![]() ![]() Samples: Yeah no worries, here are some random shots from a 21st birthday party yesterday, haven't had time to do much PP but hopefully it illustrates the type of lighting I like (nice soft lighting, no hotspots/specular highlights). Isn't it the flash that is supposed to be illuminating your subject? Why would one need an addition piece of plastic or paper to do this? I agree with you on the point of the larger light source, but I don't agree with the need to have "some sort of device to bounce some of the light toward your subject". Would you mind posting some of those here? There are plenty of advantages to bouncing your flash and to using some sort of device to bounce some of that light toward your subject. It's really not that complicated - a larger light source is better and bouncing your flash off a bounce card, ceiling, side wall, etc makes your light source larger. I've tried a lot of diffusers over the years myself and yes some are a waste of money but the Demb is my favorite and I use it quite a bit. I understand and agree what you are saying about certain situations where bounce is not possible, then a larger surface like that of the ABBC would be an improvement over direct flash But in any location where you would be bouncing the flash, any additional accessory would be redundant (a la Stofen, Fong Dong, ABBC, Flip it). Hi Brett you are right, I guess where bounce is not possible, a large bounce card like ABBC would be marginally better than direct flash, so I guess I need to take back some of my earlier comments, it wouldn't be totally useless in that context. Imagine a huge disc reflector with a hole cut in it, hanging on your lens At an outdoors portrait shoot, I kid you not, there was this guy who had cut a whole in a translucent reflector/white car shade like contraption and had it attached on his lens, in an attempt to diffuse the on board flash. At a sporting event the other day (we were in the open field), some guy had his flash angled at 45 degrees with a Stofen on top of it. Some of these contraptions are just an embarrassment and make you look really unprofessional, irrespective of whether you are an amateur or a Pro. Maybe I'm vain, but I lose respect for a photographer instantly when I see them have something like a Fong dong or ABBC or index card attached and bouncing the flash.I mean.what's the point of buying such an expensive flash if you're going to use a piece of paper or plastic to do the job when you should be using the rotating flash head. I hope I haven't come across as a troll, it's just a pet peeve of mine seeing photographers use these infernal contraptions, when you can do the exact same thing with just bare bounce flash. ![]() in a room with a ceiling and walls to bounce off), they are totally useless, and don't add anything that can't be achieved by just proper use of bounce flash. ![]() I should clarify my comments, I don't mean to say all diffusers in all situations are useless, but in the situations where one would use a Stofen (i.e. They cost less than $1.00 each, and add nearly zero weight and bulk. I would never shoot people with direct flash after using my BBC, even outdoors (I've successfully angled my flash and let the large bounce card act as a reflector, softening the light). It's nice to have some diffusion, but at the expense of batteries and recharge times. Unless you're talking about direct flash then I agree to an extent. There was no chance of successful bounce in that room, yet I got nice soft lighting (relatively speaking) from a large BBC I made. I also did some shooting in a lodge that had ~40' ceilings that were brown timber-frame. For one, it's nice to be able to throw some white light forward when bouncing off odd-colored walls and ceilings. I did quite a bit of testing after making my BBC, and there is definitely a difference in light quality. I photograph Receptions and Birthday Parties in dark venues regularly, and have never had the need for any of these flash modifiers or diffusers, imo they just add bulk for no benefit There's nothing they do that you can't with just a bare flash. I have Stofens, Better Bounce Cards and Demb Flipits, but I never bother to use them, I tried them once and dumped them into the drawer at home. Waste of money, all these tupperware, better bounce cards, bounce foam, whatever are a gigantic waste of money. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |