Macro Flash Diffusers

Taking inspiration from No Cropping Zone a great site for anyone interested in Macro photography, I have been building some new diffusers for my MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite.

The main diffusers are two 'puffer' type diffusers designed for use on onboard flashes. These have had there arms shortened and have been taped to a sto-fen style diffuser with the front cut off which acts as a frame to hold the diffusers in place.

To finish off two pieces of foil covered card where put at the top and bottom of the diffuser and the whole thing was gaffa taped together.

I will be trying these out and if all goes well I will try and come up with a more permanent solution using less sticky tape! 

Playing with light

It was a mostly gloomy day today with some rain and the odd spot of sunshine. I decided to break out my new Flash extender and have a go at a variety of techniques for lighting the birds in my back garden.
A makeshift hide was set up in the shed and then it was just a case of waiting!

Quite a few of our regular visitors turned up and I managed to get a few shots I liked.

This shot of a Great Tit was illuminated using flash only as at this time it was raining and very gloomy, I had to do some work in photoshop as there was a lot of reflection from the retina.

For this Starling, I used a burst of flash to try and lift the colour a little as the sky was very overcast.

And finally this Greenfinch was captured in the best light of all, sunlight!

The flash extender was great really allowing me to use flash over much longer distances than I could ever achieve without.