I'd say the new diffusers work quite nicely, thank you very much. Very translucent specular highs. Dang, John, that's a well done shot. Looks like she's on your fingernail and your finger is pointing back at you. You just about had to throw a shoulder outa joint, huh?
Click on this image to see a 1600 pixel wide version. Take a close look at all the texture detail in the shell. In the past a ladybug would look like it had a layer of clear coat on it (even at this mag) and a lot of that fine texture detail would be missing. I'm still experimenting (got some more material coming in the mail) but if this is the light quality that I'm taking into next year then I'm happy with it...
And I thought it was a matte finish ladybug. That's a lot of detailed work on the diffusers, and thanks for telling how, but I don't know if I'd like to lose all the shadow. Maybe that's just the lighter skin surface here, no doubt we'll be seeing more.
It's the reflective nature of my finger nails Mark -there is a shadow under the ladybug, but it's soft. Also I had both flash heads connected directly to the Canon flash mount. With one of them on a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe the shadows are more pronounced (I usually elevate the key to get better shadows). What I was trying for in that shot is a worse case situation -both flash heads low and pointed right at a very reflective surface.
Even though the shadows are muted the ladybug still doesn't look flat...
I've got some more materials coming so I can tweak a few things for one more set. I'm still looking for ways to improve it, but if this is the light that I take into the next season then I'll be happy with it.
