Originally Posted by btaylor
Well, I didn't took shots of the cupboard where they were stored []
Well, I didn't took shots of the cupboard where they were stored [
Ralph,
I have one stofen diffuser and never use it. I find that when shooting indoors bouncing the light off the wall and ceiling creates much more natural looking shots. I use some sort of gel usually 1/2 CTO or 1 CTO to balance the color temperature of my flash with the color temperature of the incandescent lights in the room. This is getting harder now do to CFL technologies. You now need to also add a 1/4-1/2 pale green gel to color deflect the green associated with flourescents. But this doesn't quite answer your question.
The trick to good flash lighting stofen diffuser at 45 degrees or bounce is to use a high ISO. I shoot most of the time at ISO 800, f4, 1/60th to 1/125th. Photojournalists use stofens not to soften the light but to reduce the harshness and fill in shadows. For instance, when shooting at an indoor event, stadium, church, large hall, press conference. There is usually enough light to properly expose at ISO 800-1600, f2.8-f4.0,1/60th to 1/200th but the shadows around the eyes from overhead lighting make the subject look really sick. What you desire todo is to flash in enough color balanced light to fill those shadowed areas and make the subject look like a healthy human. That is why you see so many photojournalists using it at 45. It is also off-axis and reduces the red-eye effect. It also brings out more color and makes skin tones look better. Last but not least, it improves sharpness.
Try experimenting with manual mode and flash compensation. Take a few test shots until the subject and environment are around a 1/2 ev under exposed. Optimum settings are ISO800, f4, 1/60th. Now, turn on the flash, set flash compensation at 0, aim the flash sideways and behind you a little at the corner of a wall/ceiling. Take a few shots. Aim your flash in different directions and note the effect. If you don't get enough light from the bounce try turning up the flash compensation a little until you get enough. If too much, do the opposite.
Repeat this type of procedure in a large hall using the stofen a 45 degrees. There, you may have to comp down a little.
The very important rulesare:
1) Aperture controls the exposure of the light from the flash regardless of shutter speed. Read this 4 times
2) Shutter Speed controls the level of ambient light. slower shutter more ambient, faster shutter, less ambient. Read 2 times.
Experiment with these two rules and you will see your flash photographing greatly improved.
I posted this just recently on the pets thread. Itook it using bounce flash technique.
Canon EOS 5D, EF 28-70 f2.8L @ <span class="nowrap"]f/4& <span class="nowrap"]70 mm, <span class="nowrap"]1/60, <span class="nowrap"]ISO 800, <span class="nowrap"]Flash (1/2 CTO), bounced against the wall ceiling camera left. I'm not sure but flash comp was probably around +1/2-1. My Quantaray 9550 doesn't have near the power of a 580 EXII.
<span class="nowrap"]Hope this helps......2 []
Very informative Mr. Chuck Lee! I'll definitely give those techniques a try. Would you mind telling me what CTO is? I'm not so sure what that abbreviation means [:P]
Hi Ralph,
To [hopefully] answer your questions.
The white one is used when you just take a "normal" photo using your 580. It will soften the harshness of the flash especially if you use it correctly [ not familiar with sto fen I use gary fong lightsphere].
The yellow you use when indoors and shooting in place lit with incandescent bulbs, just remember to set you white balance to incandescent bulb. It should give you a more natural looking / "ambient light" effect rather than when you shoot with just a white a white diffuser or bare flash whereby you will tend to see you become become bluish and the background in somewhat orange color which is not really nice.
Blue ones are usually used to give a cooler look to a picture. I remember I used to use an 80a color correction filter when I was still shooting film. I use this when I myself taking the picture of a subject illuminated by those video lights that give off a somewhat orange light. But now in the digital age I haven't really tried shooting with a blue diffuser.
By the way CTO means Color Temperature Orange at least thats what I remember it to mean. heheh[
Hope this helps
Your Welcome... I think jk_photo's got it right. Here's the list at Rosco
Here's a great resource for learning more: Strobist.com\Lighting 101\Using Gels to Correct Light
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