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:
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
- see http://abetterbouncecard.com/
Flip-It:
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:
Larger soft boxes:
- using studio light soft boxes for portable flash:
- umbrella-style soft boxes:
- 50" and 28" square softboxes from Westcott Apollo
- Westcott
Apollo 28" umbrella-style softbox for flash
- 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
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:
- 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.
- if you really can't afford a TTL version, other options include:
- 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:
- Alien Bees
ABR800
- 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.
- Profoto
Acute2 Ring flash
- 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.
- http://www.silverpixel.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=104_150&products_id=3466
- Profoto ProRing
- Profoto ProRing2
- 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:
- mini reflective beauty dishes
-