DIY: Photographer Uses $0.5 TP Rolls To Diffuse $700 Macro Strobes
Jun 18, 2015
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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Here is a great tip we got from Mark Thorpe and it has to do both with TP rolls and with Macro photography. It turns out that there is a great way to diffuse the the $750 Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite Flash.
At heart the MT-24EX is a dual strobe system that sits around the lens and enables getting the light pretty close to your subject from two sides. Close means soft light (I mean think how huge a strobe at 3cm must look to an ant), and two-sided-illumination means significant shadow reduction.
But PixelHobo who need just a little bit more diffusion, attached two rings made from old desk lamps covered with toilet paper to get an even bigger light source. Not really sure if this is more simple or more clever.
For more information about the rig, visit Mark’s G+ post.
Yup, toilet paper is definitely a must for photographers.
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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3 responses to “DIY: Photographer Uses $0.5 TP Rolls To Diffuse $700 Macro Strobes”
Hey cheers for that, my actual name is Mark Thorpe, a Brit photographer based in Japan. That flash solution actually revolves around a couple of articulated magnetized retrieval tools and a couple of cheap bedside lamps. The diffusion ‘rings’ as you put it are actually the reflector shades from the lamps, the angle I took the image makes them look flat I guess. I used a hand power tool to cut and fit the reflectors over the MT24EX twin flash heads. Prior to this fitting I lined the reflectors with aluminum foil for added boost to the flash. They were then connected to the articulated lengths that came from the retrieval tools.
I connected the articulated arms to a ‘V’ shaped flat plate with the Apex of the V and the hole found at that point used to connect the bracket to the camera tripod thread mount. This way the lights, which were designed to fit onto a collar around the lens barrel of the MPE65mm are free of the lens thus allowing me simple access to remove the lens if I want to use the flash system with another lens option, the Venus 60mm f2.8 or the Tamron 90mm f2.8 which are two other favored glass options in my kit bag.
More photos and an explanation of each can be found here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MarkThorpeSr/posts/JBdZXVDCu3M?pid=6161527883507698978&oid=112703108918185799368
Cheers,
Mark.
Are we talking single or double ply here? Quilted or non-quilted? These are vital details.
Hi Mark. I like the idea. I’ve been working on a DIY setup for macro using fiber optic end glow cables with my built in flash. Would love to hear what you think of it. Have a look at http://wildimages.co/gear/macro-photography-diy-fiber-optic-snoot-for-built-in-flash/