Flash Modifiers For Great Lighting

[Richard Crowe]

I am a great fan of the Joe Demb products ( www.dembflashproducts.com ) for modifying hotshoe flashes.  The combination of a hotshoe flash bounced with one of the Demb diffuser reflectors produces lovely and natural looking lighting...

 

I use the Demb Flash Diffuser Pro on my Canon 550EX.  The 550EX is the flash unit which predates the present 580EX (series) Canon Speedlights.  By the way, the term, Speedlight, is a Canon name for their electronic flashes which fit on the hotshoe of your camera. Speedlight has become a term synonymous with hotshoe flash  The hotshoe is the small mount which is located right over the viewfinder on all DSLR cameras.  Some Point and Shoot (P&S) cameras also include hotshoes. Even the P&S cameras can benefit from using a small hotshoe flash with a small diffuser reflector.

 

[url=http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Photo-Equipment/12760684_a6QWH#1064919149_3KmFj-A-LB][img]http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Photo-Equipment/hot-shoe/106491914...[/img][/url]

 

Here are some shots using the Canon 550EX with the Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro. You will notice that there are not harsh shadows behind the subjects, nor raccoon eyes.

 

[url=http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Yangshuo-a/12005191_Wd7Vf#858914758_ZTMxQ-A-LB][img]http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Yangshuo-a/063-silk-weaver/8589147...[/img][/url]

 

Even close ups result in nice soft light without the flat, harsh light of straight-on flash...

 

[url=http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Yangshuo-a/12005191_Wd7Vf#858911991_46Gdr-A-LB][img]http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Yangshuo-a/050-dolls/858911991_46G...[/img][/url]

 

The adjustable reflector lets me bounce even when there is no ceiling off which to bounce the light...

 

[url=http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Yangshuo-a/12005191_Wd7Vf#858914936_pX2Gk-A-LB][img]http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Yangshuo-a/064-candy-maker/8589149...[/img][/url]

 

I use the smaller reflector which Joe has named "The Photojournalist" on my little Canon 270EX flash.  IMO, the reflector improves the light and versatility of this little unit by leaps and bounds.  The 270EX and a Demb diffuser can be a wonderful addition to a P&S camera which has a hotshoe and will improve that camera's flash capability greatly.

 

[url=http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Travel/China-Focus-Tour-2010-Hong/11941703_568SH#859065145_rTous-A-LB][img]http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Travel/China-Focus-Tour-2010-Hong/Food-M...[/img][/url]

 

[url=http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Travel/China-Focus-Tour-2010-Hong/11941703_568SH#860543276_86eiJ-A-LB][img]http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Travel/China-Focus-Tour-2010-Hong/035-St...[/img][/url]

 

I just received an email from Joe and he has included these links which are quite interesting.  The YouTube video is especially interesting, but could be improved by showing examples of what the narrator is referring to...

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hickography/sets/72157623377791921/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51367577@N02/sets/72157624204588249/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKwYlTzkj8w
http://chrisburch.smugmug.com/Portfolio/DembFlip-it/13199608_FakgL#...

 

By the way, although the hotshoe flashes from Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Olymppus are great, there are less expensive flashes on the market.  These units bring the price of creative flash photography down to a point where it could be affordable to all photographers.  Here are some third party hotshoe flashes available for Canon DSLR cameras.  There are, of course, models available for other brand cameras.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sunpak-PF30X-Flash-w-E-TTL-f-Canon-Digital-SLR-...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vivitar-DF-283-Series-1-TTL-Power-Zoom-Flash-CA...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/YN-468-Flash-Speedlite-Canon-450D-500D-550D-100...

 

Really... the next great step after acquiring a DSLR and an editing program is to get a hotshoe flash and a diffuser/reflector...

[Diane Margetts]

OK--I am totally brain-dead when it comes to flsh photography. I do have a flash for my camera--found it on a close out table at Fries; have never used it. I do want to get acquointed with this subject and will take this discussion on as a personal education-challenge!!!!

[Linda and "Toby"]

Very nice description and sample photos, Richard! I must confess that I cringe at the thought of having to use my flash. Although I have a decent one (580 EX), I will go to almost any length to avoid using it, including boosting my ISO to 1600 and taking the shot handheld as slow as 1/30 (I have Image Stabilizer lens) and deal with the noise with software. I really should take the time to learn how to take better flash shots. There really is an art to it. :)

[F, Calla & Luca]

Your shots are really lovely but I'm not ready for this leap yet. Good reference material for someday, though. Thanks.

[Lisa Van Dyke]

I just started learning about off camera flash, and in fact, one of my photos that made one of the 2011 calendars was simply a 'practice' shot in determining how I was going to set up a photo fundraising booth at an animal welfare event with the use of my flash and borrowed backdrop. I have so much to learn, but have really been enjoying it! I just started using a Honl photo traveler 8 for pet portraits and I love the outcome.

http://www.honlphoto.com/servlet/the-32/Honl-Photo-traveller8-Softb...

I'm also a big fan of the Strobist. http://strobist.blogspot.com/ This is where I have been doing much of my reading about using strobes.

[Ann Kendig]

Richard,
I made a home made reflector out of white hard stock paper as you had mentioned else where and it works well. Some day I may have to get the Demb. I have used the home made reflector with my Olympus FL 50R external flash. It came with a plastic cap that can act to diffuse the light and that seems to work well also. My question is there a significant difference between using the plastic cap to diffuse the light versus using a reflector?
Thanks for the info.
Mike

[Diane Margetts]

Whoa . . . I need to start talking to you all about this flash stuff . . . my flash is the fl-36 . . . is that totally worthless? (Mike).

[Ann Kendig]

I read a number of reviews before purchasing the FL 50R and the FL36 had good customer reviews. The FL 50R uses 4 batteries vs. 2 in the FL36 as a result the FL 50R recycles faster and can output more flash. If you go to B&H Photo Video they have a lot of customer reviews and most people that reviewed the 36 like it. I would say you have a good flash. Prior to Richards posts on flash I did not know some of the non company brand flashes were comparable to flashes made by the camera companies.
Mike

[Richard Crowe]

Ann Kendig...
I am not sure what you mean by a "plastic cap" but, I suspect that is is probably something like one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Flash-Bounce-Diffuser-CANON-430EX-430EXII-430EX...

This is what I used when I first began with my Canon 420EX. It is better than nothing but, you do lose quite a bit of light with this type diffuser (although lots of people use them). Using the home made reflector, you should not need to use the plastic cap.

However, there are some units, the Canon 550EX and Canon 580EX (and perhaps others) that have a sliding plastic cover which you pull out from the rear of your flashtube and cover the front of the flash. This is a wide angle diffuser. It is designed to spread out the light to cover a very wide angle lens when you are shooting directly at the subject. When you bounce the flash, this adapter is not needed and will only reduce the power of your flash.

I always bounce except on two occasions:

1. When I am shooting outside during the day and I am not right up close to my subject...

2. When trying to illuminate a subject that is a good distance away at night or in a large dark gym or auditorium. Then I need all the light that my flash can produce and "any image is better than no image".

Lisa:

The Strobist web site has a lot of good information. I had not seen your Honi Photo Traveler. For "studio type" work, I use a set of old White Lightning WL5000 units. I have had these units for over twenty years and paid fifty dollars each when I bought them used. That is something like twenty-cents a month for each. They are like the Energizer Bunnny, they keep going and going" and still sell for about fifty bucks on eBay. Here is my setup for smaller dogs like my Maltese. I naturally would have a larger dog on the floor not, on the table. However, most of the time I shoot Holly outdoors. I do use fill flash most of the time for that. It produces nice highlights in her coat and provides sparkle (catchlights) in her eyes.

[url=http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Photo-Equipment/12760684_a6QWH#1010683186_NCpPD-A-LB][img]http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Photo-Equipment/Studio-for-Dog-Por...[/img][/url]

Linda and Toby..

Your 580EX is about the best flash on the market. Try making one of the simple diffuser-reflectors and just bounce the flash by pointing it up towards the ceiling. You can even get a pretty darn good exposure using the camera in programmed mode and letting the flash do the work. Or, you could set your camera on manual, select 1/125 second and f/5.6 and also let the flash compute the exposure.

Diane...

I looked up the FL36 and that is a really nice flash (if you are using an Olympus camera). It has some advantages over the Canon flashes such as wireless operation. However, off cmera flash is a TAD bit more complicated. Just use the flash with a diffuser reflector (home made or store bought) and you should get good imagery. Read the manual and ask about anything you don't understand...

BTW: Bounce flash is so absolutely easy with today's technology that it should be used most of the time. When I started in photography, we used guide numbers to calcuate our exposure. Each flash unit (or flashbulb) would have a guide number which was determined by how powerful the unit was. We would either estimate the flash to subject distance or read it off the distance scale of the lens. Then we had to divide the guide number by that number of feet to get the f/stop. If we wanted to bounce, we would have to estimate the distance from the flash to the ceiling and then from the ceiling to the subject and divide that total into the guide number to get the exposure. Of course if the ceiling was not white we had to take than into consideration as well as whether the subject was brighter than usual (wedding dress, etc) or was darker than usual. AND of course, if we were shooting in a very large or very dark area, we needed to take that into consideration. Of course, most experienced photographers would cheat. I knew the approximate exposure for a head and shoulders, a 3/4 shot and a full length shot. Since these would be shot from approximately the same distance each time (we didn't have zoom lenses) the exposure would be the same.

The only good thing about the difficulty was that it was mostly professionals who were able to get good flash shots. Good thing for the professionals I mean. If a bride and groom wanted good pictures, they hired a professional. Now with a bit of experience, most people can do a reasonable job with flash photography.

[Diane Margetts]

Richard--thank you! I soooo envy your knowledge and experience. I have been avoiding anything to do with flashes because I don't really understand them BUT, you have inspired me and I will tackle this challenge! Now, to really show my lack of knowledge, please clear me up on one point: I have read and heard many times to avoid fill-in flash whenever possible because it tends to "flatten" a phot. Now, you have been discussing bouncing a flash--I suspect these are two different approaches entirely??

[Richard Crowe]

Here is an image on that I used flash to fill - indoors. They don't look flat to me...







Here are some outdoor shots on which I used fill flash...



Here is an outdoor night shot with nothing off which to bounce the flash. I put the Demb reflector at about a 45 degree angle and therefore directed most of the light towards the subjects. Although this does not 'fill" the area with light as happens when I bounce off a ceiling; IMO, the results are better than if I had used direct flash. Direct flash flatly lights up the subject closest to the camera and allows the background to go totally dark. The subjects also have that "deer in the headlights" look when direct flash is used...



I was quite happy that the flash did not burn out the front subjects leaving the back subjects black. The light has nice fall off...



The bounced flash also doesn't cause a great burnout when shooting a reflecive surface like this laquer screen...



Bounce shooting with the programmed mode at a higher ISO like 400 or 800 allows the flash to be used as fill light indoors. The laquer worker here looks like she was shot with available light, not flash...

[Diane Margetts]

They are all very nice!!!

[Linda and "Toby"]

Wow! I'm not only impressed with these outstanding shots, I'm envious that you were able to GO there to GET these shots!!!