My simple flash diffuser that ANYONE can make.

[Keith]

I went out before daybreak yesterday for what I like to call a “bug safari” before getting to work cutting invasive Bradford pear trees on a prairie that Audubon is trying to re-wild.

After getting my boots, chaps and machete on I grabbed my camera, but had left its little fanny pack back at the studio which had the diffuser in it.
Rather than going back for it, my inner voice said, Newt, it’s time to improvise, so I started digging and found an old coat hanger that I had improvised with once before, then found a bubble wrap envelope that was the right width, that I cut to length with my pocket knife.

Here is how it looks on the camera, which is a Canon SX 50, with a Raynox M-150 macro clipped on the front under the diffuser.

And here is my favorite shot of the morning of a Polyphemus moth caterpillar on a small Winged Elm tree.

While I normally just have a single white sheet cut from a garbage bag, I think this may be better, in that the top white layer becomes a pre-diffuser with two clear bubble layers between the top & bottom white layer.

While I’m finding focus, I’m shining my headlamp and my hand-held light on the topside of the diffuser, so with the camera set to autofocus, it quickly finds focus.
I’ll break this down a little further next.

 

[Keith]

I went out before daybreak yesterday for what I like to call a “bug safari” before getting to work cutting invasive Bradford pear trees on a prairie that Audubon is trying to re-wild.

After getting my boots, chaps and machete on I grabbed my camera, but had left its little fanny pack back at the studio which had the diffuser in it.
Rather than going back for it, my inner voice said, Newt, it’s time to improvise, so I started digging and found an old coat hanger that I had improvised with once before, then found a bubble wrap envelope that was the right width, that I cut to length with my pocket knife.

Here is how it looks on the camera, which is a Canon SX 50, with a Raynox M-150 macro clipped on the front under the diffuser.
View attachment 179795
And here is my favorite shot of the morning of a Polyphemus moth caterpillar on a small Winged Elm tree.
View attachment 179794
While I normally just have a single white sheet cut from a garbage bag, I think this may be better, in that the top white layer becomes a pre-diffuser with two clear bubble layers between the top & bottom white layer.

While I’m finding focus, I’m shining my headlamp and my hand-held light on the topside of the diffuser, so with the camera set to autofocus, it quickly finds focus.
I’ll break this down a little further next.

Here are a couple of pics to make this easier.
This wire was a coat hanger bent into a circle about the size of the lens barrel, with tape around it, where I normally would use heat-shrink to cushion its grip.
There is still a bit of plastic glued to it, after the rest got torn away.


Then the long wires just fit perfectly into this plastic envelope.

I don’t think you can find a lower budget setup than this, and certainly easy enough for kids to make their own.