Barndoors

Hi all,

This is another project inspired on the snooting article by Keri.

I'm doing a lot of close up wide angle shooting in low viz, darkish water. Usually I use the edge lighting technique as described by Martin Edge, i.e. pulling the strobes way back and pointing them outwards. I made these barndoors so I can point both strobes towards the subject and control the beam angle -- hopefully eliminating hotspots and backscatter.

I made two sets of barndoors. One for the Sea&Sea YS350 and one for the Sea&Sea YS90. Commercially available barndoors were too large and didn't look as if they would last long in salt water. I used sheet aluminium, brass strip, some standard plumbing stuff, a rivet gun and stainless steel nuts, bolts and springs. Here is how it looks:

Some remarks:

always protect your eyes when working with sheet metal (hey, we're photographers...)

I cut the sheet metal with a razor saw. Round all corners with a file and sand the edges with coarse sandpaper

The mount for the YS90 is a PVC adapter ring from the plumbing department. 8 cm diameter

I didn't have to make a mount for the YS350 barndoors. I can stick them on the big rubber ring that is on the flash. 12 cm diameter.

I will give them a try this Wednesday,

(fingers crossed),

--Rob

Nice job, impressive bit of work. Looking forward to seeing the shots.

Damn, I thought I had done a lot of work just to cut up an old wetsuit. Very impressive Rob. I'm wondering a couple of things, will the doors stay put in a mild current? Is there a way to torque them down so they stay were you want them? I'm fascinated by your approach. Be sure and let us know how it works out.

Steve

I had done a lot of work just to cut up an old wetsuit.

Don't know how I missed that post. Two words - duct tape. Shots looked great there. The duck is the ultimate model.

Great job!

Can't wait to see how is the effect it is......very fine job

thank you gentlemen, for your encouraging comments.

I took the barndoors into the water yesterday, and here is what I learned:

they cause an awful lot of drag when swimming in waters with even a wee bit of current.

the YS 350 barndoors need a better solution to get them to stay on the flash. They were wobbly and fell off twice. I will probably rivet an aluminium ring to the back. The YS 90 barndoors were no problem at all.

I need to increase the tension on the springs/screws to make sure that the doors stay put. In thin air they were fine, in the water they were all over the place. Maybe a rivet on one side and the spring/bolt on the other will do the trick.

The good thing is that the seem to have an effect. See the attached photo. This was taken in poor visibility (about 2 metres) caused by a cloud of silt where the animals were (this is the yearly cuttlefish frenzy that attracts hundreds of divers to this site). However, with the barndoors attached I was able to point both flashguns inwards and towards the animals. The photo is uncropped and unedited; there is some backscatter in the left corner but no hotspots and I should be able to remove the dust particles with ease.

I think I need to solve the remaining issues with my barndoors and get more practice. Can't wait to try this with macro.

Best regards,

--Rob

Very interesting project, how did the UW barndoors evolve futher? Did you sort out the practical issues?

Cheers/O

Yes, how is this project? I'm very curious too...