metalmaggus's blog

...zurück in der heimat.

ja die bilder kommen bald ;)

jetz gilt es nur noch die 2000 gemachten fotos aufzuarbeiten!

juhuu,

ich hab hier wlan.

aber nur langsames un nur auf der hgauptstrasse un im eiscafé.

besser als nix ;-)

mit dem heutigen tagesfoto kommt eine 2-wöchige pause, in der ich auf malle bin :-)

dort mach ich natürlich auch fotos, die kann ich aber erst danach hochladen.

viel spass bis die tage°!

I was always really interested in macro photography. Because with available light the photographer is really limited, I wanted a macro flash. But I wanted my flash to be a bit cheaper than the Olympus TF-22 Macro flash for about 430$. Because I've read on several internet blogs that some photographers have built their own macro flashes, I decided to solve my problem this way, too. (Most of them created ring flashes, but I think a "gripper" flash would be even more effective.)

Most of the units I found in my stack, but don't mind if you can't find something what looks like the thing I used; most of the units can be constructed in alternative ways.

First, I will show you your aim, that you know what I'm talkin' about:

macro flash

For this we will use fibre optics.

To lead the fibre optics to the subject we need flexible arms. With them we will begin:

For the arms I've taken three slightly stiff but barely flexible wires. (You can also build your flash with more arms, but for the first time three arms will surely be enough.) I can not exactly say, how long they would have to be, 'cause my construction is special for each camera measurement, so read the whole manual before you begin with your creation, that you can appreciate the measures of all units you will have to use.

Perhaps you should cut the pieces in sizes about 50cm, so you can easily work with it and if it's too long you simply cut a piece off.

I simply fixed them on a small aluminium slab which had three bore holes.

macro flash - detail

So at the left bore hole I fixed two arms, the left one and the upper one. Try on your own how you exactly do it.

Instead of the slab you could use anything what you can fix the arms on, probably a simple tripod screw, but the way I did, it was really easy to fix the arms and to fix it easily at the tripod winding of my camera body.

The silver wire is the next step; It's necessary to hold a film canister in front of your built-in flash.

macro flash - detail

For this I chose a very stiff wire what I curved in a way that it exactly fits to my Olympus E-510 with the 50/2 macro on it. Because it was REALLY stiff, a hammer and a bench vice would be helpful. So the two parts of the silver wire go up the camera beside the objective. I fixed the wire with a screw at the slab. It fits to my camera in a way, that the head of the screw simply clips into the tripod winding of my camera.

Both ends of my silver wire had small bore holes. If you don't have, perhaps you can curve the ends in a way that you can create your own bore holes.

macro flash - detail

So I drilled two small holes into the film canister (For this you don't really need a drill machine) and fixed the ends of my wire with screws and screw nuts at it.

Now we come to the fibre optics:

I guess you can find some in every technical store, I bought mine at Conrad Electronics.

I paid 10 € for 10 metres. In fact, the salesman gave me about 11 metres or so.

This is not the usual fibre optic you know from alien lamps or stuff like this, with 1mm it's barely strong.

At home I cut it in small pieces; for the upside arm I took 20cm, for the right and the left arm I took 25cm. I would advise you to make the pieces 'bout 5cm longer, 'cause mine are

macro flash - detail

The arms should at least be long enough to come right next to your subject.

I fixed the fibre-optic-bundles with some cable straps at the green arms.

It would be helpful to use two cable straps for each arm, one for the bundle itself and another one to fix the bundle at the arm.

Then I drilled a hole into the bottom of the film canister (without drill machine, too; I guess I used a scissor or so.) and

macro flash - detail

If everything was done all right, you now should have a construction what nearly looks similar to my final product:

macro flash

I'm afraid, with only 10 metres of fibre optics you can't direct all the light of your flash to your object. So if your construction works, but you haven't got enough light to shoot with really close aperture, you should add more fibre optics or even more arms.

Now you must try which camera settings to use. At slightly close aperture I would advise to flash with full power and to regulate the light by adjusting the flash's distance to your subject or with small corrections with the aperture.

At least the whole list of what you need:

-about 10 metres of fibre optics

-some screws and screw nuts

-a film canister

-some slightly stiff but barely flexible wire

-a really stiff wire

-a small slab (or sth else to fix the arms on)

-many cable straps

-a camera with a built-in flash

-'bout 2 hours of time

I'm German, so I'm not a native speaker, and sometimes it's really hard for me to express myself. I hope my English wasn't that bad that you would kill me in the street ;-)

If you have any questions or something to add, simply post a comment to this blog entry or send me an E-Mail.