Hi all
as most of you know im quite enjoying macro work at the moment and i see a lot of you are getting into it to.
i beleive a large factor of good macro shots is down to the light source, wheather this be the sun, flash or both.
i like to use flash most of the time for macro, mostly for fill in flash but sometimes its essential when there isn't enough ambient light.
one of the biggest problems i found was getting the flash gun in the right position. So i went about making a flash bracket, this being my second attempt. the first was made from solid aluminum and could hold two flash guns either side of the lens, it worked well in getting light onto the subject but as you can imagine it was very heavy and cumbersome to use.
so i went back to the drawing board and came up with this much more simple but effective design.
1
As you can see its a simple L shape, made from laminated cross core birch ply.
2
it has two cut outs for fixing the flash gun bracket and another for fixing the camera
3
I made the slots long so the height of the flash can be adjusted, the bracket can also be moved forwards and backwards from the camera.
4/ sorry for bad pics had to use my phone for this part.
you can see how the bracket can be moved in any direction around the camera.
5
Here's how i normaly have the flash
6
7
8
Because the bracket is laminated its extreamly strong so holds the flash gun comfortably, its also very very light, it weights about the same as my mac 3 razor.
The hardest part of the whole bracket was getting the 1/4 inch whitworth threads, As i believe whitworth threads were the old english standard, started in the 18th centry, they have been superseeded now by a new thread pattern but any good nut and bolt shop will still have them.
thats pretty much all there is to it. the brackets are pretty simple to make, i've made and kept the jig used to curve the bracket and was thinking of making more so i could use multiple flashes off of one bracket. if there is any intrest i could possibly make more and send them to people depending on postage costs.
any ways onto the pics. as always C+C is encouraged
as most of you know im quite enjoying macro work at the moment and i see a lot of you are getting into it to.
i beleive a large factor of good macro shots is down to the light source, wheather this be the sun, flash or both.
i like to use flash most of the time for macro, mostly for fill in flash but sometimes its essential when there isn't enough ambient light.
one of the biggest problems i found was getting the flash gun in the right position. So i went about making a flash bracket, this being my second attempt. the first was made from solid aluminum and could hold two flash guns either side of the lens, it worked well in getting light onto the subject but as you can imagine it was very heavy and cumbersome to use.
so i went back to the drawing board and came up with this much more simple but effective design.
1
As you can see its a simple L shape, made from laminated cross core birch ply.
2
it has two cut outs for fixing the flash gun bracket and another for fixing the camera
3
I made the slots long so the height of the flash can be adjusted, the bracket can also be moved forwards and backwards from the camera.
4/ sorry for bad pics had to use my phone for this part.
you can see how the bracket can be moved in any direction around the camera.
5
Here's how i normaly have the flash
6
7
8
Because the bracket is laminated its extreamly strong so holds the flash gun comfortably, its also very very light, it weights about the same as my mac 3 razor.
The hardest part of the whole bracket was getting the 1/4 inch whitworth threads, As i believe whitworth threads were the old english standard, started in the 18th centry, they have been superseeded now by a new thread pattern but any good nut and bolt shop will still have them.
thats pretty much all there is to it. the brackets are pretty simple to make, i've made and kept the jig used to curve the bracket and was thinking of making more so i could use multiple flashes off of one bracket. if there is any intrest i could possibly make more and send them to people depending on postage costs.
any ways onto the pics. as always C+C is encouraged
