Diffuser vs Bounce

[g88]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2373/2106285920_a0ae675fff.jpg

Which one perform better ? In indoor as well outdoor ?

[desaintlights]

tough question there....

both with it's own pros and cons...

but before answering your question, can i ask what type of picture you want to take ? or what effect do u want ?

and what type of indoor condition ? ceiling low enough for bounce light ? direct flash or not ?

but if for general photo taking under low lights, both also can work....

i am using the diffuser on the right, the square one and i bounce the light usually.

[g88]

where is the flash pro ?:?

[orionmystery]

The GF or Lambency is better for sure, for portrait, at least. And since you have both, and a digital SLR, i presume, you should find out for yourself by doing a side by side comparison shots. :)

Edit: also check out some DIY diffuser, such as bubble wrap (http://home.comcast.net/~dougsmit/bounceflashtoys.html) you'll be pleasantly surprised how great it works!

[keithng_79]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2373/2106285920_a0ae675fff.jpg

Which one perform better ? In indoor as well outdoor ?


GARY FONG IS GOOD!!!! I ALSO GOT BOTH... SOFTEN AND GARY FONG.... I LIKE TO USE GARY FONG FOR INDOOR LIKE WEDDING EVENT (HALL OR INSIDE THE HOUSE....) AND OUTDOOR DAY TIME USE FOR POTRAIT... HEHHEHE...COLOUR SKIN COME OUT VERY NICE HEHEHE....:tongue_roll:

[juan]

wish to make myself for the diffuser but until now never do, coz dunno how to make it:p anyone can teach haha

[donnyyeo]

Outdoors where there is no ceiling a "tupperware" diffuser sends a flash signal straight up to a galaxy far-far away. I think it says, "Some humans have more money than sense." - Chuck Gardner of http://super.nova.org/

This is a quotation from his article with illustrations. The complete article can be found at http://super.nova.org/DPR/Design/

[jejaka]

if what u want suit it, that meant it good for you.. but good for u doesnt meant it good for other too..

[JackJack]

wish to make myself for the diffuser but until now never do, coz dunno how to make it:p anyone can teach haha

get a bubble wrap
http://home.comcast.net/~dougsmit/bounceflashtoys.html

[juan]

get a bubble wrap
http://home.comcast.net/~dougsmit/bounceflashtoys.html

jackjack i made one by myself, using the empty soya sauce bottle hehe!! can use oh:tongue_roll:

[JackJack]

jackjack i made one by myself, using the empty soya sauce bottle hehe!! can use oh:tongue_roll:

haha! my bubble wrap also can use. And u know wat, last weekend got a guy told me "Pls go get a proper diffuser!", I told him I got GF and Stofen, but bubble wrap work better! :D

[noruazumi]

those are light modifiers which each works in their own way.
i would say it is up to you to fully utilize it and incorporate it with your environment & situation. use your wildest imagination to get the best from what you have. if you don't understand how the modifiers work, then both of them will be useless. sometimes, u dont even have to use that piece of plastic.

[Heintje]

hi, i doubt you'll see very big difference between the two. BTW. I have a like new Lambency, want to trade with stofen omnibounce for 580ex2. anyone? :D

[orionmystery]

haha! my bubble wrap also can use. And u know wat, last weekend got a guy told me "Pls go get a proper diffuser!", I told him I got GF and Stofen, but bubble wrap work better! :D

Agree..i hv lambency but almost never bring it anywhere. The bubble wrap pouch provides extra protection for my sb800 too :)!

[AdrianLoke]

And stofen is much more compact.:D

[ebernie]

Both are diffusors and both can be bounced. So I don't quite get the question. For indoors, with walls and ceilings. I suggest either not using any diffuser at all but instead flash against walls + a little bit of ceiling. You can resort to Lambency/Gary Fong if you find that you *need* to bounce against the ceiling (walls are too far maybe). Lambency will throw light forward in addition to the ceiling to avoid the famous rac00n eyes.

Once outdoors, I can say only the Lambency will work because it's the only one that can throw light forward.

Stofen... well, I never understood its usage. It diffuses light but doesn't add a lot of surface area.

So in other words, what works for me is:
1. Indoors with close walls - no diffuser, just bounce walls, usually behind me
2. Indoors with far away walls, low ceiling - Lambency, flash bounced to ceiling
3. Indoors with high ceiling, far away walls - Lambency (and pray hard, lighting will not be as pleasant)
4. Outdoors with nothing to bounce on - Lambency or you can bring your own reflector and flash against that

[ShaolinTiger]

Both are diffusors and both can be bounced. So I don't quite get the question. For indoors, with walls and ceilings. I suggest either not using any diffuser at all but instead flash against walls + a little bit of ceiling. You can resort to Lambency/Gary Fong if you find that you *need* to bounce against the ceiling (walls are too far maybe). Lambency will throw light forward in addition to the ceiling to avoid the famous rac00n eyes.

Once outdoors, I can say only the Lambency will work because it's the only one that can throw light forward.


Heh, well in theory that's all well and good...but in the reality of events the percentage of white walls in locations is maybe 5-10%.

So 9/10 times you can't bounce off the wall because its scarlet/green/purple/brown/black etc If you do everything will look terrible.

Same goes for ceilings in most places - definitely not white.

As for outdoors, lambency is not the only option there are plenty of others from lumiqest (80/20, mini softbox, promax etc) gary fongs other products (whale tail) and those from demb (flip it pro).

Stofen is ok for confined spaces like clubbing/dance floor pics as any larger diffusers are likely to get knocked off. Personally I don't like it though as it hardly changes the quality of the light.

[mki88]

Just to share my experience here. I've stofen but I have not used it for ages.

Indoors with very high/high/low ceiling, I will just bounce the flash up with high ISO.
Indoors with walls far away, I will also just bounce the flash up with high ISO.
Outdoor with nothing to bounce - Attach stofen at 45' or 90' with suitable ISO.

[kiankheong]

Bounce whenever you can, and diffuse whenever you have to.

The key is to create a light source that is bigger than your subject in order avoid harsh shadows.

Also: don't waste your flash power/energy.

Why waste battery energy by directing the flash to all the wrong places and having a barrier that block the flash output?

:)

[Heintje]

Both are diffusors and both can be bounced. So I don't quite get the question. For indoors, with walls and ceilings. I suggest either not using any diffuser at all but instead flash against walls + a little bit of ceiling. You can resort to Lambency/Gary Fong if you find that you *need* to bounce against the ceiling (walls are too far maybe). Lambency will throw light forward in addition to the ceiling to avoid the famous rac00n eyes.

Once outdoors, I can say only the Lambency will work because it's the only one that can throw light forward.

Stofen... well, I never understood its usage. It diffuses light but doesn't add a lot of surface area.

So in other words, what works for me is:
1. Indoors with close walls - no diffuser, just bounce walls, usually behind me
2. Indoors with far away walls, low ceiling - Lambency, flash bounced to ceiling
3. Indoors with high ceiling, far away walls - Lambency (and pray hard, lighting will not be as pleasant)
4. Outdoors with nothing to bounce on - Lambency or you can bring your own reflector and flash against that

Will you really see any difference when you use either of these outdoors against bare flash? both spread light to make use of wall and ceilings, but there is nothing to bounce on when you are outdoor unless you bring your own reflector.
Stofen also throws light forwards same way as the lambency does.

[ShaolinTiger]

Will you really see any difference when you use either of these outdoors against bare flash? both spread light to make use of wall and ceilings, but there is nothing to bounce on when you are outdoor unless you bring your own reflector.
Stofen also throws light forwards same way as the lambency does.

The design of lambency/lightsphere is that you have a 'ceiling' to bounce on, it's built into the diffuser.

So it bounces off the inverse dome and comes out the sides (in every direction - that's why I find it very inefficient).

The stofen just throws light in every direction.

That's why I prefer something like Flip-it pro where you can adjust the amount of diffusion, the amount of bounce and the direction.

[Heintje]

The design of lambency/lightsphere is that you have a 'ceiling' to bounce on, it's built into the diffuser.

So it bounces off the inverse dome and comes out the sides (in every direction - that's why I find it very inefficient).

The stofen just throws light in every direction.

That's why I prefer something like Flip-it pro where you can adjust the amount of diffusion, the amount of bounce and the direction.

A 3 inch inverse dome mounted on the flash won't do much outdoor other than crippling the flash power. If we go back to basics, the harshness or softness of the light depends on the apparent size of the light with respect to the subject. The bigger the light, the more light will appear "softer". the distance of the light source affects the apparent size of the light too. The farther the light source, the smaller is its apparent size. Considering that, neither stofen or lambency or any other flash mounted light modifier will do much outdoor.

[kiankheong]

When outdoors, I don't think you even need to diffuse or bounce your flash.

Direct flash with the right output would be sufficient, and the sun is good enough to act as a fill-in light to reduce any harsh shadows behind the subject.

Worse come to worse, bring along a reflector. :)

[ShaolinTiger]

A 3 inch inverse dome mounted on the flash won't do much outdoor other than crippling the flash power. If we go back to basics, the harshness or softness of the light depends on the apparent size of the light with respect to the subject. The bigger the light, the more light will appear "softer". the distance of the light source affects the apparent size of the light too. The farther the light source, the smaller is its apparent size. Considering that, neither stofen or lambency or any other flash mounted light modifier will do much outdoor.

Well as someone said it's still only effective close-up, if you take it further away it becomes as effective only in crippling the flash power as you say.

Close up though it's a much larger apparent light source than the bare flash head (even at the widest setting with the fresnel lens).

Because it's bouncing off the inverted dome, back inside the lightsphere (the sides of which are ribbed to further disperse the light).

Diffusion + slightly larger lightsource = noticeably softer light which is much more flattering.

Of course I use a shoot through brolly...so the above is moot :)

[iamyuanwu]

Yeah, outdoors if you balance your light well... you'll get good results too.

You can modify the Stofen. I use a white paper/card behind the diffuser to bounce more light forward. I might try to add a large lamp-shade thingy to the Stofen and have it pointed forward. I've also seen people cutting a hole on top of the Stofen to throw more light to the ceiling, thus increasing ceiling bounce.

[ebernie]

Heh, well in theory that's all well and good...but in the reality of events the percentage of white walls in locations is maybe 5-10%.

So 9/10 times you can't bounce off the wall because its scarlet/green/purple/brown/black etc If you do everything will look terrible.

Same goes for ceilings in most places - definitely not white.

As for outdoors, lambency is not the only option there are plenty of others from lumiqest (80/20, mini softbox, promax etc) gary fongs other products (whale tail) and those from demb (flip it pro).

Stofen is ok for confined spaces like clubbing/dance floor pics as any larger diffusers are likely to get knocked off. Personally I don't like it though as it hardly changes the quality of the light.

It works well in theory and practice.

I have to admit I've never been in a situation where the wall is black. I've shot in places where the wall is pink and yellow though. Managed to change WB because I shot in RAW. *Consider the opposite, you can't fix bad flash in post processing much, if at all. I'd rather get the effect of large area light to get that exposure rather than worry about the color of light (which is relatively easily fixable).

I said Lambency was the only option out of the choice of Stofen vs Lambency. Thanks for sharing all the other Gary Fong product names though.

Bounce whenever you can, and diffuse whenever you have to.

The key is to create a light source that is bigger than your subject in order avoid harsh shadows.

Also: don't waste your flash power/energy.

Why waste battery energy by directing the flash to all the wrong places and having a barrier that block the flash output?

Exactly what I understand about flash as well. Of course, the problem is sometimes there's simply nothing to bounce on. So products like Lambency and Whaletail does help by *slightly* increasing the area. Note that I still consider them direct flash because the subject can see the flash and the effect is still less pleasant than flashing against a large area. But under those circumstances... can't help la. I don't have an assistant following me around holding a reflector :)

Will you really see any difference when you use either of these outdoors against bare flash? both spread light to make use of wall and ceilings, but there is nothing to bounce on when you are outdoor unless you bring your own reflector.
Stofen also throws light forwards same way as the lambency does.

Yup, that's true. Lambency outdoors lowers flash power considerably because it spreads light in every direction. I'm still learning how to use it in outdoors. However, compared to flashing directly, I find that the light that does reach my subject looks better. I've never flashed the dome portion directly though and would like to try that in the future.


Diffusion + slightly larger lightsource = noticeably softer light which is much more flattering.
I've tried the Lambency on and off when a large light area can be flashed (to get a large light source) and I can hardly see any difference.

[ShaolinTiger]

It works well in theory and practice.

I have to admit I've never been in a situation where the wall is black. I've shot in places where the wall is pink and yellow though. Managed to change WB because I shot in RAW. *Consider the opposite, you can't fix bad flash in post processing much, if at all. I'd rather get the effect of large area light to get that exposure rather than worry about the color of light (which is relatively easily fixable).


I guess you don't take in any ambient light then? You blast the subject with flash, use high shutter speed and let the bg go black?

I drag the shutter to give a more dynamic feel to the pictures...so if my subjects were pink/purple and my background orange...after 'correction' the picture would be a mess.

Colour is not fixable if you are not balancing ambient and flash colour temps properly :)

An example is like this, if I took this and bounced the flash off something colourful nearby...the results would be a disaster.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2037/2389500100_2eda1c1dec.jpg

[albert8112]

jackjack

thanks for the tip on bubble wrap.

will try out see how effective it is.

[aaronfoo]

diffuser 100% :)

[g88]

sorry guys..i am back again to this topic.

Look like Lambency is something worth to invest ? I saw in http://shashinki.com/shop/lambency-flash-diffuser-with-domes-white-yellow-orange-blue-canon-580ex-580ex-p-928.html

Err..what the use of those colourful Lambency ?

[ShaolinTiger]

sorry guys..i am back again to this topic.

Look like Lambency is something worth to invest ? I saw in http://shashinki.com/shop/lambency-flash-diffuser-with-domes-white-yellow-orange-blue-canon-580ex-580ex-p-928.html

Err..what the use of those colourful Lambency ?

It's to balance flash temp with ambient lighting.

[andythology]

whaletail not bad too, if u doesnt mind the outlook ;p