Review: various on-camera flash modifiers for bounce flash. For more details, check out the related article on the Tangents blog: neilvn.com/tangents/review-bes... #flashphotography #oncameraflash #bounceflash
Thank you for the reference from the other video. Your point was proven 8 years ago and is still relevant today. Besides all the demonstrations between the different diffusers, I particularly liked what you said at the very end - "Cost you nothing!" 🙂
I have often wasted money on gadgets and gizmos and had no luck with them. If only I had put a little more thought into what I was tryiny to achieve I had saved £'s. Your advice and methods are first class. Many thanks!
Great video! I love your explanation of the differences and your honesty. All the other videos I have found have people trying to justify each modifier instead of being real about if it is even practical or not, so THANK YOU! P.s. I just received my bulk order of bft's from Amazon ;)
Thanks Neil. I've purchased your two courses - on and off camera flash which are brilliant, but the one thing I got from this video is how you used the black foamie thing to stop your flash from blinding a 3rd party! Pleased I found your philosophy before I spent ££££s on modifiers!
A very useful video. Very quickly you have demonstrated the use of different Flash Modifiers & how for Indoor Portraits, whenever possible, bouncing Flash from behind the Camera gives a better result with no shadow. This video answered questions I had for usage of Flash for Indoor Portraits. Thanks a lot for crisp & useful video.
After watching a previous video of yours I immediately subscribed to your channel and this video says I was right to do so. I’d like to see a video of how these would work outside in daylight. You are very direct with your approach and it’s refreshing. Thanks fir this....
Great tutorial! Of course this changes a bit when one can get off camera soft lighting in addition to on camera flash as any shadows would get filled in.
I purchased a soft box for using my flash off the camera in certain situations. I am not really into portrait photography. The things I want to do tend to be more experimental. I agree with the idea that people don't really need as much gear as they think they do. It really just depends on what you want to do.
Interesting review. It assumes that you always have a white surface to bounce off, but in reality, I find most walls and ceilings at the venues I'm at are not white are the subject is no where near a bounce surface. I'm a huge fan of the rogue flashbenders, but I never use them on camera. Radio triggers and receivers are so cheap nowadays, I simply mount my flash on a light stand. Plus you can bend and shape the rogues, so they could function as a black foamy thing or a shoot if you so desired, but also come with grids and and diffuser panels. But to be honest, I've never even tried them on-camera.
Thanks for the vid. however, what do you do with a dark ceiling or dark walls or very high ceilings...bounce won't work well. Also, a proper bracket will always keep the flash over the camera, portrait or landscape, which avoids the bad side shadow, pushing the shadow low on the subject.
That question always comes up with tutorials on bounce flash photography. Ideally, when there is nothing to bounce flash off, you use off-camera lighting. That's always the best option that gives you the most consistent results. If you really are in a pinch, then you use any of these light modifiers -- they give much the same results, DEPENDING on how large a light source they create.
+ColGadarby Check the links provided in the article mentioned in the info about the video: neilvn.com/tangents/review-best-light-modifiers-for-on-camera-flash/
Thanks for the info and demos. However, your room has WHITE walls (back, side) and white ceiling close to you so you can bounce the flash. How about in locations where there are NO white walls nearby, say in a large hall, a church or even outside in the open. Or the walls are of other colors.Then, the recommended bouncing method will not apply. Could you do a comparison of the light modifiers in those situations ? I use a hand-held reflector now to bounce the light. But that becomes a bit difficult with just one hand holding the camera. Thanks.
For non-white walls just set your custom white balance beforehand and the color of the wall won't matter enough to worry about. Or take a photo of a grey card along with the other photos and use that as your set point when you edit. Or the best option is to use a color checker instead of just a grey card
The only thing is if the walls are painted in other color that is not white. I use some of this and they work outdoors just have to know how to use them.
I just instantly subscribed , why ? Coz this is logical common sense stuff instead of all the usual rot on you tube which is normally based on trying to convince us we need products rather than how to use them ,by using common sense with a knowledge of light combined with knowing about dimension with light you have created as you set out to a beautiful portrait in a situation where one would have to be working on the fly with light gear . I think there are many out there would do well to study light and wot artists have done for centurys instead of having gear they do not know how to use . WE are now in an era where the parabiloc brolly is in fashion so I wish to conduct experiments with just a cheap deep one and the basis of this will be to discover if there is a diff between one and a softbox as they are moved back from subject and if diff rules apply to each and which rules they are . I already know from experience that a large softbox in close with generate very soft smooth gradients from light to shadow and that even a 7 foot silver bounce brolly will cause me probs at 45 degrees with the model facing cam with a harsh shadow from the nose , pull the softbox back and it becomes hard light but even in terms of the inverse square law so I want to now discover about pulling a bounce brolly way back and suspect I may find something unusual and unexpected which differs from the softbox . Yep I could set up a 5 foot octo and create lovely images with great dimension and depth till the cows come home but I need to create more looks and can not exactly afford high powered broncolour units and parabolics which I see often used at quite a distance and pls understand this is more than just the shape focusing the light which was the downside of brollys , it may have been that the brolly always was an amazing modifier with a diff set of rules but no use till now it can be focused . Any advice in this area would be appreciated and I will be happy to share my experimentation when I get a chance .
Better than the similar Tony Northrup video. Of course there are more options nearly 4 years since this was shot so maybe time for an update ? Thanks !
The same principles will always apply, regardless of what kind of plastic or other device you put onto your flash -- you will still have light coming directly along the lens' axis, giving you the same flat hard light. So a follow-up video would have the same conclusion - you are better off bouncing your flash with some thought, rather than relying on a device.
@@neilvn Yes I got that message loud and clear (and tried it on my home mannequin to prove it to myself). However I mostly shoot outside (and often travel to remote countries) so a light modifier is a necessity as often (wind & feasibility) a large modifier isn't desirable. Always looking for new 'toys' :)
Pretty much still the same. Here is an article that deals with this topic. (There are links to others.) neilvn.com/tangents/wedding-reception-lighting-with-one-flash/
A lot of those modifiers were created after Strobist appeared and do better when used off camera or on-camera to add a little fill to brighten eyes and chase shadows out of the face. Regardless the BFT is still the best solution for 99 percent of situations.
I guess you said screw using the F-Stoppers version you had sitting there (lol). You missing one thing that would change how all those modifiers work....a bracket. Shoot with a bracket in most cases and you won't have that shadow and you'll see how well these mods work.
You would have a specific shadow behind your subject anyway, regardless of a bracket ... because your light source is small. Also, your light source is on the same axis as your lens with any of those light modifiers, and therefore the lighting will be flat ... unlike directional bounce flash.
Neil i am in total agreement with you on all of the modifiers, But i think that you may be missing some information . What you portray is correct, that is if you are in a place where there are walls and a ceiling that are not to high and are white, but this not possible 90% of the time and if you are in a studio most photographers would be using monolights softboxes and a range of light modifiers and not many flashguns . A far better review would be which would be the best modifiers to use in a locations, that have coloured walls and ceilings that are not white or are to high up to be an effective form of bounce lighting. Now this would be a far better review to any budding photographer , which would save them time and money informing them which ones to buy or the ones that are not worth the money
Again - this comparison, as mentioned, was intentionally limited to just THAT specific scenario - bounce flash indoors. I stated that directly at the start.
... and studio photography, and then we will have encompassed everything that is flash photography in a single 15 minute video. This video specifically discussed this one scenario. There will be others.
