The Mast Photographer

Ring flashes are often used in macro photography since they create detailed, shadowless images. As opposed to a normal camera flash which fires a spectral beam of light at the subject often creating intense/unwanted shadows, ring flashes add dimension to the image by softening the shadows while keeping the same light intensity on the subject.

Ring flashes are also used by many photographers in portrait and candid settings. They characteristically create a soft glow around the subject, and in portrait situations, create a ring in the subject's pupils.

I've always wanted to shoot with a ring flash, but professional units can cost around £500.

So I decided to make one myself...

I won't be giving a full tutorial of how to make a ring flash, but you can find several by using any online search engine.

The key to making a successful ring flash involves transferring the light from a flash source all the way around the circle, in an equal amount. By directly tunneling the light to the middle of the circle and using pieces of poster-board with a reflective side to manipulate its path, the light actually bounces off the bottom of the circle and fills around the interior. It takes some patience and a little experimenting to get the flash to come out as a full circle. However, its an inexpensive do-it-yourself project, which kept my McGyver-like ideas at play. The results are fun too!

My materials included:

1 sheet of Foam Core
1 sheet of Poster-board (w/ a reflective side)
1 piece of translucent paper
Black tape

I used my Tribune-issued Nikon D2Xs SLR camera as a model and recorded measurements so the flash unit could slide onto the head of the camera's Speedlight, while fitting around the camera's lens. (In order for the flash to be effective, the 'ring' must be on the same plane/perspective as the lens.)

Using pieces of foam core as the 'backbone' of the unit, I used strips of posterboard for the interior and exterior sides of the flash unit. The top of the unit, which acts as a periscope for the flash, was made with leftover pieces of foam core, sized and cut to fit the dimensions of my Tribune-issued Speedlight. I modified the inside of the circle with tunnels of the reflective poster-board to balance the strength of the light, and finally, covered the front of the 'ring' with translucent paper which additionally balanced the light's strength. I used black gaffers tape to hold everything together and keep it somewhat professional-looking.