How do you bounce flash?

Village Idiot · Apr 8, 2008

...If your ceiling, walls, and floor are black?

C'mon. You don't think I would ask an actual question.

For those of you that frown upon the use of diffusers, what do you do?

I'm going to be shooting a band at the Brass Monkey in Baltimore the last Saturday in April and the bar's interior is all black. I'm going to be using my stofen rip off and maybe an umbrella on a second flash.

"But you're going to try and use an umbrella in a crowded bar with a hardcore band and lots of idiots jumping around?" Well, thank god for my home depot clips with umbrella mounts. That speed light is going on the ceiling.

goodoneian · Apr 9, 2008

i had the same issue you when i took pictures of a band at a venue that was all black with really tall ceilings. i had to use ISO 1600, 3.5 f stop, 1/100th second shutter, and my sb-600 at full power i believe. my results weren't too bad, but they definitely could have been better.

goodoneian · Apr 9, 2008

to add to my last post, what hardcore bands are you taking pictures of? didn't think i'd see anyone on here interested in that scene hah

Garbz · Apr 9, 2008

Have a friend come along wearing a white T-shirt. I am not joking it works very well, but he may get very ticked off after a while. Mind you my personal preference for bands is to let the aperture and ISO do the grunt work and leave the flash at home.

Atropine · Apr 9, 2008

Garbz said:
Have a friend come along wearing a white T-shirt. I am not joking it works very well, but he may get very ticked off after a while. Mind you my personal preference for bands is to let the aperture and ISO do the grunt work and leave the flash at home.

I've thought of a slightly weird version of that one. It incorporates myself wearing a white t-shirt, holding the camera upside down and the flash pointed backwards...

Village Idiot · Apr 9, 2008

goodoneian said:
to add to my last post, what hardcore bands are you taking pictures of? didn't think i'd see anyone on here interested in that scene hah

Behind the Cellar Door and what ever other ones happen to be there. It's not really my scene but I'm having a friend pull a favor card.

So I can suspend someone from the ceiling with a white t-shirt and bounce off them? Awesome!

The venue lights are probably going to suck and the nice thing about using my flashes with the radio triggers is that I'm going to have the channels set differently so I don't have to fire them unless I want/need to and I can switch as needed.

JerryPH · Apr 9, 2008

If the walls and ceilings are black, my first desire is to get the flash OFF camera, no matter what.

Next, if I need a bit of diffusion... www.abetterbouncecard.com does what I want. If one flash won't do the job, 2 will. If 2 cannot 4 or 5 will finally get you what you want... lol

I just think that the plastic diffusers are all a tremendous waste of money AND use up a lot of the power placing the light where you DON'T need or want it. In this area, DIY is as good, and often better than market offerings.

table1349 · Apr 9, 2008

Well you could look into doing the Strobist thing such as I use for sports. I am assuming that there is a lighting setup for the band, not just some overhead light fixtures.

Take a couple of strobes, I uses Sunpak 383's on a couple of super clamps and set them up on lighting support pointing toward the band. Have them shooting above the heads of the performers. 10 feet should be good. It would also be good if they are above the bad as well at about 10 feet. Set them at about half power and use radio triggers. The light they put out will be added fill. Shooting over their heads should not disturbe the performers and since it will be shooting away from the spectators it should be no problem there either. Have fun, move around and snap away.

rlcphotos · Apr 10, 2008

the better bounce card.. I have been using this card for a while now. I used to fight the indoor lights for a long time until I found this item. Since then I have made a few, both ways with tremendous success.

I used to cringe when I walked into a building and looked at the lighting wow how am I going to manage this,,,,well,,,,this was my answer, try it you will like it.:thumbup:

Garbz · Apr 10, 2008

Atropine said:
I've thought of a slightly weird version of that one. It incorporates myself wearing a white t-shirt, holding the camera upside down and the flash pointed backwards...

And I thought I got some weird looks with a sheet of paper rubberbanded to my flash head to act as a large diffuse flash card. This will take the cake :lol:

Village Idiot said:
So I can suspend someone from the ceiling with a white t-shirt and bounce off them? Awesome!

You said bounce you never said from above :lmao:

Village Idiot · Apr 10, 2008

rlcphotos said:
the better bounce card.. I have been using this card for a while now. I used to fight the indoor lights for a long time until I found this item. Since then I have made a few, both ways with tremendous success.

I used to cringe when I walked into a building and looked at the lighting wow how am I going to manage this,,,,well,,,,this was my answer, try it you will like it.:thumbup:

My 580EX II has a bounce card built in.

I'm probably just going to clamp two flashes above the band with my sooper expensive ($5.83 for all three and materials) HD clamps and use my PW's to fire them.