Anyone used the ring flash attatchments?

scottduffy

scottduffy

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Hi Guys,

I was thinking of buying one of the ring flash attatchments that fit onto a hotshoe flash and was wondering if anyone has used these and what your experiences have been. I have a canon 430 ex mk2 mounted on a 450d and my usual pictures are portrait and marco stuff. I have heard these ring flash attatchments are good for macro and also that they reduce shadows on portrait shots. All advice welcome including the best one to purchase and prices if possible.
 
not sure about macro as these are mounted behind the end of the lens, where as you want macro lighting right at the end of the lens.
 
I've an original Rayflash adapter on my 580ex. Seems to work OK for portraits but I haven't tried it for macro yet. I also like to use it off camera as the ringflash makes the light a bit softer than direct flash (a bit like a beauty dish I feel). They eat more than a stop of light though, which can be a problem. Not as sturdy as I had imagined either. Got mine second hand but they often come up on eBay, sometimes from the UK importer.
 
33L,

never thought about that. I expect they are better suited to portrait photography then.
 
Moved to Talk Lighting :)
 
I made my own based on several DIY designs on the discussion threads at Strobist.

Total cost approx 20UKP with the paint being the most expensive items.

It is basically a 99p Wilkinson's 12" diameter plastic salad bowl with the interior spray painted white and the exterior sprayed black; a hole at the base for the lens; and a hole in the side near the front edge for the head of my Canon 540 flash.

There is an inner made from two plastic tumblers glued over the lens hole, inside sprayed black, outside sprayed white.

Between this inner and the salad bowl, I attached diffusion material layered in thickness 3-2-1 moving away from the flash to try and even out the intensity of the light.

I used plastic because I haven't the tools or skills to cut metal and it is lighter.

I attached a meccano-like frame (various bits from the local DIY store screwed together) to the bowl to firmly seat the flash and provide a hand hold so I can hold the ringflash with one hand and my camera in the other.

I fire the flash with an ebay poverty wireless trigger.

I use my 50mm 1.8 prime lens as I'm shooting close to the model and there is no way I could use the zoom on a zoom lens with it stuck in the ringflash.

I shoot on ISO200 and usually set the flash to 1/64 power and shoot around f3.2. Saves battery power and blurs out the background nicely.

The circular white "vignette" :-) that intrudes on some of the pictures is totally accidental and due to the "play", because the camera and ringflash are not on one mount, between the lens and the inner of the ringflash but I think it sometimes adds a nice "feel".

I've put some examples in my gallery.

Paul
 
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