Add a little bounce to your pop-up flash!
By
Mike Tomkins
(Wednesday, February 13, 2002 - 16:34 EST)
Imaging Resource reader creates his own bounce attachment for less than 60¢ - read on to find out how...
IR reader Dean Schepis dropped us an email to tell us of his dilemma in trying to find a bounce attachment for his Olympus Camedia E10 digital camera's built-in flash - and a pretty clever solution. For only 59¢ and a few minutes of work, Dean made his own attachment out of a plastic spatula - and at that price you could afford to make a few different attachments to achieve a particular effect you're looking for! This should work just fine for any camera with a pop-up flash (so long as you're careful not to cover up any sensors) - and can probably be amended for other cameras as well. We'll let Dean tell the story in his own words: "After a month of trying to find a bounce device for my Olympus E10 built in flash unit, I gave up and made my own unit for less than a dollar, plus 15 Minutes of trimming and bending.
I purchased a 59¢ bright white plastic spatula / putty knife, 3" wide, at Home Depot. I cut the spatula down to match the outline of the built in flash unit on my Olympus E-10, then I immersed the spatula in hot water and formed it to the contour of my extended flash unit, kinked the top of the blade to 45 degrees (to bounce the light) and attached it to the flash with a rubber band. Behold - a 59¢ bounce unit that works like a charm.
I have now made three versions, the basic unit described above, plus two others of the same design with a single hole in the center of each (1/4 and 1/2") to increase the direct lighting for any given situation. You can also polish the kinked reflecting surface to get more light bounce or sand it with 600 grit wet or dry sand paper to a flat finish, to reduce the amount of light bounced (for close-up work).
For 59¢ each, you can experiment to your hearts delight. I even made a set for my Canon SLR's, some using different colored spatulas (silver and yellow)." Now that's what we call ingenuity! Dean notes that using his attachment, he's found that he no longer has problems with red-eye, reduces hot-spots in close-up photos, gets lets glare on bright or reflective objects, and a softer, more subtle and even light in portraits. You can see a photo of one of Dean's bounce attachments on the Camedia E-10 below...
 | Dean's 59¢ bounce attachment on the Olympus Camedia E-10.
|
Thanks to
Dean Schepis
for this item!
|
