Foreword
This is the second article in my "Dollar Shop Journals" series, and probably the hardest one for me to compile. The main reason is that it covers a subject that has been addressed to the extreme extent by DIY enthusiasts, as well as commercial products. It also happens to be "the" project that introduced me to DIY photography, when I got my first (almost) proper camera, roughly a decade ago. Unfortunately things have not changed much since then, despite couple of public domain, DIY ideas being harvested and converted into commercial products.
So, here we go again:
The Issue:
Practically every camera comes with a flash, whether be it built-in or an add-on. And almost without exception, they are borderline usable. Let me elaborate:
Contrary to their ancestors, most of the modern day cameras are capable of capturing a good picture without extra help, despite the lack of strong light. Everyday light, even when created by artificial sources (e.g. indoors), is extremely complex. Basically everything you can see is a light caster, they alter and radiate back the incoming light onto their surroundings. You also have a lot of translucent materials in the lights path which manipulates it even further; lamp shades, fabrics, glass objects etc. indoors, and clouds, water, foliage etc. outdoors. So you have this harmonic dance of light, initiated by the light source(s), but going through certain materials, bouncing back and fort between every object in your composition, changing all the time, and finally reaching your lens.
When you use any flash as your main light source, you literally stamp on the true light, crushing it into oblivion. Even if the impact is momentary, it is so strong, so condensed and so directional that, it destroys all the natural harmony. A good analogy would be the difference between a mellow breeze circulating through your house and a typhoon hitting it. The primary reason for this is the size of the flash. It is such a small yet strong source of light that it is bound to create an ugly, artificial outcome. And because of the very same reason, built-in flashes are the worst, as they are even smaller. They create strong, harsh shadows, and disturbing hot spots. They kill the color, they kill the depth, they essential kill the beauty you are trying to portray...
So "why is it there?", you might ask. Answer is simple, for "fill-in" It is meant to be used to complement or counteract the strong present light (for instance to mellow down the shadows), not to substitute it. And of course it is a necessary evil if you want to document a particular moment and you don't have any other choices. It surely is not there for you to take good pictures. No body uses a built-in flash as their main light source unless they have to... Well, with the exception of a very famous certain gentleman who uses the built-in flash with the biggest lens hood ever produced, inside his studio(!), to promote his $26 product that costs 20 cents (or less) to make...
The Solution:
Spread the light...It is that simple. Proper flashes have a much much larger area compared to built-in ones to begin with. Yet, even that is not enough. They generally have tiltable / rotatable heads, so that you can bounce the light from the ceiling or the walls indoors, to get a more natural tone and spread. In studios you use reflective umbrellas and soft boxes, just to spread the light.
So basically if you need the flash as a main light source, you need to spread it as much as you can. Although there are many options for professional flashes, we are quite limited when it comes to built-in ones. Probably because of that, this is one of the most covered DIY photography subjects ever. There are unlimited designs, and a small number of commercial products. I will go into only a few select here, split into two categories.
To test the designs, I set up a small composition in my house. I apologize for the schizophrenic (and quite meaningless) nature of it, I just tried to throw in as many different surfaces as I could, to be able to demonstrate the effects of each method. Our basis for comparison would be the "bare flash mounted on the hot shoe" version of the composition:
The dreadful bare flash... Our aim is to do better than this...
For further reference, here is the high ISO, indoors natural light version of the same composition:
Indoor ambient light, a.k.a natural daylight coming through the windows, at ISO 1600.
And last, but not least;, here comes a natural"directional" light version (nothing fancy here, I just opened the door on the side for strong outdoors light to come in) of the very same scene:
Even if it is strong, natural light looks, well, "natural"!
I deliberately did not apply any flash compensation in the following examples, to display how much each method cuts down the flash power.
1) The Diffusers:
A flash diffuser's aim is to cut down the harshness of the light and widen it's focus . This not only minimizes the hot spots, also softens the strong, sharp shadows cast by the flash.
From simply holding an A4 paper in front of the flash, to flashy(!) $30 products you have the whole range here. Suffice it to say, I probably tried every design in the DIY book, and quite a few commercial products . My picks for the diffuser category are as follows:
a) Ping Pong Ball Diffuser: One of the simplest designs. It is virtually free, very easy to build and you only look "a tad" silly using it.
Not so silly, is it?
All you need is a white celluloid (classic) table tennis ball. The plastic ones do not work as well as they are generally too opaque. White ones are getting hard to come by nowadays, as most people are switching to orange.
If you heat up a craft knife (a lighter would suffice), it cuts through the ball like butter. Simply cut a rectangular opening big enough to fit your flash'es head, preferably off from the center, further towards the back, and you are done. There is one thing you should be very careful about: The ping pong balls are extremely flammable because of their celluloid nature. If your knife is too hot, it will burst into flames in an eye blink.
Although not as effective as other solutions, It probably is the most convenient one; you can simply keep it in your pocket and put it on when you need to.
Sometimes it hard to find a true-white ball. Most of them have a yellowish tint, some more than the others. Try to find the whitest one, and if not enough, you can always correct the picture by adjusting your white balance. As an alternative, you can experiment with different tints like a flash gel.
The results are better than bare flash, but the ball also dims your flash a significant amount as it is not very translucent:
Just better than nothing...
b) Styrofoam Coffee Cup Diffuser: One of my favorite DIY designs. I had one lying around up until recently. It is delicate, therefore hard to carry around; and you look absolutely ridiculous using it. But I would exchange my dignity with better pictures any time.
This is another 10 second project: Buy/find/steal a styrofoam coffee cup. Align the cup with your lens, mouth side on top of the flash, heat up a craft knife and cut out rectangle hole at the bottom, a bit further down the lip, big enough for your flash to fit in (try to cut a tight fit, as this will hold the cup straight when you put it on the flash). Slip it on...
The cut-conical shape of the cup is perfect, especially for macro shots, and long lenses. Normally the bottom of the cup is thicker, reducing the head-on effect of the flash, and you get a lot of bounce-light emitted from the sides.
If you want to improve the design, you might glue a tin foil at the back (mouth of the cup), to bounce back the escaping "stray" light forward.
It is, like the ping pong ball easy to install or remove, you just slip it on when you need to.
Although styrofoam cups are generally very close to pure white (they don't shift the white balance) they come in variable densities. The denser (and more expensive) ones provide a weaker but more homogeneous flash, where as lower density ones provide a textured yet stronger output.
Unfortunately I am not able to provide examples or pictures from this design at the moment, as someone from our little household managed to sit on the last one I had totally destroying it (I don't want to name names but it wasn't me or the dog).
I will be preparing a new one and updating the article, but since styrofoam cups are banned in our city now (along with many disposable non-biodegradable plastics) I have to take a trip to the next town to do so.
c) Paper Diffuser: Another virtually free, yet extremely effective design. Although it is only a piece of paper bent into shape and held in place, it happens to be the best DIY solution in my list. I spent quite a bit of time on the final design, to make sure it is as easy to fabricate (and use) as possible.
NX2000 with a sail...
You can always flatten it out and carry around easily. Unless you use translucent plastic instead of paper, it is very delicate and does not last very long, especially outdoors, so you might want to fabricate a few extra. Don't expect to look posh using it, but the ridicule level is quite acceptable. Compared to other DIY solutions, it needs a bit of crafting though:
The materials needed:
Paper (duh !): Try to get one that is as white as possible, so that it won't alter the flash color. Regular A4 paper works fine, you'll only need a small print (8cm X 17cm). If you want less impact on your flash power, at the cost of less efficiency, you can substitute baking or tracing paper.
For the base, you'll need a piece of thick paper, 6cm X 2cm in size. Anything as thick as a paper back book cover would do. Again for durability reasons you might substitute a piece of plastic here, as long as it is thick and hard enough.
Glue: I prefer rubber cement as it stays flexible even when fully cured. You need such a little amount, probably anything will work.
Cable Tie: "Everyday" cable tie wires with plastic casing. You'll need only 28cm's of it. I had black lying around, but white looks neater Also, mine was bought from the landscaping section of a department store, yet they generally have better ones in the electric section.
The process:
Print the template on the medium you want to use. Cut the shape out. Flatten and straighten the cable tie as much as you can, and then glue it to the sides of your print, at the marked areas. Let it set. Glue the thick paper at the base (grey area) and cut out the eye. To prevent wear and tear, you might like to put a few layers of scotch tape around the base.
This is our template, obviously...
To put it on, you loosen your flash lock, squeeze the paper in (the neck of your flash fits in the eye), just under the lock and tighten the lock to hold it in place. Then you bend the rest into a nice curve, up in front of your flash. That's it.
As well as producing exquisite results, this design is also extremely versatile, because it is open ended:
-You can bend it into different shapes for different diffusion sizes and angles.
-You can make it out of colored paper (or plastic) to be used as a flash gel.
- If you are a bit "Photoshop savvy", you can add patterns to get a textured flash. Just fill up the white area in the template with your pattern and print.
-You can also use stencils in your prints for various flash effects.
Now we are talking...
I used regular paper but feel free to experiment with different materials, including translucent plastics until you find what you are looking for. If you choose an unprintable medium, just use the paper print as a template to cut it into shape.
d) The Balloon, err, I meant, "The Puffer" Diffuser: Here comes the star of out article, the 20¢ worth (at most), utterly useless piece of plastic that you have to pay $26 for...
What a joke...
I seriously don't know what they were on when they designed this and put it on the market, but it is the most mis-advertised camera accessory I have ever seen in years.
Attached to a well known name in the scene, puffer is promoted as "perfect solution" for built-in flashes, however, it simply does NOT work. In essence, it chops down your flash power considerably for no gain, and softens your shadows a negligible amount if at all. That's about it... Ping pong ball is almost as effective (although it costs nothing) and everything else mentioned here is light years ahead. Why is it not sold on "Home Shopping Network" instead, with all the other non-working, low quality products is a mystery to me.
Out of the box , "The Puffer" does not fit, and is not meant to fit, NX2000 and likes. It is designed(?!?) for the cameras which have the pop-up flash in front of the hot shoe. It comes with a bracket that plugs into the hot shoe and holds the diffuser in front of the flash. I knew this when I purchased it, but if the diffuser worked, I was planning to modify mount to fit my NX2000 someway. Apparently there was no need for that:
Why bother?
The only thing good about The Puffer is the promotional YouTube video. I am surprised it hasn't made it's way to the "funniest videos" hall of fame so far...
If you are feeling masochistic and still want to try this abomination, go for an eBay knock-off instead (less than $2, with 2 extra colored puffers, including shipping ). At least you can use the bubble wrap packaging it is sent in for something else...
E) And the winner is...: Best of both worlds; a 4$ commercial diffuser, coupled with a bit of DIY fabrication: Pixco Flash Diffuser:
Looks funny, I know...
This is a very simple idea, executed perfectly and sold at a very reasonable price. It, lack of a better description, is a "mini soft box", meant for full size flashes. It comes folded in, thin and small, so it is extremely convenient to carry around. When you want to use it, you just unfold it up, back into shape, and use the provided velcro belt to keep it that way, as well as to attach it to your flash.
Easy peasy...
The only setback is that it is not meant to be attached on our small kit flashes, the mouth is too big. Yet, the solution is simple: Build an extension block around your flash. Just find a small piece of rubber sheet and cut a rectangle out of it; 6.5cm X 5cm wide, and around 2.5cm thick. I had extra cuts left over from my LCD Hood project, but they were only 0.5cm thick, so I glued 5 layers together.
Next step is to cut a rectangle window in the middle, big enough to let your flash head go through (4cm X 1cm for SEF-8A). If you want the diffuser pointing straight ahead, you need to sand down the bottom of the window at the back half a centimeter into a slant (because of the shape of the flash). You can also round the corners if you want. Now you can easily strap the diffuser to your rubber piece, and just slip it on to the kit flash whenever you want to.
The rubber mod...
Because you don't modify the diffuser itself, you can still use it for your pro flashes, in case you don't want to spend another $4.
The results for me were extremely satisfactory, even more when used together with the off-camera cord (more on that below). It really creates nice, distributed light, and very soft, natural shadows. The flash power loss is more than acceptable. I have to say it looks quite silly on the NX2000, as it is really huge, but that is a fair trade-off for getting almost-perfect results, under $5...
5 bucks can get you really far these days..
2) The Bouncers:
The underlying principal is rather basic: Built in flashes have a fixed angle, inline with the lens, firing straight on to your subject. "Bouncers" are used to change the direction of the flash, so it can be bounced off nearby objects (most commonly from the ceiling, indoors) instead of hitting your composition head on. Bounced flash produces a widely diffused and correctly ("environmentally") tinted strobe. That is why professional flashes can be tilted, and some rotated as well.
Although the idea sounds like a purely indoor solution, a variable angle flash has it's merits outdoors, given that you have enough flexibility.
The first option I can recommend is to use the paper diffuser template above. Only this time, you don't want to let the light through, you want to redirect it. So, simply cover the inner side with kitchen grade aluminum foil, and you have a bouncer.
When you attach this version of the design on your camera (which acts as a reflector now), don't curve it. A single bend near the bottom into a straight, angled mirror to direct your flash light up would suffice. The bouncer version also does not need to be as long as the diffuser; you can trim it down to a size that is big enough to catch all your flash (no exact measurements here, because it depends on the angle you'd like to use)...
As an alternative,you can use fully opaque, white plastic instead of paper to fabricate the design in the first place. You would be ok with any kind of non-translucent, reflective material for that matter.
Apart from bouncing the flash towards the ceiling, you can also tilt the front piece sideways for off-the-wall bouncing, but it won't be as effective; mainly because the flash is horizontally aligned.
The bouncer version of the design looks only as "ghetto" as the diffuser counterpart, but it won't be as versatile (practically useless outdoors).
There are also e few commercial products in this area, but none I know fits NX2000 out of the box, and I seriously doubt they would give you anything more than the DIY one.
Because I own a NX2000, which comes with a detachable flash, (same as NX1000, NX3000, NX200, NX300 etc.) my weapon of choice in this category is unfortunately a bit out of our "Dollar Shop" scope: JJC TTL Off-Camera Flash Cord...
With this, I look like I know what I am doing...
It basically is an extension cord that goes between your flash and the hot shoe, so that you can move your flash around. It is specifically made for the NX systems, so it also carries the TTL signal as well, which is important for the kit flash since there is no way to adjust it manually.
I paid $21 including shipping which is multiple times my target budget in these articles, but it is among the best investments one can make. Fist of all, it solves all your bouncing problems, you can point the kit flash anywhere you like, from anywhere you like (within the cord's length that is, but more than adequate I would say). Secondly it is more versatile compared to other options as you can also use it outdoors; to change the origin, the angle and target area of your fill-in flash. Thirdly it is easy to carry around. And last but not least, it looks mean It even gave me a pseudo-professional look when I used it outdoors
On top of everything, it is future-proof. It works (or supposed supposed to work) with all NX compatible flashes.
JJC Cord has only two minor setbacks, at least for me: The placement and the rigidity of the cables. I might be going paranoid but the coil seems to be too strong for my personal comfort. It feels like I am putting strain on the camera's hot shoe when I stretch it. I don't know if it will loosen up over time. And for some reason unbeknownst to me, the cables protrude from the front of connectors, both on the camera and flash. I guess it would have been much more convenient if they pointed back.
Bare flash bounced off the ceiling, or more like "stairs" as I was shooting under them...
As a side note, I did not choose this particular brand for any reason other than it being the cheapest I could find. If someone comes across an even cheaper alternative, they should fell free to amend it to the article.
Which ever method you use, you have to increase your flash power to compensate for the diminishing effect of the diffuser or the bouncer; with some a little, and with some a lot. This has to be done manually, as the camera (or the flash itself, since we are using TTL) would be unaware of your attachments, still thinking that it is firing straight on without obstructions, so it'll choose settings accordingly. As expected, it takes a bit of practice to get the exposure right.
Well, I wish I had covered more options, but the aforementioned were the most significant ones I could think of. I am always open to contributions; in the end, the more "ideas", the merrier...
Like before, I hope this helps a bit
