Is the Vivitar 285 28mm Diffuser Any Good as a General Diffuser?

s162216

s162216

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Samuel
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Hi,

I have a Vivitar 285 flash and the 28mm wideangle diffuser, I just want to know whether this will diffuse the light enough that it does not look harsh or flat when I am using a 55mm lens indoors for some informal pictures? I suppose I could also put the zoom head on 'wide' and use the diffuser.

If not then I guess I will have to make one out of some foam or translucent plastic like from a milk bottle.
 
The thing about small diffusers like that is that while they might make the light less directional, and allow the light to cover a larger area of your subject, they won't really change the size of the light source (unless they are some distance from the flash). Thus they are of limited use for softening light and are more useful just to ensure that the flash has sufficient coverage for your chosen focal length.

Is there a white ceiling? Bounce flash will make a massive difference.

Near Bedford? Where abouts? :)
 
I ended up putting the zoom head in the 'wide' position, putting the 28mm diffuser on and putting a section of thin flexible foam plastic stuff over it to soften it a bit.

I am leaving school/6th form on Friday and was taking some pictures of some of my Physics class mates and also took a class shot today. Unfortunately my school has the typical 1970's speckled 'once dull white now dirty grey' ceiling tiles with silver metal strips holding them up so I ruled out bounce flash as that was what I originally planned to use.:shake:

I am currently shooting Fuji Sensia 400 slide film so I will just have to see how they are. I will be taking some similar pictures on Friday but I may double, triple or even quadruple the amount of foam to soften it a bit more. Or better still I suppose I could try some milk bottle plastic as I have heard that that is meant to be quite effective. About how much would this decrease the flash range BTW as in the wide position with the diffuser apparently on the yellow auto setting it will work properly up to 10m about.

Here are 2 shots of the flash how I currently have it configured with the foam. (Sorry about the somewhat rubbish white balance, my sony compact is good but it produces images leaning towards the red and the flash WB sometimes is not as good as it could be)





I live about 5 miles away from Bedford inbetween the villages of Marston Mortaine and Wootton, in a little one road village called Lower Shelton, its a nice fairly quite but not too quite place. The pub at the top of the road is also a great 'rest point' when me and my dad go for our nightly walk:lol:
 
Bedsheet or pillow case in front will do a better job than that tbh.

All that's doing is sucking power, not really diffusing it. Making the light source appear bigger, by putting a big bit of diffusing material in front of it and shooting through it would be much better. A cheap white pillowcase and a couple of wire coathangers and you can cobble together a DIY diffuser.
 
JasonRS said:
Bedsheet or pillow case in front will do a better job than that tbh.

All that's doing is sucking power, not really diffusing it. Making the light source appear bigger, by putting a big bit of diffusing material in front of it and shooting through it would be much better. A cheap white pillowcase and a couple of wire coathangers and you can cobble together a DIY diffuser.
Click to expand...

Do you mean literally right in front of the flash like I have the foam or in front of it by a few cm's?

I mostly shoot landscapes and macro but at some point I'll get an Omni-Bounce, their only about £16 or so.
 
What about the milk bottle/white box idea? Several places that I have seen have said this can work well, basically point the flash vertically up, and put the end of a milk bottle/white box over it.

Examples: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1025&message=24396896

Sheet/pillow case idea sounds good but I need to actually transport this so its a bit impractiable for me.
 
Softlight will only come from a large light-source. Theoretically this could be a bare huge discharge-arch. Even a large softbox will become specular/harsh if moved further away from your target. However, diffused light will help somewhat, as it will bounce off the floor and other surfaces and fill in the shadows.

s162216 said:
What about the milk bottle/white box idea? Several places that I have seen have said this can work well, basically point the flash vertically up, and put the end of a milk bottle/white box over it.
Click to expand...
It will make the light source a bit larger, some of it will diffuse to the front and most will bounce off the ceiling.
 
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