Point-and-Shoot Ring Flash Diffuser

Give your cheap digital camera a cool upgrade usually reserved for high-end photography by creating a ring flash diffuser from stuff around the house!

If your like me, and can't even afford a DSLR, then you probably can't afford a $300 ring flash either. Not to worry, by diffusing the light from your point-and-shoot's flash, you too can produce the same effect achieved by professionals (sorta).

Step 1 Materials

There are a number of different things you could use to get the same result, but for this particular model I used the following:

Black film canister
Photo tape
Foil
Parchment paper
Plastic jar
1/8" plastic sheet

Comments

[Spypro]

Very nicely done man.

[iamunique127]

 Good one.
Just like any ring flash this can be very useful for macro photography.
It gives nice even light all around your tiny subject in situations where you might not have enough light. The bare flash in those situations creates a horrible look if it works at all.
A ring flash softens the light and illuminates your subject all the way around the lens.
Looking forward to more of your photo related instructables.

[kenskier]

Great job! One suggestion: Could you show some "before-and-after" photos, to demonstrate the effect of your ring flash diffuser? (e.g. photos of the same subject, from the same distance--one photo with just the camera's built-in flash, and one photo using your diffuser.) Thanks! I look forward to your further enhancements to point-and-shoot cameras.

[alpacalypse]

Sure thing! I've been slacking on putting up all my instructables and they are starting to pile up!! Thanks for the comment.

[theRIAA]

i made one of these for macro shooting with my cannon a620. the only difference is it's square outside, and the ring is a couple cut styrofoam cups, so the light is pointed "in" toward the lens instead of out forward. The whole thing doesn't stick out more than the lens so i can easily take macro pictures of anything close up with flash. They look amazing and evenly lit even if it's pretty much touching the lens, instead of having the flash overpower the upper left side of the picture, and the other side be black. Something you might add is a way to make the light more uniform around the ring. I added long diamond shaped strips of foil on the inside of the styrofoam cups next to the flash to make the ring have completely uniform light.

[maruawe]

Neat very neat

[wobblestar]

Clever!

[Blue_Dream]

OMG Great job guy