Macro flash info .or help

the black fox

the black fox

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Jeff
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hopefully I should be getting my repaired macro lens back from sigma this week ,I,m thinking of getting a cheap l.e.d ring flash off of e.bay for butterflies etc where it’s not going to be totall count the spiders hairs type shots . Are these l.e.d ones any good .i already have a canon speed light with a couple of diffuser attachments would I be better off with that instead
 
Personally I would go for the diffused speedlight, ring lights are fine for record images but the quality of light isn't great...

Saying that LED's are becoming more and more useful for close-up work and are certainly worth having a look at, I have been using a couple of small manfrotto panels with great success, the advantages, you can see what you are doing all the time, the light is already fairly diffused (you are working up close so the effective size of the light is increased) and they kick out little to no heat...
 
cheers Phil ,hmmm I already have a L.E.D panel with double intensity power switch ,and a old type long flash bracket to move the light source around ,will have to experiment a bit :ty:
 
I'd give the speedLight a go also before spending money.

I don't agree that ring flashes don't have good quality light. It depends on how you use them, and what sort of diffusers you use. My canon ringflash gives great results in a pretty compact set up.
 
just had a play using my one size fits all 28-135 canon w/a lens ,used a variety of targets and flash /diffused flash/and L.E.D block mounted on the flash gun extender arm this gave the best results light wise and is also moveable to alter shadows etc mess about shot for example .but probably try this when macro lens comes back. will probably go for one of ring flash l.e.d ones based on this as it will be more manoeuvrable in the field ,and I can mount my current l.e.d block on camera for extra light if needed as well.
its good to see that the colours are pretty true to life to ,hardly a pro set up but it will suffice for my needs

bored fruit by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr
 
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Have you thought about one of these?

fnC9Ywr.jpg


Not expensive
 
thats similar to what I have used in the picture above ,mines a godox thats been sat in the drawer for a few years .just looking on the bay of E and theres lots on there in various sizes for sub £30 some with around 200 lights to .so yep a bigger panel is on the shopping list
 
Have you looked at the stickies https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/show-us-your-macro-rig.132158/ on the macro section ? there is a section that talks about macro set-up and flashes/diffusers and some photos too.
Really all depends on you, some do get good results with a ring flash but again it depends on how you diffuse it but most people do prefer a normal flash and diffuser set-up.
 
DerekL said:
I bought one of these Yongnuo YN-14EX Macro Ring Flash. Not too expensive from Amazon About £82. Not had a great deal of use yet but was happy with what I got using it.
Only thing is it comes with limited rings so I had to buy some step up rings.
Click to expand...
I have got that and after about a year the door has a problem - this can be fixed using a screw
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/60209132

Which I did and now it works fine.
 
the black fox said:
just had a play using my one size fits all 28-135 canon w/a lens ,used a variety of targets and flash /diffused flash/and L.E.D block mounted on the flash gun extender arm this gave the best results light wise and is also moveable to alter shadows etc mess about shot for example .but probably try this when macro lens comes back. will probably go for one of ring flash l.e.d ones based on this as it will be more manoeuvrable in the field ,and I can mount my current l.e.d block on camera for extra light if needed as well.
its good to see that the colours are pretty true to life to ,hardly a pro set up but it will suffice for my needs

bored fruit by jeff and jan cohen, o
Click to expand...

That looks nice that setup would work well for butterflies just expose for the background and just enough flash to brighten the butterfly
 
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