This blog is devoted to the application of optical fibers in photography. I have several homemade (DIY) flash adapters channeling the light from the flash close to the lens. The technique can be used mainly for macro photography, but I will show examples for wide angle close focus techniques as well. The recent version is called fiberstrobe V3, hence the name of the blog is "fiberstrobe".

Sunday, June 10, 2012

LEGO meets loc-line and optical fibers (and they all go underwater)


I couldn't resist and bought a MeiKe cheap UW housing for my nex-5. It's specifically designed for the 16mm pancake lens, hence the whole set-up is really small. First I thought that I will use for available light photos mainly in pool or for snorkelling.
This housing also accommodate the on-board flash (actually it’s a small add on GN7 flash), but due to it's position first I thought it's useless.
Later on came the idea to split and channel the light via optical fibers to a better position. I had many non-underwater project combining optical fibers and loc-line flexible arms.
My only problem was the attachment of the arms to the housing and here came the LEGO to the picture. So I stole some bricks from the collection of my son and glued it to the housing and created this:



So it covers the front and prevent any front lighting but channels the light to the side in the arms.



Recent underwater adapters are mainly using this concept to create snoots (AKA fibersnoot) but I decided to spread the light a bit instead of focusing it:



The same LEGO concept may also work for DIY optical triggering of external stobes.

Picture below shows the rig in work (taken in the mirror):



I tested only once (actually today) in a local lake with not so good visibility and the results are not bad (but don't expect spectacular pictures mainly due to the conditions, lack of good subjects and skills of the photographer). But at least the flash didn't cause any backscatter.




2 comments:

  1. That is freaking RAD!!! That pike looks wicked. Such a cool project! Makes me want to go shopping for fiber.

    Thanks for sharing this.

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  2. Hi Jamie!
    It's not a universal solution but it works in several cases but won't replace an external strobe (but it might be combined with it).
    It's a cheap add on and works fine for close subjects and add a "kiss of light" for fish photos.

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