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photo:flash_mod
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flash modifiers
- home made bouncers:
- special flash units with proprietary modular flash modifiers:
- on the net:
- http://strobist.blogspot.com/ - blog discussing cheap portable lighting solutions and ideas
- http://davidtejada.blogspot.com/2008/04/beauty-dish-for-sb-800.html - home made cheap beauty dish
- http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3042098 - diffused umbrella setup
- http://portraitlighting.net/modifier_test.htm - modifiers compared for portraits
- http://www.scantips.com/lights/umbrellas.html - what umbrellas do
- http://www.warehouseexpress.com/category/basecategory.aspx?cat03=3102 - flash accessories
- http://www.stevesphotoshop.co.uk/folding_instructions.html - how to fold a light tent
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eER8hhhg28o - video - how to fold an EZCube light cube
Colour Gels
- get a CTO (colour temperature orange) gel to use your flash mixed with tungsten lighting, or juts to give a warm contrast to a bluer daylight ambient background by setting WB.
- get a Window Green gel to try to match flash with fluorescent lighting, but this is much more difficult.
- Roscolux Gel swatches:
- use name badge holder to attach to flash - see http://www.pbase.com/digipets/image/89400531
miscellaneous modifiers
Peter Gregg's Bettabounce Card:
- cheap - can make them yourself or buy them from him online;
- relies on a white surface (eg. roof, wall, white suit) to bounce main light as well as some light bouncing off the card.
- cut out a trapezoid shaped card from a 6”x6.5” white foam sheet (Miracle from CreativeHands from a craft store) creating a trapezoid with 6.5” top and 4.5” bottom
- adding a 2” midline vertical black stripe reduces central hotspot which otherwise tends to cause unwanted specular reflections off shiny noses, chins, cheeks, foreheads and glasses (Peter's Feather-Light)
- the card is then placed around the top of your flash held on by a wide rubber band.
- uses 800ISO, f/4-5.6 bouncing off ceiling indoors, set shutter to almost match ambient lighting
- can also be glued upside down onto the ring for a Quantum flash
Flip-It:
- velcro-attachable plastic bounce card that can be angled
Lumiquest ProMax Pocket Bouncer:
- folds flat to ~ 7” x 4.5”
- ~1.3 stops light loss
Lumiquest 80/20:
- pros:
- The shoot through and reflectors of the LumiQuest make less of a reduction to the flash power than does the Omni-bounce.
- With the Pro-max kit inserts there is tremendous versatility…you can go from 100% bounce off the 80/20 or 80 off the ceiling. You can insert colored reflectors like a gold reflecter to produce a warmer tone.
- Can be moved from flash to flash with only the addition of some extra velcro strips.
- Larger light source than Omnibounce means shadows are softer (in pure diffusion mode.)
- cons:
- Big and bulky kit to carry and put on flash, may intimidate some subjects.
- Requires velcro strips on flash.
- Requires setup change when going from landscape to portrait flash orientation.
Sto-fen Omnibounce:
- pros:
- Small and portable.
- Quick to attach.
- Robust design…works with and without ceilings without set-up change.
- Works in portrait and landscape mode without setup change.
- Less expensive for a single flash.
- cons:
- Large light loss.
- Less of a bouncer because of design and light loss…more of a diffuser.
Gary Fong's Lightsphere II:
- flexible clear vinyl diffuser
- similar to Sto-fen omnibounce but larger diffusion area
- ? better as a bouncer off ceiling whilst simultaneously providing direct diffused flash
- optionally can be used with a dome diffuser without bouncing for use outdoors, etc.
Demb diffuser:
- many prefer it to the Fong Lightsphere as it is smaller & less expensive
Mini-softboxes:
- flash only lights a part of the front diffuser, limiting its effectiveness
- Lumiquest mini-softbox
- Micro Apollo 45 (8”x5”), 60 (10”x7.5”), XL (16”x10”)
- fold flat, attach via velcro
- Lastolite Ezybox:
- 15” x 15”
Larger soft boxes:
- using studio light soft boxes for portable flash:
- speed ring adapter
- home-made speed ring adapters:
- Westcott Magic Slipper with rotating speed ring adapter:
- umbrella-style soft boxes:
- 50” and 28” square softboxes from Westcott Apollo
-
- although the flash is place INSIDE the softbox, if the TTL sensor is aimed toward the white diffuser and the flash aimed back to the silver reflector, the Canon ST-E2 can still trigger the flash in ETTL mode.
- using a flash inside this softbox, means any built-in sensor for auto flash mode will not work, thus you must use wireless TTL, wired TTL, full manual, of if you have an external separate sensor (eg. Metz 45 Mecamat controller) which could be mounted outside the softbox and aimed at the subject.
- see my demo here
-
- Softliter - round softbox
large beauty dishes
- you can purchase adapters to mount your flash on a light stand to connect to a studio beauty dish.
- my tests using a Canon 580EXII flash at full output into a Bowens beauty dish with grid gives a GN 8m at ISO 100 - not great but at 2m from subject, this gives an aperture of f4, so is very usable for fashion shots as long as you are not in direct sunlight.
Snoots, Gobos, Honeycomb grids:
- it is pretty easy to make your own snoot to give a narrow beam of light from your flash, such as using a Pringles can on a Canon 580EX II
- light shapers:
- David Honl's velcro-based flash modifiers for most flash guns / Honl Photo - velcro-based system of snoots, gobo, barn doors effect
- Zoot Snoot - neoprene snoots that can be shorted by just folding them back
Ring flashes:
- ring flashes are generally used mounted on the front of the lens to provide an all around, encompassing flat light with no significant shadows.
- they can provide very stark looking images if used on their own.
- this is ideal for some macro subjects where you are not interested in texture, and the larger versions are useful for portraiture.
- they can also be used as a portable fill-in light in portraiture as they don't create shadows of their own, but usually work best for this when moved in close to the subject, some even place a ND filter over the flash to reduce its output.
- when used at a distance (>60cm or so) from a person and mounted around the lens axis with subject looking at the camera, you will get red eyes!
- there are 4 main possibilities:
- ring flashes designed for macro work:
- these are usually relatively small diameter and thus unless very close to a subject, you will not see a significant ring catchlight in their eyes.
- if using it for macro work, a TTL version makes life so much easier.
- eg. Olympus, Canon ring flashes
- if you really can't afford a TTL version, other options include:
- Cokin ring flash
- ring flashes designed for beauty/portaiture work:
- these have larger diameters and can usually be used off camera to get closer to the subject
- tend to be very heavy if used on camera hand held
- examples:
- Lencarta RF-400
- purchase via their Ebay store in UK
- pros:
- very well built and comes with a diffuser, a radio trigger & receiver, a carry case, a flight case and various small bits. The guide No (99, ft) is accurate and both colour and power is consistent throughout the range.
- cons:
- Recycling is a bit slow, this may be a problem for some people, not for others. And the 'beep' as it recharges is annoying, although it can be turned off.
-
- modular pro portable system with separate generators which start at ~$A3400 in addition to the flash (also compatible with pro7 generators)
- 100mm interior fits most lenses; allows 4x 2400Ws flashes per minute
- optional softlight reflector increases the light source, for fewer sharp shadows
- Optional Close-up Reflector focuses the light source 20” (50cm) in front of the camera lens. With smaller objects, the effect is completely shadow-free.
- Profoto ProRing
- modular system using pro-7 generators (generators start at ~$A8000)
- allows 4x 2400Ws flashes per minute, no modelling light
- Profoto ProRing2
- modular system using pro-7 generators
- heavier, thicker, more expensive and powerful flash unit than proRing
- 200W modelling light + 4800Ws flashes
- Hensel
- tutorials:
- ring flash modifiers for studio lights:
- Bowens Ringlite Converter
- Bowens Duo Ringlite
- ring flash modifiers for normal flash lights:
- this can be either:
- simulations of ring flashes
- for Canon / Nikon flashes:
- Ray Flash adapter
-
- cheaper than the Ray Flash adapter which is ~$US300
- DIY flashes:
- mini reflective beauty dishes
- for Canon flashes:
- http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1025262 - Speedlite Softlite Reflector kit
photo/flash_mod.txt · Last modified: 2013/09/27 00:40 by gary1
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