"Direct Flash" shield and "Frozen Dinner Bowl" diffuser
Here are two items used with my pop-up flash macro bracket. One is necessary... the direct flash shield, the other is a nice option... the frozen dinner bowl flash diffuser. Both are adapted for mounting on the front of a lens using a Raynox UAC2000 snap-on lens adapter. It allows mounting their macro lenses (and now my attachments) on any lens having a filter ring between 52mm and 67mm. It fits on like a lens cap by pressing two tabs. This convenient adapter is the 43mm model supplied with their DCR-150 and DCR-250 macro lenses, and is available separately. If focusing your lens results in the shield or diffuser rotating away from its position directly in front of the pop-up flash, simply squeeze the two mounting tabs and reposition the shield.
The diffuser is made from the plastic bowl that comes with a Marie Callender or Healthy Choice “steamer” frozen dinner. It provides diffused pop-up flash lighting, with soft edged shadows. Clipping a small piece of black paper or plastic on the back of the diffuser allows you to selectively block a portion of the flash, creating directional soft lighting, adjusted by moving the material right or left. Bowls from any dinners having tomato sauce shouldn't be used. Even after vigorous scrubbing, running through a dish washer, or soaking in a variety of cleaners and solvents, a very slight orange stain will remain, enough to produce a color shift in your images. Most other varieties are OK, their bowls being completely neutral, as with the one in this photo.
The "direct flash" shield is used to prevent direct light from the pop-up flash falling on your subject. Operating at very close macro-shooting distances, the flash could create heavy overexposure. With this in place on a lens, all lighting is bounced onto your subject using bracket mounted reflectors.
UAC2000 adapter... B&H Photo, $7.95.
Flash shield material... Staples “M by Staples” Arc System Tab Dividers, black polypropylene, 5-5/6” x 8-1/2”, a package of five... $3.99 at Staples.
“Steamer” dinners... most large supermarkets, around $2.89.
Small machine screws, washers, and nuts... for assembling the flash shield and bowl diffuser... almost any hardware store, cheap.
DSC-6782
"Direct Flash" shield and "Frozen Dinner Bowl" diffuser
Here are two items used with my pop-up flash macro bracket. One is necessary... the direct flash shield, the other is a nice option... the frozen dinner bowl flash diffuser. Both are adapted for mounting on the front of a lens using a Raynox UAC2000 snap-on lens adapter. It allows mounting their macro lenses (and now my attachments) on any lens having a filter ring between 52mm and 67mm. It fits on like a lens cap by pressing two tabs. This convenient adapter is the 43mm model supplied with their DCR-150 and DCR-250 macro lenses, and is available separately. If focusing your lens results in the shield or diffuser rotating away from its position directly in front of the pop-up flash, simply squeeze the two mounting tabs and reposition the shield.
The diffuser is made from the plastic bowl that comes with a Marie Callender or Healthy Choice “steamer” frozen dinner. It provides diffused pop-up flash lighting, with soft edged shadows. Clipping a small piece of black paper or plastic on the back of the diffuser allows you to selectively block a portion of the flash, creating directional soft lighting, adjusted by moving the material right or left. Bowls from any dinners having tomato sauce shouldn't be used. Even after vigorous scrubbing, running through a dish washer, or soaking in a variety of cleaners and solvents, a very slight orange stain will remain, enough to produce a color shift in your images. Most other varieties are OK, their bowls being completely neutral, as with the one in this photo.
The "direct flash" shield is used to prevent direct light from the pop-up flash falling on your subject. Operating at very close macro-shooting distances, the flash could create heavy overexposure. With this in place on a lens, all lighting is bounced onto your subject using bracket mounted reflectors.
UAC2000 adapter... B&H Photo, $7.95.
Flash shield material... Staples “M by Staples” Arc System Tab Dividers, black polypropylene, 5-5/6” x 8-1/2”, a package of five... $3.99 at Staples.
“Steamer” dinners... most large supermarkets, around $2.89.
Small machine screws, washers, and nuts... for assembling the flash shield and bowl diffuser... almost any hardware store, cheap.
DSC-6782