Canon S3 IS Flash Diffuser

I love my Canon S3 IS except for the flash. It's a pop up, no hot shoe, and it's either up or down. That's it. I can't angle it or turn it. They don't make a Puffer for the S3. My sister in law, Suezanne, told me about Puffers. She takes the most amazing shots and is a master with the flash. When she shoots faces out at night, on the town, no one ever looks washed out. The flash is always perfect. Her Puffer has a lot to do with that--not to mention skill.

I've been trying to make my own flash diffuser for a while now. I've come up with a couple of things that worked, sort of, but none of them stayed put very well on the camera which often meant I was supporting my jerry-rigged diffuser with one hand and shooting with the other. Annoying.

But, last night, I had a brainstorm. It was actually because of something another S3 user said. It made me realize there WAS a way to have a diffuser that I could attach to my camera while I took photos, it doesn't come off easily, and it's CHEAP! I should add that it requires that the lens adapter be attached to the camera--the lens adapter for the S3 is what allows one to attach the wide angle, macro, or tele-converter lenses as well as any filters.

My new diffuser did a great job last night as I was shooting the making of Cortido--see those photos HERE. I had to do very little color correction, it worked great.

Today's test photos, however, all came out with some sickly yellow/brown tones that I could not completely correct. So, perhaps, my new diffuser needs just a little more work. That's okay! It will work really well for me for now--especially for indoor shots and macro shots. Yes! It works really well for those!

All photos below were shot with a flash.

Above: First without the diffuser, second with it.

At left: 1st photo is a macro shot without the diffuser. The lens itself creates a shadow when the flash is used. But, as you can see, with the diffuser the shadow is eliminated.

At left: Really really close up with the macro. I used the flash for the first shot, but the shadow from the lens completely eclipsed the rock. With the diffuser, even though I was still really really close up, the shadow was almost entirely eliminated.

That yellowy cast is vexing me, but I'll get it figured out.

Wanna see my diffuser??? Check It.

UPDATE!!!!

I upgraded since this morning. No more yellow ucky! SOOO much better. No color correction needed!

Above: Okay, I didn't focus well, but I shot it in a dim room.

Here's the New Version of my S3 flash diffuser. I can't wait to use it for some real shooting! Won't exactly make me look like a pro, but so what?

BUT WAIT!

There's more. After updating this entry I went to the dollar store. I've read online where people talk about turning a ping pong ball into a diffuser by cutting a hole in it and sliding it over their pop-up flash. That didn't feel right to me, a ping pong ball is so small, you know? And the flash gets HOT. I'd be worried about melting the ball. Fortune was with me. I bought a cheap toy bat and hollow toy baseball set for $3. The "baseball" is a bit smaller than a real baseball and is made of some relatively thin white plastic that is easily cut with a razor blade. From the "ping pong ball diffuser" images I saw online, I feared that the toy baseball, too, would turn my images yellow. And it does, but not nearly as bad as the paper plate. And I AM shooting in a dark home--it's raining out and we don't have the best indoor lighting in the world. Yes, it's RAINING! WOO HOOO!!!!!!!

The "baseball" diffuser didn't do well on the macro shots--it doesn't diffuse the light enough to eliminate the shadow from the lens. The styrofoam plate reigns supreme in the macro experiment--but the ball diffuser will be handy nevertheless.

Above: See that yellow cast? That's the handiwork of the toy baseball diffuser. Annoying. With better ambient light, however, I bet it won't do this so much.

Above and below: The "baseball" diffuser. Shot with the styrofoam plate diffuser

Below: I cleaned the mirror up, finally, don't think I didn't notice how bad it looked in those other shots. Still some streaks on it, oh well. The ball diffuser looks pretty cool though.