Semi-budget macro flash

[sleeping]

What do you get when you combine a couple of cheap slave flashes with a bendy-armed flash bracket?

A: This

Which can work rather like a ringlight:

But it’s a bit more versatile, e.g. you can use one head to hit the background more:

I also took it outside briefly and made some shots at 1:1, too:


The slaves are Sunpak PF20XD’s chosen because they’re cheap, light, small and have variable manual output. I was also considering cabled options, but this seems to work – I didn’t have any trouble triggering the slaves with my D700, I set the on camera flash to manual 1/64 and it worked reliably.

The arms are this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WDUKP8

Flashes: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/471834-REG/Sunpak_PF20XD_PF20XD_Auto_Manual_Digital_Slave.html

[orionid]

Awesome…. I’ve been looking at ways of doing a wired variety with disposable cameras converted to slaves, but this setup is way better than what I was sketching…

[Curious]

that is pretty slick.

[chupathingie]

Neat… and timely! I’ve got overtime to go spend and have been considering options for a macro light…

[chupathingie]

…and I’m going to sound completely ignorant asking this, but how are they triggered?

[Curious]

they are slaved. see sleeping‘s original post and the link for them.

[chupathingie]

Yeah, I did that…so does that mean they’re triggered by the light from the camera’s built-in flash? I guess what I’m looking for is a description and mechanics of the term “slave”.

n/m, I see that is the case… google is awesome.

[sleeping]

Yeah, I set the built in flash to manual on it’s minimum power setting, so it’s not really contributing to the exposure, but at this close distance it is enough to trigger at least one of the slave sensors on the flashes (because they’re pointing somewhat at each other, one slave will trigger the other if it doesn’t see the on camera flash)

[Author]

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