Flash Accessories..what do they do?

[inTempus]

Use a Sto-Fen ($11) defuser for the times you want to defuse the light with the flash pointed directly at the subject.

Please tell me you are not talking about the Omni-bounce. That thing is mis-used more often than the Fong Dong.

Simply putting an opaque plastic cap over your flash head, will not soften the light when shooting directly at your subject. If you are shooting with direct flash, the Lightsphere would do a better job, only because it's bigger than the Omni-bounce. But neither one of them is really that much bigger than a bare flash head, to make them worth using for direct flash IMO.

The Sto-Fen looks softer than the Fong to me (look at the shadow below the chin). As for if the Sto-Fen softens light or not, I think that's obvious given my examples. It clearly does. I would never point a bare flash at a subject, not unless I wanted a snap shot looking pic. Outside I don't have the option to bounce and I don't carry around a softbox for my strobe. I've found with the Sto-Fen you can soften your flash considerably.

Call it being mis-used if you like, but I think my results speak for themselves. How would you flash the pics I've posted?

 

[JamesMason]

The Fong is a waste of money for the most part. It has very limited application, and honestly every thing you do with the Fong you can do without the Fong if you learn how to use your flash.

Use a Sto-Fen ($11) defuser for the times you want to defuse the light with the flash pointed directly at the subject.

I own a Fong Lightsphere and it was a waste of $40. I never use it. The last time I used it was to post some sample pics for another thread... and you guessed it, the $40 Fong didn't do anything the $11 Sto-Fen couldn't do.

Get some gels and if you need a defuser, start off with the Sto-Fen.

Could not have said it better myself

 

[JamesMason]

Simply putting an opaque plastic cap over your flash head, will not soften the light when shooting directly at your subject.

I was taught by my P.H.D lecturer to soften light using a bit of paper, did the job just fine.

 

[Overread]

Simply putting an opaque plastic cap over your flash head, will not soften the light when shooting directly at your subject.

I was taught by my P.H.D lecturer to soften light using a bit of paper, did the job just fine.

I used that method for ages to good effect in my macro work and it does work reasonably well - howeve I found that I got more improved softening of the light as I increased the actual area that the light was coming from, rather than just softening it with some tissue paper.
Also with the larger flashheads I find it far better to use either a plastic head or a box rather than tissue paper which comes into contact with the front of the flash (if you want to know why set your flash to a high power setting - point the head at your thigh or anywhere else fleshy and fire a test shot - you should feel the reason

 

[Derrel]

An increase in the AREA of the flash source really helps make flash look softer. Most newer flash units have Fresnel rings in the front lens that fits in front of the reflector and flash tube, so almost anything will help to diffuse a speedlight flash's output. Like a styrofoam cup, a thickness of Kleenex, a piece of typing paper, a Sto-Fen Omni-bounce, a Gary Fong diffuser, the A Better Bounce Card, or the Lumiquest diffusers, as well as the many home-made "scoop" type reflector/diffusers made by cutting sot plastic craft-store foam into a giant light bulb-like shape and allowing the flash to fire straight up and into the "bowl" created out of the craft store foam.

The problem is that increasing the AREA of the illumination source is relative to the distance to the subject...and also in relation to the size of the object. On macro subjects, like a bee or spider, a small diffuser of a 4x6 inch softbox is often 100-10,000 times larger than the subject being shot with a macro lens from,say 4 to 10 inches. At those types of subject distance/light size relationships, almost any type of diffusion will soften the light. But using a small diffuser like an Omni-bounce from Sto-Fen beyond about 10 feet outdoors is just a waste of flash power. Then you start to need a truly BIG source of flash diffusion, like a 45 inch to 60 inch umbrella--if you want "soft" light with "soft" shadows.

I used to use a 4x6 inch Photoflex air-filled mini-softbox,and at 3 to 4 feet from macro subjects, it looks a LOT like natural sunlight, with a shadow and everything. But held at 10 inches from a subject, it acts like a softbox.

One interesting thing I have seen only within the last month: Strobist type shooters who have been using a speedlight with a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce fired into a high-quality reflecting umbrella. This works similar to my favorite umbrella, the Lastolite Umbrella Box, in that the light is "doubly diffused". I have recently seen some outdoor and indoor portraits lit this way. The look is decidedly softer than using a bare speedlight shot into the same umbrella.

 

[Village Idiot]

Any softer than just a white shoot through? Some times a harder light from a silver is preferred.

 

[decado]

A lot of professionals will even use Kleenex as a diffuser, it can be as simple as that.