DIY: Diffuser for Pop-up Flash

Oh hey, I think we have the same camera, or very similar anyway - Lumix with 18x zoom. I'll have to head to the store and look for some craft foam! I've just been trying to take pics without the flash at all, but that's not always feasible.

EDIT: So I was curious, but not enough to run out to Walmart this late, so I tried the same sort of thing with 3-4 sheets of copy paper stapled together. Way more annoying and not as effective as the craft foam I'm sure, but it did create some interesting photos!





Thanks so much for the tip!!!

EDIT AGAIN: I got some real craft foam and made one - I used 2mm as that was the thinnest they had. It stayed on the camera without needing adjustments, and worked quite well. I couldn't get a black background without the room being very dark, and it seemed to work a bit better on my NS boy with the dark hair than the white skinned boy with the white hair and shirt, for some reason, but it was nothing a quick brightness/contrast adjustment couldn't help. I love this DIY diffuser!

 

I wish I could use this on my camera, but my flash is not a pop-up style. For being a little tiny camera, it seems to have a built in solor flare for a flash.

When I eventualy upgade my camera, I will have to take this into concideration.

 

A DIY Diffuser for about 60¢ - I think I love you.

After reading your post, I picked up a sheet of foam last time I was at JoAnn's (found it in their "Crayola" kids aisle with all the "Foamies" stuff). I get a bit of a bit of a hotspot with my Canon Xsi pop-up flash, but I'm still tinkering with the setup.

I'm curious if anyone has tried this with the thicker foam (3mm or 5mm)?

 

Holy crap I am trying this. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

Question for Celyne:
What is the size of the foam piece you cut?

I gave this a try with a piece roughly 9" x 6", stapled at the corners (I hate tape because it leaves a sticky residue).

It looks like this:



In this picture it's sandwhiched too close together, but when I put it around the pop-up flash it balloons nicely. Only problem is, I'm still getting a bit of a hotspot, especially when I do portrait shots. I'm wondering if I need a bigger or thicker piece.

edit: should have mentioned, this piece is 2mm thick

edit #2: still wondering if I should try a larger size or thicker piece, but here are the results -

 

For this type of flash, the DIY diffuser is even simpler:
scotch-tape a bit of tissue over the flash.

yes, I am serios, and I got this little gem of a tip from a pro photographer. You can experiment with different tissues to get the effect you are after - for his purpose at the time (documenting artwork) a single-ply of bathroom tissue did what he needed - cut the 'hot spots' and took the exposure down about a half-stop.

You never know what you'll learn when you volunteer to help out!

 

hm thanks! i didnt know about the tissue. i found a bit of packing foam its like the type u guys are using but thinner more pourus i supose.. i tried folding it numerouse times but the pics still turned out way too bright!
i shall try to experiment with tissue now ^_^

 

oh wow, what a great idea, i "HATE" my pop up flash, it destroy everything, i will most definitely be trying this!

 

it worked ^_^.. well not as well as the DIY defusor.. but thats partail that my camera's definatly not as good. its just a run of the vivitar series 1, i took a tissue (just something i blow snot on regularily) and folded it up to a thick square then taped it over my flash area.. the pics turned out like this
white skin-

nude skin

 

Oh I'm going to try this too....Thank you for the tip....

 

::tibbybows::
I've also wondered if you could get some interesting effects using coloured or textured tissues or cellophane in a similar fashion. Nice thing is, it's inexpensive and practically effort-free to experiment a bit; only reason I haven't done it is my own 'point n' shoot' camera's flash isn't bad at all for exposure, and I always forget about the tissue trick until I am uploading my shots to flikR or whatever.

 

i think i might try this!

i have been using a sock over my pop-up flash, when it is not white it can create a nice color!

 

Thanks! It was a wonderful help, I even used it to take a picture of a co-worker for a project at work!

I do love the Lumix DMC-FZ18! Not only the super zoom, but the closeups! On some of these I was actually bumping the dolls heads with the diffuser! I know there are attachments that are supposed to give it even bigger zoom and closer closeups, I'm really tempted to get them to try - or at least to get the adaptor and a UV filter or something.

 

I started to do this last night after I skimmed your thread.
And THANK YOU.
I've been getting home after dark, so I can't take pictures of my boys..well I can but I hate what flash does to my pictures, so I tried this with my Driving Log for Behind the wheel, which is like.. 5 or so pieces of paper stappled together and I got a nice almost natural look. :}



I'll be using this a lot now, thank you again. xD

 

Omg. This is a dream come true. I am so going to get some foam to work with now. I don't have many places here in the winter to take pictures of my dolls, and when doing photostories, I love taking indoor photos, sadly, my room is dark! So, now I can use flash as much as my little heart desires! 3

 

Quite nice tip. You could also experiment adding gel filters to flash for different colors if needed.

 

Thank you for this tip! I've been using all kinds of things with my poor old camera (including, most recently, obstructing about half the flash with a piece of heavy cardstock; that's on top of plastic bags, tissues, and even silk flower petals). It's got the same style flash, so I think I'll set the flash back to normal and start playing with this idea!

 

I've also found if you like to make the photo have a certain look to it you can use post it notes. Get the mini sized colored ones. Play around with it with your flash at it's highest setting. You can create a mood with a little touch of color. If you have a more white colored doll it works best. If you have one with pink or tan coloring stay away from the pink paper. Try a blue or green. If you have a really bright eye color or clothing color try to match the paper to that color or even the opposite. I use this technique on people too. That's where I got the idea.


As to the diffuser mentioned in this thread. If you are finding that your pictures are coming out a little too dim or you want the eyes to pop you can also take a tiny straight pin and poke holes around the center of where the flash will hit. This will let just enough light through to make the eyes shine but the cam in most cases will compensate and just diffuse the light over the face.

 

Thanks!
I will give it a try sometime. The thought had crossed my mind before to try taping tissue to the flash, but I was fearful of over heating.

 

Oh! I have that camera too! Thanks for the tip, I'm going to go now and try it out! The harsh flash of the Lumix drives me crazy to the point where I refuse to use it unless I have no choice! ^_^

 

Wow, this looks like a great idea! I'm constantly struggling with light here on the Wet Coast, and it doesn't help that I'm not usually up during daylight hours much. The flash tends to wash the picture.
The craft foam that I've gotten from Michaels looks like it's the perfect thickness. (Unfortunately I don't have any white, just black and brown)
I'll have to see if I can pick some up this weekend and give this a try.

Thanks so much for the great idea! I'll try to get some pictures of it with my Canon Powershot I5 IS, to see how it works with that camera.

 

your photos are so stunning...
I am going to try this DIY device when i am going to take photos of my dolls!
thank you for your advice

 

Very nice photos everyone! I'll definitely have to try this. =)

 

Two images/desktop!

Some previews. Only, I used a mirror to control the light. I made it aim for the far left or the very far right, covering most of the flash, and came out with this beautiful lighting.

 

I've got a point and shoot Nikon, a S550 Coolpix, actually, so I figured I'd try the tissue thing. The results were awesome! I shot these at about midnight, so the only light I had other than the flash was the simple ceiling light. No editing was used whatsoever. So, thank you very much.

(Also, don't mind my dollie head. XD I'm removing his default faceup and showing off his new eyes. :P )

 

That's pretty cool (and I like your Sephiroth figure in the background).

I usually put the diffuser over the lights. I never thought to put it over the flash.

 

This works so well! Thank you.

 

Alright sorry for the double post, but here are a couple of my quick quick taken results. I love having a diffuser. I just made a paper one, but I think a foam core one would be best...

just flash:


with diffuser:

 

Stumbled across this thread the other day!! What an amazing idea!! An inexpensive diffuser...cost me only .99 cents plus tax!! Sorry no pics to share as I used the idea to photograph a non BJD doll to sell as I'm buying too much LittleFee stuffs. Will add some comparison pics later of some BJD dolls. I actually bought a large size foam sheet and will be trying different lengths (this sheet is big enough to get the many different lengths) to see if it perhaps gives a different light effect...but also wanted to add that it makes a difference also how you hold your camera...i.e. horizontal or vertical. Can't wait to get some more time to experiment!!

 

I was reading this thread yesterday because I got home too late to take a pictures of my doll who just got back from customizations and I realized I didn't have anything that worked like a diffuser so I tried "bouncing" the flash. The only light in the picture came from the flash and the ceiling light. The results were surprisingly pleasing.



All I did was take a postcard (junkmail) and bent it so it curved upward and held it in front of my flash (not directly, I left a couple inches of space) while I took the pic. The postcard actually works like a bounce card and the flash bounces off it so the light in the picture is just what spills over and not direct flash. I was shooting at F4 at 1/60th with an ISO of 400 and my white balance was set to flash (lightening bolt). However, I'm sure if you wanted to shoot at a lower ISO you could shoot with a slower shutter speed. The flash itself should compensate for the shake a bit but I have yet to test this as I didn't mind the grain at 400. Of course I still had to do some adjustments in photoshop but I think it comes close to replicating daylight as one might get at 10pm

Not sure how this would work with a point and shoot cause the flash is so close to AF sensors and the lens but it worked with my DLSR.

 

I can't wait to try this out....I have been taking pictures all evening of my new dollie and none of them look right. Thanks for posting this!

 

I was doing a photoshoot this morning and managed to make use of some pretty impromptu things for diffusers. Like my hand, and a random shirt. Using your own hand as a diffuser creates a soft reddish cast to the scene that makes hands look scarily soft and lifelike.

It's amazing what effects you can get just by sticking things in front of the flash.

 

I have the same camera and always getting overexposed dolly shots.
I tried holding plain white paper in front of the flash before now but it's very hit and miss and often caused unsightly shadows or red hues but I will try your method, your results are great.
Thanks for sharing this :-)

 

Thanks for the tip! Never thought of that.

 

My take on the DIY diffuser...loooove it!
All pics were aided with non-direct light through open window...haven't yet done night shots. Only edits were cropping only! Taken w/ Lumix DMC FZ-30

Left/top side is with flash and no diffuser.....right/bottom side is w/ flash diffuser

 

You might want to try something with some thickness to it. Flash would shine through a single piece of white paper, something like card stock would work better. If you are using white or a light gray you shouldn't be getting red hues (in my example I used an orange postcard hence the color), you might want to check to see if your white balance is set to flash or not. Or if your hand is getting in the way too much (although I'm sure its probably WB). If that fails then if your camera lets you there is always the option of lessening the intensity of the flash in your settings menu.

 

I have a vivitar too... it ended up forcing me to build a light box so that I could turn my flash off to get upclose photos of things.

You might want to try using fabric to cover the flash. You will have to tape it too the flash, or fully cover that side of the camera or the light is going to bleed out and the camera will read it weird.

Different colored fabrics/papers do create different effects. If you have package of tissue paper that's multi colored, experiment with different colors, and also experiment with using more than one layer of the tissue paper covering the flash.

Out of all the digital cameras I have owned the vivitar while it takes good photos has to be fiddled with quite a bit.

 

Sweet, I had always used a stocking for my diffuser but this is even better! Thanks!

 

nice DIY diffuser and thanks for sharing

 

i just went and got a diffuser from jessops today T_T

im so gonna try this though

 

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet or not, but white translucent film canisters work very well, too. Just cut a slit big enough in it and put it over the pop-up flash. Doesn't come off very easily and fits nicely in the camera bag so it's easy to take everywhere. Here's a tutorial, too: click.

 

The sheer wealth of really simple and effective solutions that has been presented on this thread is truly fantastic!

I don't have any ideas of my own to contribute, but I thought I might list the commercially available, ready-made solutions I know of just for reference, if nothing else:

• LumiQuest "Soft Screen"
• Gary Fong "Puffer"
• Sto-Fen "Omni-Flip"
• KARLite "Pop-Up Flash Diffuser"

I am not sure that any of these necessarily provide any real advantages over the "McGuyver" solutions presented in this thread. Granted, at least the LumiQuest and Gary Fong products can be relied upon to be colour neutral, which one might not always be certain that devices made from improvised materials are. Potentially the flash light could become tinted in some unexpected way, even in materials that seem pure white to the eye.

I'm not sure about the other products, but it seems to me that the LumiQuest diffuser, while providing a nice and large 10x10cm surface, also steals away remarkably little of the light output from the flash; no more than one full stop, perhaps less. Unless you can find a really good diffuser material, this would be an advantage.

Like always, it bears to caution against copies, should you feel like buying any of these. For instance, I've seen copies of Gary Fong's design even on Amazon, for 20% of the cost of the real one. Caveat emptor.

 

great tip!!! thank you!!
yaaay in the background of the 2nd pic i can see a sephiroth

 

Ah, I'm totally going to try this out! I've had enough with shutting off the flash and trying to get clear, non-washed out shots with my shaking hands. xD

 

you can make it even simpler if you just put masking tape on the flash, I've tried it and it works wonders. If you need more thick, just add more tape!

 

I absolutely HATE my pop up flash! THIS IS LIKE... A revelation!!! I never thought about doing something like this! 8D Thank you so much!!! I will try this and experiment around!!

 

I read this yesterday and tried it last night. Works like a charm and I really love the results! Thank you very much for sharing this neat little trick!

 

This is cool and better then a 20 diffuser...

 

Thank you thank you thank! your the best!!!

 

Oh, what a great idea! The flash destroys so much at times so I'm so happy to get this tip! THANK YOU!

 

This is very clever, and great advice to give to beginning photographers. I remembered when I learned this trick in my photog. class, I started carrying a paper plate around so I could take snapshots of my friends without blasting their faces.

 

wow. O_O Never imagined... and wouldn't probably have looked if it hadn't shown up on the front page... further incoherent babbling...

Must Try! Soon!

 

I always use a small piece of greaseproof paper from the kitchen over the flash, mine pops up all the time, even in daylight. Drives me nuts! A friend of mine is a photographer and he always uses a bit of masking tape on the sides of a small piece of greaseproof paper and tapes it over the flash. It lets a little light through but disperses it so it's not just a white centre to the photograph. The light is spread out more so you can still have a bright picture just not one with a glare.

 

Oh my goodness! I never even thought of doing something like this! Good-bye, horridly washed out dolls! Than you SO much for posting this~!

 

I just bought a camera with a pop up flash and I can't wait to try this. Thanks for the tips!

 

Oh, this is great. I've only JUST started perusing the photography section since picking up my recent DSLR. I just wasn't liking my canon SLR because I use my photos mostly on my computer. Development to scan to computer was to much of a pain, so I used a tiny digital camera all of the time as a result. With this canon rebel xs I recently got I can branch out. I think this will solve my overexposure issue neatly. Dolls like my white skin Sooms always end up a mess. I can't wait to try it out tomorrow during the day.

 

thanks for the tissue over the flash tip. I had to fold the sheet a couple of times but worked like a charm.