yes this requires a flash, camera and lens, but otherwise it's ~$20 or less depending on what you have around your house. (and $20 is probably way more than you need to spend).

http://djure-eng.blogspot.com/2007/0...ringflash.html

Found this via someone's blog link in their sig on POTN, so I'm taking zero credit, but it's something I definately want to try. Here's the list of what you need:

• Plastic bowl
• plastic pipe
• tin foil
• duct tape
• some sort of diffuser material
• 1 soda can (why not beer?)
• electrical tape
• glue (it's bet one of the tapes above would also work)

that's it. The only thing that's even a question from his instructions is what the "pipe" is. He's not a native english speaker so maybe it's lost in translation, but what the pipe is for is for the lens to look through. I can think of a bunch of things that would work, just nothing that I'd call a pipe. Yes "pipe" would work, but it seems that would be overkill and too heavy.

Anyway, it's something I want to play with for sure. I love DIY projects.

There are a lot of ways to do it, but one of the best ways I've seen (but forget where I read it) was to use a clamp lamp instead of the bowl and aluminum foil. It should reflect better than crinkled foil, and I bet you can polish it for even more zing. Also, you can use a piece of rain gutter downspout as the adapter to the flash, since they're about the same size and shape.

Edit: Duh, I saw it from here http://www.newschoolofphotography.co...ead.php?t=1805

yes sixty seven CENTS.

the dish was $.40 and the tray was $.27 at Ocean State Joblot...






with the $.67 ringflash:


w/ direct light/flash:


3 of me messing around after my initial "subject" got pissed...

You forgot to add in tax. It's got to be at least .70$

oh, ****, that blows my budget.... $.7169....
Obviously there's at least $.50 in tape there too.....

Nikki looks like if you take one more, im going to kill you..

unamused Nikki is....unamused.


So you plan on walking around anywhere in public with your 71 cent ring flash?

Originally Posted by tardypizza

unamused Nikki is....unamused.


So you plan on walking around anywhere in public with your 71 cent ring flash?

Only with a matching tin foil hat!

why keep the hood on?

Originally Posted by subimatt

Only with a matching tin foil hat!

Dooo eeeet! And I want pics as proof

rad, i need to make one

Originally Posted by ride5000

why keep the hood on?

because the pan extends past the front element?

Originally Posted by subimatt

Nikki looks like if you take one more, im going to kill you..

Originally Posted by tardypizza

unamused Nikki is....unamused.

yeah, totally. She was already unamused before I even started.... Then I fired the first off and she was like "what the **** are you doing?" then I did another and she's "WTF, STOP NOW!".

Originally Posted by ride5000

why keep the hood on?

w/o the hood if the dish was out beyond the front of the lens, some light would get into the lens that way and ghost the image.... So I started w/o it then realized why I needed it. I'll be making another one this week that's a bit different (2 dishes like this, a smaller one inside that acts as a tunnel) so hopefully it won't be an issue.

this is w/o the hood:

oh, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to make one of these for the 40D built in flash as well.... That should be fun to play with and at least make the flash usable...

If I have time this week, I was going to build a DIY ringflash. I highly doubt mine will be as cheap as your though ben.

My plan:
Flash off of hotshoe, fired remotely with radio trigger
A white plastic bown as the outside
Spray the inside with some of this: http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=125
Smaller plastic tube/cup for the lens to go through
Cut and mount some florescent light diffuser to the ring.

ohhh totally going to make one.

Originally Posted by jjswee

Can you get a picture of the ring flashing? (Mirror shot?)

ugh, I had one but deleted it... It's close to a round light though. The little flap hanging down is because the flash was too bright where it came into the circle... So the flap diverts it and it filters around it about as much as gets around the circle...

here's 4 100% crops of the eyes in the shots since you can see it in the reflections:


(and yes, those are my contacts in the top left shot)

Originally Posted by PhatheadWRX

If I have time this week, I was going to build a DIY ringflash. I highly doubt mine will be as cheap as your though ben.

don't get me wrong, I want to build one that's way less ghetto and ~$20 or so. I went to walmart and picked up some things to play with but nothing really was perfect. Then I went to joblot after and found the metal ones. I figured they'd be a better starting point since they're so cheap. This way I can learn how to build it with ~$1 in materials each try, then once I have it figured out I can step up to plastic parts that cost more.

this is kinda what I'm after eventually:
http://www.newschoolofphotography.co...ead.php?t=4274
http://www.newschoolofphotography.co...ead.php?t=1805

tonight I'm going to try to nest 2 of these silver round trays so one is the tunnel and one is the ring flash... That will make it easier to deal with. Then I want to add something to diffuse the light coming in but that's hard/impossible w/o some sort of tunnel for the lens. I need to sort that out first so I can stop using the hood.

I'm also torn about using the flash off camera... it's easier/cheaper to do it with the flash mounted, but making the dish is harder. But for now I have no cord/wireless, so I'm doing it this way until that's what's limiting me. But my goal is to also make one that works very well using the on board rebel/x0D flash and hopefully looks better. I'd love to be able to have people using these besides just me.

Originally Posted by dangerwoman

ohhh totally going to make one.

and you even know what the hell ocean state is.

Ben, you're crazy.

wut?!

nikki has pretty eyelashes

Dude, put some white paper on the front to throw some diffusion on that bitch.

yeah, I know. That's why I'm working on finding something to make an inner tunnel... As it is now it's the outer ring and the lens hood, so it's a bitch to put anything in there w/o taping it to the hood.

Now I see. hmmm, What to do?

Your initial subject looks pretty pissed right off the bat there.

hahaha, great shots Ben. She is gonna kill you in your sleep ya know.

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

yeah, I know. That's why I'm working on finding something to make an inner tunnel... As it is now it's the outer ring and the lens hood, so it's a bitch to put anything in there w/o taping it to the hood.

cut a cardboard tube and wrap it in tin foil?

Wow, that's really sweet. I might need to make one of these for my Challenge shot.




edit: found some interesting material on making cheap ring flashes:
http://keralaphotographer.blogspot.c...hacks-for.html

Btw, is this type of portrait taken with a ringlight?

look at the eyes, they always give it away.... That's similar to a ring, but looks more like an umbrella.

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

look at the eyes, they always give it away.... That's similar to a ring, but looks more like an umbrella.

Agreed.

Ben, I built my BIG ringflash tonight. I really need to play with it to dial in the power, but so far I like the results. I made it very big so that it would work with my Sigma 10mm. It does work at 10mm, but just barely.

I used a large white plastic bowl, posterboard, some tinfoil on the inner ring, a fluorescent light diffuser and some packaging tape.

Most of my test shots were at 1/4 flash power or lower.



Pics of it at 10mm, and how I built it on my flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchbrown/

where's the bowl from? I just started redoing mine last night but didn't finish sealing off the flash... It's with a very similar white bowl from WalMart that was <$2 and a plastic plant pot on clearance for $.88... Then I added some real duct tape (ie the silver shiny kind)... I'll try to finish it tonight and take some shots with/of it.

I found the bowl at Party City. It was around $3. Super thin so it was easy to cut.

Can't wait to see your new results.

ugh, my bowl was just thick enough it cracked while cutting it with a knife. The inner pot was thick enough I needed to use the jigsaw and it cracked as well. Nothing so bad it wasn't tapeable though.

yeah, I feel your pain. It's not exactly easy cutting two circles in flourescent diffuser panels.

I bet. WTF did you cut them with?

Mine's "together" kinda. I'll have pics up tomorrow. I skip the diffuser matterial until I have it dialed in, so that's the next step. But it's a bit harder the way I'm doing it because I'm using the flash on camera. So it's a PITA to make both the flash and lens work with the holes. It looks good shooting into the mirror, but everyone/thing is asleep I'd shoot with it.

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

I bet. WTF did you cut them with?

everyone/thing is asleep I'd shoot with it.

I tried to etch a circle with a razor blade then carefully cut with scissors and break by hand if needed. there were two cracks, but I was able to tape over w/o hurting anything. the inside edge is a little rough in one spot.

I took one shot of my wife and she was then I started shooting the dog

I think I'll pick up another bowl this afternoon. Its just screaming to be made into a beauty dish

then I'm not sure what happened here :


this is what the new one looks like:

lol, nice glow!!! you just need to build a handle.

Did you ETTL the 580 or was it in M mode? what power?

Well the exif says Manual, but I'm pretty sure I had it in ETTL... But yeah, that's as ISO 800 so the background wouldn't be so dark.

interesting.

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

that's as ISO 800 so the background wouldn't be so dark.

Why not just lower the shutter speed to draw in more ambient?

because that's what it was set at?


<--- flash n00b.

Well, here's my attempt. I believe the flash was set on TTL, but the metering assist lights were covered. I don't even know how the hell it was metering stuff to know how much flash light to compensate for.

Setup:







First shot when my face was being exposed directly to the flash (before I had the little flapper in the front):



After implementation of the flapper:







The closer you get, the better it works!

Now I need to slap my 10-20mm on there I guess. Thinkin' about the Challenge photo now...hehe.

err...Houston?

10-20 does NOT fit

Plus most of the frame is filled up with the foil tube

Trying the 18-135 now...

FYI, you DON'T NEED foil IN the tube... The foil is to bounce the light around better... Notice hoods are lined with black felt.

Oh, and make a "tunnel" for the light from the flash to the top of the dish. I'd bet you're losing half your light out the sides or more.

But it's looking good.

looks like you're losing a lot of light with the way you have it reflecting into the dish.. it also gets noticeably darker at the bottom of the ring.

lol, I love your foil on the back of the dish

mine is really wide for the 10-20 to fit. My hand and some of the camera body is actually inside the middle ring.

what about using an angel food cake pan to start with? it already has the tunnel built in.

i have seen them with different sized holes, so maybe there is one that could work.