Flash Photography Projects

Articles, Videos, and DIY projects on Flash Photography

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Yeah, they rock! Was a bit worried about the size, type of material, and how much weight these things would carry, but I totally under estimated the quality. It's all metal in every segment. Lots of different mounting options from Male thread, to Female Threaded insert, to Hot shoe. Very cool highly positionable little arms that carry a crap load of weight. In the video above i'm showing these things carrying my other DSLR's while mounted to a Letus Talon DSLR Camera Cage. If you're looking to bring that Z96 LED video light a bit higher, move your Shotgun Microphone further away from the camera, add an HDMI LCD Monitor, or position your Portable Audio recorder into view so you can control it faster, these are the things that will help get your rig customized. If used with the Nano clamps, they become more versatile to mount onto Lightstands, onto the Rods of your rig, or clip onto the legs of your Tripod. In the past these types of arms ran well over $90 dollars for everything included, but here's a seller pawning them off for half that price: Link >> DSLR Variable Position Flexible Power Arm for Accessory Mounting

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find-price-button Lightweight Variable Friction Power Arm For DSLR

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find-price-button Manfrotto Nano Clamp

[Update] There was a comment in one of the earlier posts, that this item looks similar to the arms sold from Vibesta. Shortly after posting this article, I get an email from Mark of Vibesta. Here's a little bit more information from the man of Vibesta himself...

Hi all,
This is Mark from Vibesta and I can shed some light on this.
We are the manufacturer of these arms so if you find the identical arm somewhere it is from us (or a copy of it). It is right that we produce it in china to be able to offer it at the lowest price possible and we take great care of quality control to offer arms that are of the same or better quality compared to the best arms on the market.

We sell the arms to manufacturers, retailers and final customers so it is possible to get it through different sources but we try to offer Vibesta arms locally in as many countries as possible so that customers don’t have to pay high shipping costs or wait a longer time for their order – for example within the USA you can order Vibesta arms from Express35.com or Cory Easom, for europe we have local stock in Germany and we are constantly adding retailers within other countries to our network. We will very soon update our website so that it gives you more information where you can order our products locally.

As prices don’t differ a lot I would encourage you to order from a local source if possible to support your local dealers and also for better and more direct customer service.

Best regards,
Mark

Well i'm not sure how to follow up on this one. Obviously, If you're looking for these types of products in the US, check out the suggested retailers. If you're in Germany, Vibesta has the products locally. As far as the overseas sales, i'm guessing it's not going to be around very long....

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Aaron mentioned he received the Yongnuo 560 Flash for off camera use, and threw up a demo video. From the information in the video, i'm pretty impressed. This YN-560 version doesn't support TTL, but when using my Yongnuo RF-602 triggers, I'm using my flashes all manually anyways. I can see event photographers using these either on light stands or clamped around the ceiling to get some extra light into a dim lit event. Especially since they are fairly cheap, I wouldn't be as worried about damage or theft leaving them around. I'm totally paranoid just throwing my Canon 580 EX II's in places that seem 'untrustworthy'. I guess I found my backup solution. Thanks Aaron, for the demo on these inexpensive Yongnuo YN-560 flashes.

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Yongnuo YN-560 Camera Flash

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The above video shows use of a Ring Flash adapter. I'm just using this video as an example, but the 'O Flash' - Ring Flash adapter finally came in for me. The 'O Flash' is the cheaper version of the Ray Ring or Coco Ring Flash. I do notice that the connector piece for the Ray Ring and Coco Flash have a hard mold that appears to be shaped for Manufacturer specific flashes. This 'O Flash' Ring flash adapter that I recieved uses a very hard rubber mold with a velcro tension strap. Therefore this O Flash is more modular and generic, and can be used regardless of flash type. The Ray Ring sells for $199 dollars, the Coco Ring Flash can be found around $50 dollars, and the 'O Flash' sells for a mere $36 bucks + Free Shipping.

Many people associate these for Macro or sometimes used as a very close up Portrait ring flash. It's a handy thing for me to carry as another diffuser option for my Canon 580 EX II. This design carries the light from a single flash into a circular ring light, giving it really nice diffusion towards your subject. Normally flashes are diffused by way of bouncing the light which still can cause uneven lighting and loss of flash power. One of the cool accessories I already own is the Yongnuo RF-602 Wireless triggers. With these triggers, I can even use this flash off camera as a nice soft beauty ring. Now I have this setup on a lightstand, but the Yongnuo RF-602 triggers also have a 1/4x20 thread if you want to mount it directly to a tripod.

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It was so cool using this off camera, and honestly I don't know of anyone using them in this manner. I plan on getting a second one specifically for a portable studio lighting setup. With one on each side firing off, i'm sure to get super duper clean images, balanced lighting, with a tiny footprint. Would be an excellent diffuser to use for Wedding or Event type photographers. If you're not fond of the O Flash logo on the front, just place a Logo of your business. Guaranteed brand recognition for you. LOL! I'm betting after this post, we'll see more people using them in combination with the very cheap Yongnuo RF-602 wireless triggers. Here's the link to the $36 dollar O Flash - Ring Flash Adapter.

Curious as well, what if I connected this to the Z96 LED Video Light? Would it provide enough light through the ring to become an LED ring light? I'm in the studio now, i'll check when I get home. That would be interesting....

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YongNuo Combo Wireless Remote Shutter + Wireless Flash Trigger

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Yesterday was the holiday so mail wasn't running. This morning the first few items come in and they are both photography accessories to aid in Macro Photography. Actually i'm interested in testing one of these out as a video option. I'll keep you guessing for now, and open them up when I have time later today. Can't wait to test them out though!

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Chuckarama sends in his complete configuration using two Alzo brackets, one double flash bracket, and a Macro Rail. The Macro rail is not necessary, you can probably swap that for a nice QR adapter. So everything looks like a straight bolt on of parts without any DIY cutting, grinding, or drilling. It's definitely got a wide grip stance for extra stability and at the same time plenty of room for accessory mounting with the 4 cold shoes.

I was planning to cut an Aluminum flat bar to join my two L brackets together, but I really like the simplicity of that double flash bracket, I may have to go that route myself. This design is for lightweight setups, so i'll probably use this setup without a battery grip. I should be able to shrink down many of the accessories I have if I use the Zoom H1 instead of Zoom H4n, and change the Rode VideoMic to the smaller Sennheiser MKE-400 Shotgun Mic. I'll also replace the usual 126 LED Video Light with the Z96 Dimmable LED light to make things even more rigid and compact and it should be a nice little runner gunner.

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Z96 Dimmable DSLR Video Light

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Two new items came in today. One you can see has a crap load of stamps, so you know that's an overseas item. It's a neat thing that i'll show later on. The other brown box might look familiar to many of you, for anyone that's placed an order from bhphotovideo.com and guess what's peeking out....reviews to follow soon.

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So first thing in the larger bag is my YongNuo Wireless Trigger / Remote set. I talked about them in this article: http://cheesycam.com/never-ending-upgrades-wireless-shutter-flash-remotes/. As you know i've been building up a studio and these versatile triggers can wear many different hats around the equipment i'm using. First off, I can now use my Canon 580 EX II's through the hotshoe these remotes provide, or trigger my studio strobes through a PC sync cord these offer, and if I really needed to, trigger my camera shutter. OK that's a bit overkill to remotely trigger my camera in studio, but I really was just looking to replace some old Pocket Wizards since these will allow me to expand to more triggers at very minimal cost. For times when I don't want to travel with my ST-E2 or Radio Popper PX's, these will work great. I'll do some closeup detailed photos possibly tonight or this weekend and explain why I currently use so many different trigger sets.

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find-price-button Yongnuo RF-602 Wireless Triggers for Studio, Speedlight, and Camera

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After posting about the possible Double L bracket stabilizer idea, Dave Taylor over at DaveTaylorMP.com shares a few images of his Double L Bracket setup with what looks like a Canon 550D / T2i. He's using the Video Camera Light Bracket - by alzodigital.com which has two cold shoe mounts. He mentions that he also added the Trek Tech T Pod Table-Top Tactical Tripod With Magmount Star to his configuration for a simple Shooter rig with an extra handle. His inspiration for this came from TheC47.com video below. Check it out, looks pretty cool if you can't afford the RedRock Micro theEvent Rig.

I'm still looking to mount two L brackets but with an Aluminum flat bar in between to make the handles more level, and a QR adapter dead center. Maybe i'll change that center AL bar into a 'T' bar so that I can support both a QR adapter and room for the T-Pod configuration. Thanks for sharing Dave!

Update: Reader Chuckarama just sent in this Flat bracket that looks like it will do the job in between the L brackets. Should be able to mount a QR plate and still be Tripod mountable. Great job Chuckarama! Let me know how that comes out when you're done.

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Canon MR-14EX TTL Macro Ring Flash

So friend of mine recently picked up a T2i only for Photography and no interest in Video. Most of the shots he's been sharing is all related to close up nature / macro type images. There's several things he can probably improve upon such as shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings, but he's learning. Another great item to really boost the color, focus, and sharpness with Macro photography is Flash Lighting. Macro flashes are designed to throw the light evenly around a small subject providing almost shadowless lighting. Of course you have to be pretty serious about Macro photography before you getting into the flashes, as the good ones like the Canon MF-14EX TTL (above) will easily run you over $400 dollars.

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Ray Flash Ring Adapter

If you want to go a bit cheaper with off the shelf gear, there are some options such as the Ray Ring flash adapter that bend the light from your normal Speedlite. This item sits over your existing Flash. The Ray Ring will still run you about $199.95. There's obviously clones to everything these days and you can find Ray Ring Flash clones (probably not the same build quality) called O flashes for around $32.00 dollars (below).

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O Flash Macro Ring Light

If you're on the cheap cheap like me, this all reminded me of that very old DIY Ring-Flash article and got me inspired to try my hand at it. I'm sure he's not ready to dish out quite so much money, so maybe I can whip something up for him to get better photos on the cheap. This thing looks pretty effective.

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