Has anyone used and if so can you shed some light on good and or bad the Gary Fong's Flash diffusers are. Thanks
I have one sitting around here some place. I don't like it. The light from it is too even and everything gets muted. It looks very flat and one dimensional. The device itself is very cumbersome too.
I've actually used it off camera as a fill. It works really nice if you can place it behind the subject camera right/left and up high. It will light the room and give you a natural looking hair light. Then your key light will really make the subject pop.
I'm ashamed to say I have tried it. Truth is, it's overpriced for what it does. You would be smarter to find a DIY alternative if you really need that kind of product.
That said, it does improve on-camera flash results especially if you have a rather low ceiling. In that case, you leave the white cap off and you're basically bouncing flash off the ceiling while the sphere directs some light forward. Unfortunately, in many situations where a Fong diffuser would be most useful, high ceilings are prevalent.
With high ceilings, you're advised to use the white cap on the sphere. Using the Fong diffuser in this fashion does help--it is better than on camera, pointed straight forward flash (but the results still aren't spectacular).
In short, I have it, but it rarely sees use--but as I already own it, it may get used under certain situations where I want to run-n-gun an event and I'm not too worried about creating any masterpieces.
As Keith mentions, using one off-camera will provide optimal results. However, if you have the opportunity to use off-camera flash, you will likely have better modifiers at your disposal.
I used it in this shot to light the the area behind the main subject and the person in the background. I placed it right up against the ceiling above the shelf and tilted down 90º so the dome was pointing at the guy in the back. I wouldn't have been able to get any other modifier in this spot so it was nice to have around. I don't think I have used it since but I kind of like the effect here. Like I mention before it flattened everything out and then the 2 lights I had on the main subject kind of pulled him out. I know the shadow on his hand is bad. I didn't fix it because it got cropped the way it ran in the magazine.
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Originally Posted by Keith B
Fair enough. :-)
Just trying to make you feel better about owning one Sean.[]
Its big, it falls off very easily, when your moving around quickly it will make your flash head flop around, it draws a ton of attention where everybody will ask you what it is, using it lowers your flashes power, soft material gets harder over time which makes it more difficult to manipulate on to your flash when you're in a hurry. My last one fell off when I put my camera down by my side while photographing high profile events and I lost it. They are very expensive as well. When I did use it I liked it at first where I bought one for my 420 EX and my 580 EX where I had the clear version and the frosted version and I also had the amber dome, chrome dome and frosted white dome. Spent a couple hundred dollars and now I never use them. Most of the time when I did use it I took the domes off and tried to bounce it as much as possible.
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