Hasta La Ideas

In the photography studio I run, I’ve got a seven-foot Octobank similar to this:

The concept behind it is simple. You have a strobe with a small flashtube bulb, just a few inches in diameter, that puts out a blast of light when it’s fired. The inside of the Octobank is lined with reflective material, like that on the inside of this umbrella:

That giant cloud of reflected light then goes through a big white diffuser on the business end of the Octobank, like this one:

And the result is a massive amount of light — able to emulate sunlight in certain shots — from a relatively tiny flashtube.

This principle is being put to good effect by Photojojo with their Ring Flash Adapter. An ordinary ring flash, which encircles your lense and throws a halo-like light on your subject, is its own light source; PhotoJojo’s clever accessory is merely a system of channels and reflectors, relying instead on your on-camera flash to provide the power. It’s brilliant, both literally and figuratively, and cheap as heck at just $40. (A regular ring flash can run into the hundreds.)

via gadgetlab

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