Originally posted by clackers .......
I'm afraid you're doing your usual 'I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm going to keep talking anyway' act, Class A. McGregni must be rolling his eyes. .........
I'm afraid I haven't been following this one, but I just picked that quote up
. I guess ClassA and I have had our little rumbles, but I was a bit wary of stepping in here because
I actually do extensively use the Gary Fong Lightspheres, plus his 'Powersnoot' product
I was thinking about what I could add to things here .... ah, I know .... have you heard that if you correctly attach (using the patented rubber band and Velcro strap) any Gary Fong Product to a Cactus RF60, then that RF60 is instantly transformed into a fully functioning P-TTL automatic flash unit, and thats a very reasonably priced package .... and that with that combination as your setup you will be constantly accompanied by an entourage of beautiful fit young models who will do anything you want them to in order to fulfil your wildest creative flashing fantasies.....
..... Ok, all right then , so that's really complete speculation .... well. I made it up in fact .... sorry!
For what its worth here is the way I use the Gary Fong modifiers. Indoors in a medium to large sized living room I have a quick and easy set-up I use when the kids are around and I might manage to persuade them to pause a little. I have a blacked out area with black curtains for backdrop, and I set up one AF-540FGZ on a stand with a medium sized softbox placed about 1 meter from the subject at 30-45deg angle. This is my main light, so in P-TTL mode I set a 2/3rd ratio on this softbox flash.
Then I have another AF-540FGZ on-camera, set to 1/3rd ratio (its meant to be fill light), and this one has a Gary Fong Lightsphere on. The head is pointed up and sideways at about 45deg forwards in order to bounce light from an angle approximately opposite to the direction from which the softbox main light is coming from. This provides some contrast reducing fill from the off-side to reduce the shadows and adds sense of a little ambient (even though there is probably no real ambient), and the Lightsphere also automatically provides a little front fill and catchlight no matter which way it is pointed .... if using the AF-540FGZII on-camera I can also activate the LED front facing catchlight as well if I want a little more there.
At other times for a more controlled, edgy flash look, I will use the softbox in the same position as main light, but put the second flashgun on a stand behind the subject at about 45deg, and this time time with the Gary Fong Powersnoot (the one with a silver body and black plastic front grid). This powersnoot provides a tight circle of light which at low power will subtly fill the off-side of the subject and add a little back-rim lighting around hair and shoulder line ... the effect here is more contrasty with deeper shadows. Obviously this is more for fixed positioning where the subject is sitting perfectly. The light-sphere type of fill can be useful if the subject is moving a bit or changing positions as its fills a larger area.
The other good use for a lightsphere is actually on the flash inside the softbox ..... here the lightsphere is actually inside the softbox and causes the light to radiate outwards in all directions, hitting the whole inside of the box, and the effect is softer and wider spread, exactly as if you had a bigger softbox in fact. A plain flash in the softbox pushes the light mostly forwards so the effect is more concentrated. The lightsphere is a good tool to alter this and cause a softer wider spread emanating from the softbox.