Direct Flash - How to make it useful?

[dlleno]

the thing about light toys and graveyards is that you must first understand both your needs and the nature of light beore you select the tool.  light travels in straight lines so no amount of diffusion will soften the light coming from the strobe itself. a controlled  combination of direct vs reflective light is better accomplished with a bounce or partial bounce device insread of tupoerware imho.

And what is a bounce device? Obviously ceilings and walls are your best bounce devices as they'll always be bigger than what you can get on a camera. In which case the tupperware works pretty. Don't get me wrong it's far from perfect and I'm always looking for alternatives but it's the best I've found so far. One thing I will say is that I've tested just shooting the straight flash up into a ceiling vs with the tupperware and I liked the look of the tupperware better. But one advantage of shooting directly off the ceiling is the balance in light level between near objects and far objects is improved somewhat since less light is being directed straight forward. For this reason I'm looking at trying out this technique some more.

by "bounce device" I mean a gadget that you put on the camera.  sometimes the fong is great for this -- I've used one in a small room for example, with white walls . fantastic, because it really didn't work as a bounce device per se it worked as a bare bulb diffuser, which spreads the light around everywhere including behind me, where it could reflect off of a wall which became a huge light source.  a free softbox if you will!.  So when you need a bare bulb diffuser, the fongs are great,.  otherwise you are just wasting light by throwing it in directions that won't ever reach the subject in a useful way. 

a "bounce device" is something (to me) that can control the light;  just just spread it around in all directions.  a directional bounce device is perhaps a better term.  with these you can control the ratio of light directed forward versus upward. 

[brianleighty]

a "bounce device" is something (to me) that can control the light;  just just spread it around in all directions.  a directional bounce device is perhaps a better term.  with these you can control the ratio of light directed forward versus upward.

Gotcha. That makes a lot more sense. I would agree with you there. I have the feeling that a lot of times the tupperware does waste a lot of light if you aren't in a room that can provide adequate bounce. Hence why I just decided to buy one of those on camera soft boxes, although I don't have much faith in it being nearly as good but who knows maybe I'll be surprised. In the end there's no magical solution for on camera flash. You can only go so big with your diffuser so unless you have walls to bounce off of you're kind of out of luck.

[RLPhoto]

I received my wing light today. They're are a few things I will have to tweak on it but otherwise its the best direct flash I've ever seen.

Will post later when I get some time behind it.

[kbmelb]

I'm a little late chiming in but, the photo in the OG post is not a ring light it is actually the light produced by the CB Mini someone else posted. It almost does what a ring does except no halo and just a fine shadow to one side. See Terry Richardson's work.

This has become en vogue. It is how T-Rich shoots everything.

[dirtcastle]

I received my wing light today. They're are a few things I will have to tweak on it but otherwise its the best direct flash I've ever seen.

Will post later when I get some time behind it.

I checked this out and it looks promising! Definitely keep us posted.

[DianeK]

I received my wing light today. They're are a few things I will have to tweak on it but otherwise its the best direct flash I've ever seen.

Will post later when I get some time behind it.

That was fast - looking forward to your assessment and "tweaks"
Diane

[dlleno]

This is an interesting product.  The wing light, at least, addresses one issue that the fong'alizer doesn't -- the size of the light source:  Well at least in one dimension    RL please take some portraits outdoors!  I'd like to see at least the 'horizontal light wrap"  capabilities compared to direct flash when there are NO reflective surfaces.  If you get close enough to the subject,  the horizontal light will be large but the vertical light will still be a point source.  that should produce interesting results.

the thing about any device that is small but claims to produce big light is that they all depend on other reflective surfaces -- and this one is no exception.  look at the product video and note that in every example shoot there is a plethora of wonderful white reflective surfaces that would produce bare bulb heaven for even the lowly stofen omnibounce.  A hallway with close walls and ceiling, for example, as shown in the product slideshow, will  make most any diffuser look good.   Personally, bouncing off of the floor seems odd to me, as not many floors are the right color and not many models/subjects look good when lighted from below.  Typically, ceilings and walls would make better light sources. 

However, if you are in a situation where you do NOT have viable reflective walls, I would expect the Wing to assist with the horizontal size of the light source -- like an event where the room is large, walls are too far away, the ceiling is at a reasonable height and you can get close enough to the subject so that the Wing appears "big".   the other advantage I can see is that the Wing would tend to increase the size of the ceiling light source.  how much of a practical dvantage, compared to a bare bulb diffuser, is not immediately clear.

Thanks RL;  show us some photos!

[revup67]

And what is a bounce device? Obviously ceilings and walls are your best bounce devices as they'll always be bigger than what you can get on a camera. In which case the tupperware works pretty. Don't get me wrong it's far from perfect and I'm always looking for alternatives but it's the best I've found so far. One thing I will say is that I've tested just shooting the straight flash up into a ceiling vs with the tupperware and I liked the look of the tupperware better. But one advantage of shooting directly off the ceiling is the balance in light level between near objects and far objects is improved somewhat since less light is being directed straight forward. For this reason I'm looking at trying out this technique some more.

This is a great thread..glad I chimed in.  The pie plate was ingenious and just checked I've got about 5 or six I am finagling from the wife.  No baking this weekend This might seem obvious to most but just in case, after watching a Joe McNally video recently he points out only to use a white wall to avoid any color cast.  Didn't see any mention thouhgt just in case for newbies.  While shooting a rock band the other day I was planning on using some wall or ceiling bounce for more light fill.  Got to the club and all the walls were "vampire blood red" in color.  That ended that thought process.  Disappointing to say the least as it was bare flash or high ISO the whole evening,

[jVillaPhoto]

I received my wing light today. They're are a few things I will have to tweak on it but otherwise its the best direct flash I've ever seen.

Will post later when I get some time behind it.

Looked into these and they seem pretty nice, dying to see some sample photos of it!

[Razor2012]

Picked up the Gary Fong Lightshere and have used it a cpl of times.  It's a good diffuser when using the 600RT shoe mounted.