flash modifiers
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:
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
-
Rogue Flashbender bounce attachment
MagMod modifiers
-
MAGMOD MagBeam Wildlife Kit gives a telephoto zoom effect with a diffuser
MAGBOX 24 OCTA - 24” octabox with focus diffuser to overpower the sun - dual flash strobes or Speedring adapters for most studio strobes
Flip-It:
Lumiquest ProMax Pocket Bouncer:
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:
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:
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”)
Lastolite Ezybox:
Larger soft boxes:
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:
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.
if you really can't afford a TTL version, other options include:
ring flashes designed for beauty/portaiture work:
ring flash modifiers for studio lights:
ring flash modifiers for normal flash lights: