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[OM] Re: Oh flash gurus, please help

Subject: [OM] Re: Oh flash gurus, please help
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:44:20 -0500
When considering flash diffusers I think it helps to realize that there 
are two distinctly different scanarios for flash use and two distinctly 
different types of diffuser.

1)  You are in a relatively smallish, light colored room or at least a 
room with low ceilings (10 feet or less).

2)  You are in a large room such as a banquet hall with ceilings so high 
that when the photons from your feeble camera mounted flash hit them 
they don't bounce off but rather just fall back to the floor... assuming 
the ceiling isn't black in which case the photons will just stick to it.

The reason for making the distinction is that, although the Stofen 
diffusers work wonderfully and are rugged and compact they also spray 
light willy-nilly in a hemispherical pattern.  Depending on the tilt of 
the flash head much of the light may be thrown straight up and/or behind 
you. If you are in a smallish room this may well be desirable to bounce 
light off nearly everything for maximum softness and diffusion.  If you 
are in the banquet hall, however, you probably just sprayed half of your 
photons into the void never to be returned to film or sensor.

The ballroom is the situation where what you need is the largest, simple 
Lumiquest reflector you can get.  No need for transparent plastic 
diffusers in front.  You need something that will direct all the light 
forward but come from as large a surface area as possible to soften it. 
  I think this may be the point of Tim's mini umbrella (which I couln't 
find).  Since you are firing straight forward and not bouncing off 
anything to fill the background you WILL be casting shadows even though 
the be softened.  So you also need a flash bracket to get the flash 
raised high over the centerline of the lens which will cause shadows to 
be cast straight downward behind and largely hidden by the subject.

In a nutshell you need two different flash setups to handle two widely 
different situations.  Bounce possible, no bounce possible.

Chuck Norcutt

Joel Wilcox wrote:

> I have also tried a number of Lumiquest products that work well. 
> Among the reasons I especially like the Stofen on the T32 is
> 
> 1) The T32 is so low to the ground and the Stofen adds nothing on top
> of that and adds virtually no weight of any significance
> 2) I don't really like flash, so I keep trying things that promise to
> make me like flash better, which means I have more flashes than I can
> really use and a lot of doodads to diffuse the light.  This satisfies
> my desire for something that is easily packed and brainlessly operated
> with pleasing results.
> 
> Those things speak to my limitations as a photographer, not to the
> worth of mine or anyone else's items.  Some people see the lack of an
> on-board flash as a limitation of the E-1.  I don't because I am then
> never actually tempted to use it to my eventual and almost certain
> regret.  One could argue that one benefit of digital with regard to
> flash is that you learn with chimpomatic immediacy that your photos
> look like crap (in most cases).
> 
> Tim's suggestions makes me wish to venture beyond my accustomed total
> lack of flash sophistication.  I also keep thinking I need to put one
> of the E-system dedicated flashes on my wishlist, but the 1.4x TC
> beckons, and the LWMNBN ...  (DZ50-200 arrives today, and Olympus is
> looking a bit more like itself)



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