Hey Guys,
I'm always posting asking questions so I've been wanting to post something that maybe useful to others without asking any questions, and I've finally got something worth sharing. Before I continue, I just want to point out that I am an amature so to all of the pro's out there with super-good equipment I apologise in advance for the crudeness of my solution; but I'm quite pleased with the results so I wanted to share.
Here's my home-made lighting solution for my macro attempts, using the built-in flash of my Canon 1000D:
Fitted to the camera:
Positioned for use:
As I've mentioned I'm a beginner and am not taking good enough shots to warrant me spending big bucks on any equipment just yet as I'm still learning. I bought a set of secondhand extension tubes a while back and have been slowly picking up macro and decided that I needed more light as I could never shoot at aperature that gave me enough DOF. As I only have the standard 18-55 kit lens, my lens is practically touching my subjects when I'm really close up, so I didn't think that a ring flash would work for me so I got thinking about how I could fudge my way to a solution.
I bought a metre of 80mm Aluminium flexible ducting from ebay for just over 3 quid (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170641360727), trimmed it down slightly and sewed on 2 lengths of shoe lace to allow me to attach (ie. tie) it on to my camera. I also sewed 2 little areas where I trimmed the tube to make sure that it didn't continue to tear where I'd trimmed it.
Once the shoe laces or string are attached, the ducting hooks under the bottom molding of the built-in flash and the lace can be pulled down and looped under the camera base and over around the base of the lens or extension tubes and tied together; this should hold ond the ducting quite well and allow you to direct the end of the tube onto your subject with your spare hand.
Then you're done, ready to shoot. I've found that the best set up is setting the flash to +2 exposure and exposing the shots correctly by shooting at around 1/200 and f/14 or so. It's the only way that I've been able to shoot macro without any super-expensive equipment, handheld and at a slow enough aperature to get me more than a fraction of a mm depth of field. I've also found that directing the light from above onto my subject works quite nicely; it takes a bit of tinkering as you get drastically different results if the ducting isn't positioned perfectly.
I was quite happy with the shots that I got this morning, although I did get more than a few strange looks walking around the park with a big springy silver thing hanging off the top of my camera. Here are a few shots that I got by using my gizmo:
Any comments ar criticism is more than welcome = I have a lot left to learn; and if I've not explained anything well enough let me know and I'll explain further.
Hope someone else finds it of some interest,
thanks,
Jay.
I'm always posting asking questions so I've been wanting to post something that maybe useful to others without asking any questions, and I've finally got something worth sharing. Before I continue, I just want to point out that I am an amature so to all of the pro's out there with super-good equipment I apologise in advance for the crudeness of my solution; but I'm quite pleased with the results so I wanted to share.
Here's my home-made lighting solution for my macro attempts, using the built-in flash of my Canon 1000D:
Fitted to the camera:
Positioned for use:
As I've mentioned I'm a beginner and am not taking good enough shots to warrant me spending big bucks on any equipment just yet as I'm still learning. I bought a set of secondhand extension tubes a while back and have been slowly picking up macro and decided that I needed more light as I could never shoot at aperature that gave me enough DOF. As I only have the standard 18-55 kit lens, my lens is practically touching my subjects when I'm really close up, so I didn't think that a ring flash would work for me so I got thinking about how I could fudge my way to a solution.
I bought a metre of 80mm Aluminium flexible ducting from ebay for just over 3 quid (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170641360727), trimmed it down slightly and sewed on 2 lengths of shoe lace to allow me to attach (ie. tie) it on to my camera. I also sewed 2 little areas where I trimmed the tube to make sure that it didn't continue to tear where I'd trimmed it.
Once the shoe laces or string are attached, the ducting hooks under the bottom molding of the built-in flash and the lace can be pulled down and looped under the camera base and over around the base of the lens or extension tubes and tied together; this should hold ond the ducting quite well and allow you to direct the end of the tube onto your subject with your spare hand.
Then you're done, ready to shoot. I've found that the best set up is setting the flash to +2 exposure and exposing the shots correctly by shooting at around 1/200 and f/14 or so. It's the only way that I've been able to shoot macro without any super-expensive equipment, handheld and at a slow enough aperature to get me more than a fraction of a mm depth of field. I've also found that directing the light from above onto my subject works quite nicely; it takes a bit of tinkering as you get drastically different results if the ducting isn't positioned perfectly.
I was quite happy with the shots that I got this morning, although I did get more than a few strange looks walking around the park with a big springy silver thing hanging off the top of my camera. Here are a few shots that I got by using my gizmo:
Any comments ar criticism is more than welcome = I have a lot left to learn; and if I've not explained anything well enough let me know and I'll explain further.
Hope someone else finds it of some interest,
thanks,
Jay.
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Brilliant. And like all great ideas so simple you wonder why nobody else thought of it. Might be worth having a word with some manufacturer though, you could be onto something
