Are flash modifiers recommended?

[im1dermike]

I'm planning on purchasing the Neewer 750II bounce flash for my Nikon D3400. My indoor shooting is typically challenged by low light and I believe this will be a helpful addition.

I came across this video about flash modifiers and I was wondering if people would advise adding a diffuser, soft box, etc. to my bounce flash setup. Most of the modifiers covered in the video are too bulky for me to want to use but the ones in the beginning are acceptable.

 

[Braineack]

the ones in the beginning are pointless.

 

[adamhiram]

the ones in the beginning are pointless.

Agreed. Direct flash will almost always look harsh. The diffuser attachment can be useful for getting a wider spread as a backdrop light, but otherwise looks about the same as direct flash but you lose a stop of light. The other on-camera attachments aren’t much better, and are really only useful for event photography where you can’t use off-camera flash and don’t have any ceiling or walls to bounce off of.

Contrary to what Tony Northrop says in the video you linked, bounce flash using ceiling or walls can be incredibly useful and produce great results when you can’t use larger modifiers with off-camera flash. I would recommend checking out Neil Van Neikerk’s “Tangents” blog fore some great tips on using bounce flash, particularly for event photography.
• Flash Photography Techniques - Tangents

 

[ac12]

I do bounce flash a LOT.
Most of my flash shooting is in a "normal" home with a standard 8 foot ceiling, so bouncing off the ceiling is easy.
I also bounce at restaurants. The only restaurants that I do not bounce, are a couple Chinese restaurants with RED ceiling, because that would reflect RED light back down. I've also bounced off the wall behind me, if it is neutral in color. Bouncing is not a magic bullet. You can't bounce off the ceiling if you are close to the subject, as the light will be coming down, like 12 noon sun. This is when I change directions and bounce off the wall behind me. So you have to be aware of what angle the bounced light will come down on the subject. My most troublesome situation was a restaurant with a slanted ceiling, which made calculating/estimating the bounce angle difficult.

I use a StoFen diffuser, cuz it is easy to carry and use. I use it where I can't easily bounce the ceiling. Example, when I am standing and have my flash on a bracket, the flash is about 1 to 1-1/2 feet from the ceiling, making a ceiling bounce difficult. The StoFen acts like a bare light bulb, and the light goes in all directions, so I am bouncing off the walls. It is helpful in small rooms. I just have to remember to pack it.

I also use a business card rubber banded to the flash, so I can bounce to the ceiling and get some reflected light off the business card to the subject.

Contrary to what Tony said, I like and use a flash bracket, a lot. Yes it is bulky and does make you stand out.
For me, the primary purpose is to shoot direct flash, without getting red-eye. I would rather deal with red-eye at the camera than afterwards in post processing.
And to me, very importantly, I can rotate the camera from H to V and still keep the flash ABOVE the lens, not on the side where the hot shoe of the camera is (in the V orientation). Flash above the lens makes a less visible shadow than flash to side, where it will cast a visible shadow to the side of the subject.

There is no one "magic" light modifier for a shoe flash. As Tony showed, all of them have some compromise, to achieve their purpose. YOU have to select the one(s) that best meet YOUR needs.
They are all simply tools in the tool box, and it is your job to select the appropriate tool for the job.

One thing I worry is the stress on the hot shoe, and damaging the camera. Put too much stuff on the flash and you increase the stress on the shoe. The taller the modifier, the longer the lever working against the shoe. Turn the camera from H to V, and the weight of the flash+modifier is now pulling down on the shoe. Maybe this is an unnecessary concern, I don't really know. But I would rather not find out by breaking the camera's hot shoe, or the foot of the flash, and have an EXPENSIVE repair.

 

[Cortian]

That Rogue FlashBender looks handy. I'm thinking that and a small softbox in my on-camera flash arsenal? BrentC uses a small (?) softbox for macro photography.

 

[Braineack]

That Rogue FlashBender looks handy. I'm thinking that and a small softbox in my on-camera flash arsenal? BrentC uses a small (?) softbox for macro photography.

I have one. Well, I went knockoff -- cause that's what I do.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LZRBOME/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Big Mike]

The thing about flash accessories, is that they are like fish hooks. Fish hooks are designed to attract fishermen, more than they are designed to attract fish.

So the point of designing and selling a flash accessory is to make money.

Of course, most of them actually do something useful for your flash photography. But many of them can also have a negative impact in some situations....and they usually fail to tell you when & where NOT to use them....and because of that, it's very common to see people using flash accessories in situations where they aren't doing anything to improve the light (over bare flash) and they just cause the flash to work harder.

So the key with any flash accessory, is to first understand light. Understand how flash works and how you can balance it with ambient light etc. With that knowledge, it should be fairly easy to know when to use which accessories, and just as importantly, when not to use them.

Of course, as with everything, it's always a compromise. A smart photographer chooses their gear to balance convenience and functionality, and does what they can within the limitations of those choices.

 

[Designer]

I was wondering if people would advise adding a diffuser, soft box, etc. to my bounce flash setup.

No! Absolutely not!

Don't put a modifier on your flash if it is pointed at the ceiling or a wall or some other white reflective surface. Your modifier is now the ceiling or wall, so why put another element in there? It will simply decrease the light, and is not needed or wanted.

You do use a modifier if you are pointing your flash directly at your subject. In that case, a small softbox attachment will be better than nothing, although the relative size of the light source has not increased by much.

When you bounce your flash (above, left, right, or behind) you are effectively increasing the size of the light source. When you point your flash directly at your subject, the light source is about 2 inches by 3 inches, so anything you can do to increase the relative size will soften the light.

Unless it's hard light you want, then no modifier at all.

 

[pixmedic]

for bouncing, we use rogue flashbenders. didnt know there was a generic version now, so that might be a good option as well. they also roll up for use as a snoot. we used them shooting a wedding at the Tampa aquarium (in dark hallways in front of glass tanks where direct flash wouldn't work) with very good results. for other staged shots we use 42 inch umbrella boxes with flashes.

 

[im1dermike]

• Flash Photography Techniques - Tangents

Awesome articles!

 

[Derrel]

Adding a diffusing type modifier for bounce flash is, in my experience, only useful or advisable when you're in a VERY cramped, low-ceilinged place, like a small room with a low ceiling, as in many apartments or aboard large boats or cruise ships, or in a photo booth type cramped place. Why? The Inverse Square Law means that in these types of very short-distance, cramped places, if a plain flash is bounced up off of a close-by ceiling or wall, the flash returns and is super-bright at the top of the head, bright on the face, and then the neck is slightly dark, and by the waist level of the people, you have VERY dark lighting. This is precisely the type of situation where the Fong-type omni-directional diffusing cap, or the rounded, spherical "globe" type diffusers are useful. When the flash-to-subject distance is VERY short, the rate of light fall-off is also very rapid, and blasting light in all directions helps add fill light and keeps "all of the light" from being simply bounced straight back down onto people's faces, while their bodies get almost no light. In normal-sized rooms or in bigger rooms, NO flash diffuser is typically added to the flash,and it works great.

Back in the early to mid-2000's, I used to use a small 5 x 7 inch mini-softbox and a 1-meter Nikon SC-17 TTL remote cord, and held the flash in my left hand, extended up and downward and across, for close-range flower shots, which did a good job of offering flash for motion-stopping in the wind, and for providing bright, simulated daylight, and the power of a speedlight to allow me to stop the lens down to f/13 or f/16 for most flower pictures. If you do the math, a 5x7 inch box offers a 35 square inch light source, while a typical 1 x 2.75 inch flash Fresnel panel is, well...2.75 square inches...meaning that even a small 5x7 inch softbox on small subjects and from close range, offers a "large" light source that's relatively soft, compared against bare flash.

Agreed--Neil V's articles on flash use and technique are some great instructional articles.

 

[im1dermike]

Thanks @Derrel for your insights.

I've learned a lot of things from comments in this thread. It seems like many people recommend Flashbender-type products to increase the size of the light source while also softening it. On the other hand, NvN is constantly promoting his BFT (Black Foamie Thing) that he uses as a flag which allows you to direct the flash toward the subject, but blocks the flash hitting the subject directly. Assuming I haven't misunderstood something, both of those tools/techniques make sense.

My goal with this thread was to see if there was a single piece of equipment I could always have mounted to my bounce flash that would positively improve it. Is this not realistic, that there isn't a single bounce flash modifier panacea? Are both of the tools I mentioned above great when the given situation dictates?

 

[Derrel]

This is no one, single best tool for bounce flash, because the desired end-result of lighting varies so much. Shooting bounce flash in a 25-foot-high church interior is one thing; shooting bounce flash aboard a yacht or cruise ship with an 8-foot high ceiling in a tiny room is another issue. In the church, you'd likely elevate the ISO to 500,640,or 800 or even higher, and zoom the flash head to 135mm beam spread and try to get a good, solid bounce by throwing up a precisely-directed, narrow beam. This was at one time called "foofing", by famous wedding pro Denis Reggie, and became popularized back when the Canon 5D series offered good ISO 1600 to 3200 results for many people who had what was then, cutting-edge ISO performance and image quality. Loooooong-throws, like 30,40,50,60 feet throws to the bounce area, and using wide apertures, like f/2 or f/2.5 or f/3.2 on a prime lens, and high ISO levels...that is one,specific type of bounce flash: High ISO, wide f/stop,long-throw bouncing at distances wayyyyyy longer than you can do at ISO 200.

Aboard a ship or in an apartment living room or in a hotel bathroom, you have the polar opposite situation: the bounced light has very rapid fall-off, due to the very short distances. The rate the light falls off is terribly rapid on a short-distance bounced lighting set-up...within a foot, you can have a 1.5 or even 2-stop fall-off, and the top of the picture area can be very hot, and over-lit....this is the type of situation where say, wedding shooters often find themselves with the bridal party and the groomsmen...in a small, cramped area, where they want to use bounced flash, and where the Fong diffuser or other omni-directional diffuser makes on-camera, simple flash pictures so much more evenly-lighted. Typically in a very cramped location, you would want to use a wiiiiiiide beam spread of light on the bounce, not a narrow one!

There are a number of different flash picture looks too. Direct-flash on bracket; flash + 5-inch parabolic reflector+ diffuser; Sto-Fen tilted up 45 degrees at close ranges under 12 feet; there's so many ways top shoot flash, that there can not possibly be any type of universally appropriate flash accessory. There's also a difference between "pumping up the ambient" by firing a shrouded [flagged off] flash (Neil's technique and BFT approach), and between firing a flash that directly hits the subject. There is NOT one, single thing that is a panacea.

Like Big Mike wrote, above: "So the key with any flash accessory, is to first understand light. Understand how flash works and how you can balance it with ambient light etc. With that knowledge, it should be fairly easy to know when to use which accessories, and just as importantly, when not to use them.

Of course, as with everything, it's always a compromise. A smart photographer chooses their gear to balance convenience and functionality, and does what they can within the limitations of those choices."

 

[Braineack]

On the other hand, NvN is constantly promoting his BFT (Black Foamie Thing) that he uses as a flag which allows you to direct the flash toward the subject, but blocks the flash hitting the subject directly. Assuming I haven't misunderstood something, both of those tools/techniques make sense.

it's a different technique: he's using a wall or ceiling to make the light VERY large. This is called bounce flash, but he's also then using the flag to block any direct light from the flash to expose the subject, ensuing only the light from the bounced surface is used.

 

[Designer]

My goal with this thread was to see if there was a single piece of equipment I could always have mounted to my bounce flash that would positively improve it. Is this not realistic, that there isn't a single bounce flash modifier panacea? Are both of the tools I mentioned above great when the given situation dictates?

I don't recommend any modifier being attached to your flash all the time. It will get in the way when you want to use your flash in bounce mode. As I wrote earlier, anything you put over the light will decrease the amount of light that hits your bounce surface.

The only thing I would mount to my flash head and leave it there would be a strip of (hook-side) "hook-'n-loop" fastener that you can then use to attach some type of modifier at any time, providing you had also attached a strip of the "loop" side of the H&L fastener on it.

That way, you can quickly and easily stick some modifier on your flash head whenever the situation calls for it.

With all this modifier/bounce talk in this thread, I wonder if you have the correct concept of bounce flash firmly in your knowledge base?

As to the modifiers you specifically mentioned; my advice is to use whichever one does the job, and is cost effective. I've made modifiers out of various materials that were never marketed for that use, but which seem to work better than something that costs real money.

Show me what you mean when you write "bounce flash".