casual wedding shots and lighting

[jplunk]

i'm using a canon 5d with a 580ex flash. i've researched a little to find small "on camera" soft boxes to eliminate the hard shadows and washed out, no depth flash of light. any ideas on how to go about lighting and shooting casual, candid shots without lugging around my large soft boxes and strobes?

 

[SpeedTrap]

Use a reflector and bounce the flash off the reflector, it gives nice soft light and is very portable.

 

[usayit]

they soften the shadows but not necessarily eliminate them but I use lumiquest's Ultrasoft LQ-103 with acceptable results. They are especially effective with an off shoe cord. I use mine on a stroboframe.

Lumiquest has a few products that suit different needs.... the larger the "soft box" the better... check out the "big bounce" which is like mine but much larger. I highly recommend using a flash frame.

www.lumiquest.com

 

[THORHAMMER]

if you have an asistant to hold something, might as well utilize them and have them dial in softbox and light on stand if you have it allready

if its just you solo, look into those boxes that mount over your flash on top of the camera, (not the maxi-pad shaped things ) but its a miniature soft box, about 12 x 18 or so...

if your flash is strong enough (prob guide 165 and above... )
you should be able to shoot 10 feet with it, good for head and shoulders !!

I dont know if itll work on a bright day
might need 2 or 3 times the power.

 

[jplunk]

excellent feedback! thank you guys. i didn't even know about most of these things.

 

[Big Mike]

Bounce the flash. It could be off of a reflector, the ceiling, a wall, even off of other people. Try turning the flash around and firing it behind you (away from the subject).

One problem when bouncing flash (of the ceiling, for example) is that the light can tend to look like mid-day light and cause shadows in the eyes etc. To fix this, you can direct some of the light forward while bouncing the rest. A simple bounce card can do this (the 580 has one built right in)...or there are plenty of aftermarket products that will help with this.

 

[jcolman]

You can easily make your own reflector similar to the lumiquest ones. Go to any art supply store and look for 12" x 12" white foam. It's about 1/4" thick. Pick up some strips of velcro while you're there and maybe some plastic stitching material (looks like a plastic grid). Cut and fold the foam into the shape you want. Use the stitching material to help the foam hold it's shape. (depending on the shape this may not be necessary) Cut some velcro strips to mount the reflector on your flash. I also use velcro to help shape the reflector.

The other modifier you can make yourself is a beauty dish. While it's not quite as portable as a small reflector it works. Below are pics of one I made the other day.

With dish

bare flash

A cheap plastic bowl and a gutter attachment for the strobe to go into. Some white and black paint.

One of the wife's plastic food containers screwed into the bowl and gutter thing.

Looking inside the food container. This is a strip of aluminum header tape used to block the light from exiting the end of the "cup" and to reflect the light into the bowl.

My 580EX attached to the bowl/gutter thing with a strip of velcro.

The results.

 

[Big Mike]

I love the DIY beauty dish. Can't argue with the results.

I saw something very similar (probably on Strobist)...the difference being that instead of a food container, they used a cover from a spindle of CD/DVD discs and they put a convex mirror (from auto supply store) in side.

 

[jcolman]

I love the DIY beauty dish. Can't argue with the results.

I saw something very similar (probably on Strobist)...the difference being that instead of a food container, they used a cover from a spindle of CD/DVD discs and they put a convex mirror (from auto supply store) in side.

That's where I got the idea. :thumbup: I didn't have a CD cover to use so my wife sacrificed one of her food containers. Gotta love a woman who gives it up for art!!