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What Can You do With Six Speedlights and a Coffee Can
Fri, 2008-01-04 00:19 — udijw
I should have seen this one coming. What can you do if you have a ton of SBs and a bit of duct tape? A multi-super-sb-ring-light.
The idea is very simple - take 6 super-duper Nikon SBs and mount them on a cut coffee can. You can use duct tape to hold them on.
Connect 3 pocket wizards with splitters to the flashes and fire away.
No doubt that Joshua Targownik (check out his cool site) has a great idea, here are some of my thoughts on this great ring flash.
- Fire Power: The fire power on this thing would probably blind a man on the moon. Four flashes connected will give you two stops more then a regular flash. The two extra flashes will give a total of about 2.5 stops more then a single flash (check out the calculation of exposure). This is some fire power. I think that used in full power though will almost remove the ringlight effect since the subject will have to be soooooo far away.
- Mounting System: Joshua used two light stands and a tripod, since the system is kinda heavy. I wonder if there is a solution that will both make it easier to mount and use, and will enable shooting from longer distances. I think that a mount like the one used in this ringlight can solve both issues.
- Coolness Factor: No doubt that this is one of the coolest solutions to the "ringlight problem".
- Price: if you go out and buy it all new, you'll in for a mortgage. Joshua got 4 of the flashes for 25$ each, and my guess is that the other flashes double as studio lights when not mounted on this ringlight. So the total price for this unit was 102$ dollars (4 sb28dx for 25$ each, 2 flashes from home, and 2 dollars for duct tape). All and all a nice price for this unit.
- Results: The results are great both for product shoot and for portraits. Look at the shads on this shoe- classic ring light "shaded halo"
The portrait sample shot is great as well, though you have to take it from up close and set the units down to1/64 or 1/32. (Check out the set up description on this shot - a total of 11 flashes).
Now, all that is left to do is hit a nice auction on eBay for some used SBs.
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Some more speedlights:
- The Cheapest Ring Light Ever
- Just Fab's Turkey Pan Beauty Dish
- Another Ringlight
- Great Way To Build a Ringlight
- Ringlight Bonanza with Joris van den Heuvel
Did you also know that L7Photos is giving Lightroom Presets for free?
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Comments
Great Idea!
I'm completely trying this one out. I've got a few flashes laying around that I picked up at a photographer convention a few weeks ago for cheap and this is the perfect solution to put them to good use. I hate leaving equipment around unused!
Creative! :)
This place never cease to amaze me, I totally adore the creativeness this site has to offer. I have nothing like the equipment shown, but will store this idea in the noggin for a later date.
Thanks Chica
Have a great year and ton of luck with your new blog. Looks like you are on the right track.
- Udi
overkill?
ehhh, i don't know, guys. the one strobist made looks a lot more stable, and doesn't require walky talkies to communicate with your distant subject!
I would reduce the number of flashes (and, therefore, the cost!), and add some stiff white diffuser material to the front, like sanded down plexiglass. That would get you the 'ring' catchlights (this setup doesn't have them, as you can see the portrait shot).
This setup is a good start, though. Check out my blog for new photographers here: shaunkrisher.wordpress.com
I never knew I had a "ring flash" already!
wholy cow... you just saved me some serious Euros. Very KISS (=keep it simple stupid) type of an idea - excellent. Thanks for sharing this one. Greetings from Helsinki.
What Can You do With Six Speedlights and a Coffee Can
A DIY for a high-power ring light that utilizes six flash units!
Ummm
The effect on the subjects' eyes is less than pleasing...three dots of light?
Come on!
Why is no one telling the king he has no clothes on?
it looks to me that the catch lights can be easily removed
I am confidenet that the catchlight can be removed with post processing with mot much effort.
Leaving them on is a nice hint for the lighting setup.
- udi
Creative but not very
Creative but not very practical. 6 speedlights for one ring flash? That's a lot of power. I suppose you could turn down the power on them all and have a fast recycle time. I agree about the less than stellar catch lights. I prefer the idea of a one speedlight ring flash.
hmmm...
I think that is brilliant idea.
But what if you have tons of speedlights and a couple of sto-fen/gary fong diffusers lying around??? Now that would be very interesting.
6 Super-duper Nikon SBs
Yu´re kidding ?!
hehe
I was an an 80's funky rush :)
- udi
outside of the catch light
outside of the catch light issue i think that the rest of the shot and setup (id prefer a tighter design but the idea is ideal) is great and has nice ambience
Practical? Quality of light?
How is this less expensive than an actual ring light? The most expensive ring light is around $650, but six strobes may only cost $100 or so, but those flash triggers weren't free either. Make them pocket wizards and the actual ring light looks affordable in comparison.
Without any diffuser material on the front, this is just 6 really harsh flash heads. He should at least ad some kind of cover in the front to balance the output.
I can't think of many people who would be willing to sit in front of a strobe that would blind them on every shot.
Triggering
You wouldn't need any PW's if you have a hot shoe extension cord. Just set the flash connected to the cord to "Master", the rest to "Slave", and swivel the IR sensors to face each other. I'm just assuming this would work, but why wouldn't it? Right?..........Right?
Six Speedlights and a Coffee Can
I'm pretty excited to build one of these. I'm going to hit eBay hard to see if I can come up with enough flashes to do this for myself. Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
Nathan Taylor
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