Flashgun Question

[stoi689]

Hi guys!

I was at the boxing the other night watching some of the ringside photographers snapping away at the action and I noticed two photographers standing next to one another with their flashguns being used in an interesting way.

The camera was pointing between the bottom and first rope, with flashgun pointed upwards at sort of a diagonal angle (I'm assuming to avoid that dark strip from flash hitting the rope). I also noticed a small, seemingly metallic, strip attached to the flashgun. Not sure if that was for bouncing the light off somewhere or what.

I have a flash myself but as a complete novice have never truly mastered the art of ringside photography and am keen to hear any explanations of this use of flash!

Thanks guys. Stoi. :thumbup:

 

[Misfitlimp]

Im not too sure if I got what you where describing but if the flash was on camera and was at like a 45 it was prolly so he wouldnt get the gnarly harsh flash shots

 

[LCARSx32]

Like the post above says, they were probably trying to avoid harsh shadows and highlights. The metal piece you saw attached to the flash was a bounce card, maybe? Someone with more flash accessory experience want to chime in?

 

[JasonLambert]

Did it look something like this?

 

[stoi689]

Yes Jason that is exactly what it looked like!

What are the benefits of using one of these?

 

[edouble]

This is another method of incorporating bounce flash. The small card that is typically included with a speedlight style flash is not effective enough for directing light into a large area like a boxing ring. This is a very popular tool for defusing light to make it softer and less harsh. Softer light adds texture and reduces glare which is much more appealing than direct flash lighting.

 

[stoi689]

Many thanks for the informative response edouble. I think I might buy on of these cards, I don't think they will be too expensive.

 

[stoi689]

Hey people, I was taking a glance at my own flashgun and would you believe it, there seems to be a built-in light bouncer! It slides out of the top and has two parts - a plastic piece and a see-through part.

So if anybody else is curious (or just stupid like me), check out your own and see it may be already built-in.

 

[edouble]

Hey people, I was taking a glance at my own flashgun and would you believe it, there seems to be a built-in light bouncer! It slides out of the top and has two parts - a plastic piece and a see-through part.

So if anybody else is curious (or just stupid like me), check out your own and see it may be already built-in.

The "see thru" part is a small diffuser to help spreed light when the flash is set to a wide setting like 14mm. The white card you found is a "bounce card" which can help illuminate a subjects face at relatively close distances without having the flash directly pointed at your subject.

 

[SrBiscuit]

rather than spend money, the same can be achieved with some heavy weight paper (try colors for a fun effect) and a rubber band.