring flash with the 60mm AFS. Which is quite wide on the D700 (and since the firmware update it now focuses even faster).

Alex

I like the second image, possibly because the light falls off a little giving more depth.

I like the second image, possibly because the light falls off a little giving more depth.

same as that.

stew

Alex,

Here's a few shots from when I used your ring flash on my Canon 5D with Inon Strobes.

and this one... There's some serious backscatter problems on this one. Not quite sure if it was because of the ring flash lighting, but this guy was definitely stirring up the sand a lot!

I wanted to post this so you could see the lighting in the back of the throat. (But's it's a failed image in terms of quality).

It was fun to play with tupperware last week! The ring flash was an interesting idea, but I'm really excited about the other tupperware products you were using. I'm planning on making my own of those before the next trip!

Thanks again.

Here is one of me testing the ring-flash on the duck.

Alex

Alex, an absolutely fascinating thread, with some cracking results. The hair on your sensor/ lense is making me twitch though I think I'll be trying to make on when I get back next week and get my second flooded strobe repaired.

Tried the ring-flash in Lembeh today, where there are many more subjects suited to it. This was taken with D700 + Sigma 150mm + Canon 500D dioptre. F11 @ 1/10th. ISO 400.

Alex

i think this looks like the best so far. great colours Alex.

The hair on your sensor/ lense is making me twitch though

I looked three times, before I found what You were talking about

Nice shot's tought!

You will be all pleased to know that I cleaned my sensor when I was at home between the Cayman and Indo trips.

The self cleaning D700 vibrating sensor was useless against the hair!

Alex

Shot the ring flash again today. Not the most exciting subjects from the dive, but I felt that these two show two strengths of the system.

The first shows how the ring-flash seems to make some subjects glow from within.

The second shows how the ring-flash really helps get light into tight spaces.

Alex

http://digital-photography-school.com/ray-...g-flash-adapter

just saw this today .. similar sort of idea but for on land .. it would probably be a VERY easy device to produce for UW use.

Seems to me would probably sell well on the back of how usefull and good it would be .. especially if you could use it .. not use it .. on the same dive and imagine having use of ring flash or normal flash .. might come in v handy.

I have one of those, Giles. I got it hoping to adapt it for underwater. The problem with that particular device is that it only uses one strobe and absorbs enough to prevent it from working at f/16 and up with something like a Z240. I agree that the design is interesting though. Needs more diffusion too.

Slacking off work today and decided to build the Mk2. Same construction as Mk1, but with a few changes, which will hopefully improve the light transmission.

Main updates are bigger inlets into the ring diffuser for the strobes, white, rather than chromed/tin-foil reflectors (both chrome paint and tin-foil seems to loose their sheen with exposure to seawater and thus reduced light output), less opaque front window to the unit.

Here is a test shot with the Mk2:

Alex