Scratch built macro flash hood

So Hivers this is a job I have had on the back burner for some time, I have wanted a macro flash hood to fit my Olympus EM-1, Zuiko 60mm macro lens and Godox TT350 flash for sometime.

But I’ve been reluctant to fork out the $100+ the off the shelf models like AK Deffuser, or CygnesTech. Ordering all the parts off eBay has cost me about $25 so now it’s just my time and ingenuity with a little help from “Dr Jalil Photography”YouTube channel as a guide.

So what goodies did I get off eBay. There is some 1mm black plastic sheet for the main body and white translucent plastic sheet for the diffuser, some mirror sheet to act as a reflector inside the hood. And finally some plastic button fasteners to hold everything together.

First things first is a template using the camera, lens and flash to get the dimensions. For my setup these worked out at 18cm for the flash hood length and 16cm for the deffuser diameter.

Then it’s time to make up a couple of templates for the diffuser and the shroud.

The mock up looks ok and the hood is the right size for the M4/3 camera the commercial ones all seem a little large.

Looks good from the front too.

The first bit to make is the diffuser as every thing revolves around that.

Then the hood is made to fit it with a few tweaks from the template and it all comes together.

So Hivers once it gets a bit warmer and the insects start buzzing around I’ll post some macro shots using the flash hood.