Up Close with Nature

This is my friend, Steb1's Macro Rig. He uses a small flash which is mounted onto a Cokin P type square filter holder and square filter lens hood. Steb1 is also the one who started the concave diffuser! In his own words: A side view of the set-up. It shows a foam concave diffuser with the end folded up, and the flash has additional elastic bands to hold it secure. It is only a cheap Polaroid

Melvyn Yeo's Macro Rig. His rig consists of the Canon 5DM2, Canon 100mm L macro lens, Extension Tubes, Raynox DCR 250 closeup filter, 270ex flash and  DIY diffuser. You can check out more of his works on his DeviantArt page here and Facebook page here. 270EX on the hotshoe with a reflective board to push the light downward, and diffused by a huge concave diffuser attached to the front of the

Hisham Marmin's Macro rig. You can find his blog here, and his Facebook page here. You can also find more macro rigs here. His macro rigs consists of Pentax K5, SMC Pentax D FA Macro 100mm F2.8 WR3, Pentax AF160C Macro Ring Flash. However, instead of using the ring flash the way it is intended to be, i.e mounted onto the front of the lens, this is what he does. The images here should be self

CW's macro rig. Canon 7D, Tamron SP90 (and extension tubes), 270EX II, FMMB and concave diffuser. You can find some info on FMMB here and here. More macro rigs here. All images by Cheewai. 270EX II (wireless) on FMMB (Front Mounted Macro Bracket, which allows the speedlight unit to always stay in front even as you zoom and the lens extends out. You can find some info on FMMB here and here.

Every MT-24EX user should check out Rob Ault's brilliant adjustable diffusers before making one of his/her own. These are the items that he uses in his rig: 1. Kaiser Bounce Flash Shoe x 2 2. Gary Fong Lightsphere II Inverted Dome(Translucent) x 2 3. Velcro Sticky-Back Hook & Loop Fastener  4. Blu-Tack Re-usable Adhesive 5. White Styrene Sheet Rob Ault's macro rig. Top view. Rob has two

Okay, more like his backup macro rig since he too already has the MT-24EX. Again, a single 270EX / 270EX II is used here. The speedlite is placed upside down/belly up, like what I mentioned here. All he needed were some adhesive-backed velcro, and a lens hood. If you have a 270EX II and a newer body such as the 60D, 7D, 600D, you don't even need the OC-E3 cord as you can trigger the flash

This is an alternative to the FMMB and it is also wireless! No ETTL cord (CANON OC-E3 OFF CAMERA SHOE CORD ) needed! If you really like the FMMB (Front Mounted Macro Bracket) but don't know how to DIY one for yourself, fret not. There's an easy way out, and it won't really cost you a lot! Items like extension tubes and Canon Speedlite 270EX II Flash  are items that will come in really handy in

Sharing another full flash macro rig. This time it's from Matt (MVers on Flickr). He uses Sigma 150mm and 48mm of tubes plus 1.4X TC. More macro rigs here. Sigma 150, 48mm of extension tubes, 1.4x teleconverter, 580EX II and big DIY Diffuser. There is an adjustable panel for you to control the amount of light diffusion to suit different subject. Great idea, right? You can control the

As mentioned in my previous post on using a single 270EX for macro, there were two issues that needed to be addressed. The two issues were: 1. shadow on the lower part of the subject 2. very dim catch light in subject's eyes. In my opinion, these two issues were caused by the fact that the 270EX was too far out and as a result, the light would come down from a higher angle. In this post, I

By now, I am sure you are aware that many of my macro friends use single 270EX as their light source for macro. Just check out this post in case you missed that. It's been proven without any doubt that a single 270EX is just as good as twin flash. Two of the easiest and most light weight ways of holding the 270EX in place are: 1. an FMMB (front mounted macro bracket).  More info about the FMMB

This post is all about macro diffusers. Since I have posted so many different types of macro diffusers before in my blog, I thought it is a great idea to have a summary list of all the macro diffusers here for easier reference: Macro Diffuser for pop up flash / built in flash. Highly recommended if you already have a macro lens but no budget for a speedlite / speedlight yet. Macro diffuser

If you want to try out macro but not willing yet to fork out good money for a real macro lens until you are really sure that macro is for you, then this post is for you. Depending on what lenses you already have, one of these options should work for you. Approximate prices indicated for reference. 1. Raynox DCR250 This is a +8 diopter lens that you can snap onto your existing

In this post, you will see how you can turn either a 35-80mm, or a 28-80mm into a macro lens with absolutely minimal effort. All you need to do is to remove the front element and you will be rewarded with a macro lens capable of going from around 0.7X to 1.8X (1:1.35 to 1.85:1). For more "cheap macro" ideas, check this out. This is not my idea. I stumbled across a thread on hacking a 35-80mm

In this post, I will be sharing a few different macro rigs from my friends. Their diffusion works really well and you can see that in the images in the sample shots for yourself. Well, I like to look at other people's macro rigs. You should too. It really gets the creative juices  flowing. If you would like to check out my macro rig, it's here. Before we start, let's be reminded that I don't

As mentioned in this post, I have been testing this simple yet effective diffuser for my Canon MT24EX twin flash. It's a variation of SteB1's cup diffuser. He's one of the most brilliant macro experts I've met online! The front of the diffuser does tend to get in the way when i try to approach my subjects. I trimmed a bit off the PP material on the front and the side but ended up with light

As you all know, I made a DIY Snoot Diffuser just for the loaned Canon 100mm f/2.8 IS L USM lens. This DIY Snoot Diffuser is designed to work on the 580EXII. Here are a few sample full flash shots from that setup: 100 IS and 580EX II speedlight and DIY Snoot Diffuser. I hope you find this DIY SLR photography tip useful. The making of the DIY Snoot Diffuser is here. How i further improved it to

So i have a DIY Snoot Diffuser that works on the Canon 100 f/2.8 IS lens and 580EX II speedlight. It works fine but I knew i could be better with a bit of further improvement. If you missed the first part i.e. DIY Snoot-Diffuser / macro diffuser, it's here. If you are looking for  DIY macro Diffuser for your MT24EX, look here. Since the diffuser is designed for 1:1 situation and the angle not

This is how I made a DIY Snoot Diffuser that would work on a 40D, Canon 100 mm f/2.8 L IS macro lens, and 580EX II speedlight. If you are looking for a great DIY macro diffuser for the MT24EX, look no further. You can find the cheapest yet the best DIY concave diffuser I've DIYed so far here. Let me re-iterate that macro doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg. If you haven't already read it