Sample shots with the Ring Flash

I have been giving the Pentax D-FA macro with the AF080C ring flash attached a bit of a run.
I have been getting pretty good results, the only thing i don't like is the obvious hot spot on some of the shots. I have the flash set at quarter output and thats as far as i can go with it.
I need to fashion some sort of defusser for it
Any recommendations :
Here are 3 examples



Aperture-f13 Exposure-1/60 Iso-200



Aperture-f9.5 Exposure-1/20 Iso-100



Aperture-f8 Exposure-1/60 Iso-200

The detail on number 2 is great

My old trick was a (clean) handkerchief or tissue paper. Anything white and translucent will do The more layers you put, the greater the restriction of light. Even a sheet of paper cut to the right size and taped with masking tape or bluetak will work wonders

It'd be a little more tricky on a ring flash... but not that much more difficult. In fact, you may want to diffuse all but a section of the ring so you still get some directional light too.

Matt

Thanks Matt, so if i was too diffuse say half of the ring, would there be any preference as to what half i cover and what half i leave open. Top, Bottom, Side : :

I think I'd go for the bottom, or even at a 45 degree angle, so you get some directional light, and it would work equally as well whether you had the camera in landscape or portrait orientation.

By the way, I could be wrong, but reducing the flash power isn't going to make the reflections any less harsh, as you need to open up the aperture more, and you therefore let just as much light in. Only difference would be if the power was low enough to balance it with daylight, but then you might run into problems with ghost images if the shutter speed's too slow.

Dan

P.S. Nice detail on the first two, but the last one's a little soft.

I love the detail in the second one. From what I've read on ringflashes, there's not much you can do about the doughnut at the centre of the image (or often in the subjects eyes). It's the drawback of the system balanced against the lighting benefits.

I'd have thought, like Dan, blocking off a 45 degree angle from the bottom either left or right, might give a less flat image, i.e. introduce some shadow beneath the subject. But that might need a more opaque cover.

Thanks for the tips, I will continue experimenting and see what i come up with.
I was thinking of cutting a piece from a milk bottle and using some blue tack as Matt suggested, but i will also try anything else i may find around the place

Plastic milk bottles do seem to the the staple of DIY diffuser enthusiasts - I use one

One improvement that Pentax made to the AF140C was to incorporate a diffuser over the flash tubes.

Any transluscent white plastic should do fine. Plastic milk bottles or ice cream tubs are good.