Gary Fong Whaletail

Has anyone ever used this before? I had never heard of it until today when I saw a guy using it a the Renaissance Fair I was at. I stopped to ask him about it and he said he really liked it alot. He had no idea what it was called or who made it so I did a quick search online when I got home and I was able to find it ...


https://www.garyfongestore.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=whaletail

Please let me know what your experience is with this or your thoughts on this type of set-up.

Thanks Much!


Denise

The general consensus in the strobist community is that it's way overpriced Tupperware. Check out what a search reveals in the Flickr Strobist Discussions. That's not to say it's without it's fans or that it's useless.

All modifiers have their uses. However, by far the single greatest problem in selecting and using one is that the design of the modifier does not match the photographer's intent, due to a misunderstanding of what that modifier does. In other words, almost any modifier does SOMETHING to the light--the problem is about choosing an appropriate one.


Of course, the above applies without consideration to cost. More than one type of design can achieve the desired result for a given situation or range of situations, but some solutions may be cheaper or have other advantages not related to the imaged result (such as portability).


That said, my personal opinion is that the hard plastic modifiers such as those sold by Gary Fong and Sto-Fen are very widely misused. In fact, of all the times I have witnessed others using one (they're kinda hard to miss!), I feel they were not understood by the user in the vast majority of cases. The most obvious example is the use of these modifiers outdoors. This is almost completely ineffective and a waste of flash power. In order to be effective, they must be used when there are neutral-colored surfaces nearby to reflect the diffused light. So even when one is faced with an indoor flash situation, the diffuser-type modifiers don't necessarily work any better than a bounce-type modifier. Indeed, it can be quite difficult to control some diffuser-type modifiers because they indiscriminately throw light everywhere, subjecting you to the whims of nearby objects that may impart a color cast.


Another disadvantage of the hard plastic modifiers is that they do not fold up for storage. The "whale tail" is big, bulky, and really cumbersome.


The basic rule of lighting is this: light must reach your subject, reflect off it, and enter the lens in order for you to see it. Yes, it's deceptively obvious but it carries several important points:

1. If light is cast off in a direction where it won't eventually find its way to the subject, the camera won't see it.
2. If light reaches the subject, it isn't guaranteed to reflect off in such a way that it also enters the lens. Shiny objects are an example of this phenomenon (indeed, one might think of "shiny" as being defined by this characteristic).
3. The further (non-collimated) light has to travel to reach the subject, the less its contribution to the exposure. Since we're not doing laser holography, this rule applies.

In summary, I can't advise for or against a specific modifier, because it all depends on how you intend to use it, and what the desired effect is.

Hi there.


The Whaletail has two characteristics that make it well-liked. It has a really strong mounting system which allows it to be very big but not fall off. The larger the light source, the softer the light (except at great distances). The Whaletail was the first of its' kind to be so larger (especially the huge "studio" version). It also has a slide-in drawer for accessory color gels, and flaps.


If size is a problem, I am really proud of the new Lightsphere Collapsible. Here's a video of how it works. It's neat because it collapses into a flat disk:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aIsxrDvCBw&feature=player_embedded


Hope this helps :)



<object height="385" width="640"]
<param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0aIsxrDvCBw&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1" name="movie" />
<param value="true" name="allowFullScreen" />
<param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess" /><embed height="385" width="640" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0aIsxrDvCBw&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1"]</embed>
</object>

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GARYFONGINC

Hi there.


The Whaletail has two characteristics that make it well-liked. It has a really strong mounting system which allows it to be very big but not fall off. The larger the light source, the softer the light (except at great distances). The Whaletail was the first of its' kind to be so larger (especially the huge "studio" version). It also has a slide-in drawer for accessory color gels, and flaps.


If size is a problem, I am really proud of the new Lightsphere Collapsible. Here's a video of how it works. It's neat because it collapses into a flat disk:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aIsxrDvCBw&amp;feature=player_embedded


Hope this helps :)

---

Alrightythen....I didn't expect Gary himself to chime in. Interesting.

Gary is watching yoooooooou... [:|]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by btaylor

Gary is watching yoooooooou... [img]/emoticons/emotion-8.gif[/img]
<div style="CLEAR: both"]</div>

---

Hey, bet you didn't know that Gary &amp; I are pretty tight!

Thanks for the input, Gary! [Y]

Denise

Wow, this was my 500th post!! [:D]

used in the right way the whale tail is great.


I use one [reporter version - the smaller one]for indoor potrait work and the way it softens the light is terrific, the studio one is too large for portable work imo. Even though it is large you can just use the velcro fixing strap to hook around a loop or something similar on your bag. They do make you stand out &amp; scream "expensive camera gear" though I even got a comment from Santa in lapland about it! The sto-fen is a lot more understated


Generally I use it in full "soft" mode with the wide flap facing forward.


Keep up the good work Garry


Neil