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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio 01-02-2014, 04:23 PM  
Is There A Site/Tutorial That Compares Different Types of Light Modifiers?
Posted By maxfield_photo
Replies: 14
Views: 1,742
If I had to pick one modifier to for every situation, it would be something like the
LumiQuest Quik Bounce - LumiQuest or LumiQuest ProMax System - LumiQuest
Both devices are well made, and most importantly, well thought out, BUT, it still helps to understand when to use them in one configuration or the other.

In a room with tall ceilings, it's always worth a test shot to see if the flash puts out enough light to illuminate your subject(s) with a bounce off the ceiling. In manual mode on your camera, set your aperture and ISO to what you want to use (shutter speed just controls the ambient light), point the flash at the ceiling, set it to full power, and take a shot. If the shot isn't underexposed, congratulations, you can bounce off the ceiling, and if you're using something like the lumiquest devices I linked, you can put it in "ceiling mode". If the test shot overexposed, that's ok , it just means you have some extra wiggle room. If it's properly exposed, you'll know that you're at the max ceiling height that your flash can handle. If that's the case, make sure you're waiting for it to recycle between shots, maybe 3 to 6 seconds. If your test shot is underexposed, close the doors and fire away in your exposure mode of choice.

Now that works fine for subjects less than 10 feet away, and it works fine for subjects more than 10 feet away, as long as they aren't so far that the flash can't reach them (here you might bump up your ISO for extra reach)

BUT, if you have subjects both near and far in the same frame, you are in a world of hurt with an on-camera flash. Why? Because of the inverse square law. No light modifier, no matter how fancy can get around the inverse square law, it's just how light wants to behave. If you have for example a subject 6 feet away from the camera, and another subject 12 feet from the camera, you will never get proper exposure on both of them simultaneously using an on camera flash. If you're using direct flash, the distant subject will always be two stops under the exposure of the closer subject. If you're using a ceiling bounce, it may be slightly better, but probably still noticeable. That's one of the many reasons I dislike on-camera flash.

For pictures in a field, obviously don't try to bounce the light of objects that aren't there, so no stofens. You'll want either a traditional bounce device (nun's hood), or an on-camera softbox. To be honest, there's not much difference in the two. The light source will still be small in relation to your subject, but it's better than bare bulb flash. It's only when the relative size of your light source is about a quarter of the size of your subject or larger that you'll start to see appreciable changes in the quality of the light.
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