Gary Fong Light Sphere II Clear

[stsinner]

I have taken many pictures of different subjects, both with and without the lightsphere, and even with the SB-600, it's really no contest. This simple piece of plastic is amazing for providing balanced lighting and elilmintaing shadows..

Here are two that I took with and without.

First, without. This picture was taken with the on-board camera flash. Notice the bright flash in the trim of the pellet stove and the way the seat of the recliner on the left is dark:

Now, here I have mounted my SB-600 and attached the Gary Fong Light Sphere II Clear and pointed it straight up. Notice the more natural color of, well, everything.. You can see in the mirror the way it lights the ceiling, but everything else is also lit up nicely.

Here I took a picture with the SB-600 pointing forward. Not only do the walls look white, or at least washed out, the circle pattern is obvious with no post vignetting.. :

And here I used the Light Sphere II Clear pointed straight up:

I am amazed by the effectiveness of this simple $40 flash add-on, and I hope that my review will help others with their photography, as I was not paid to give a review but felt so compelled by the results that I thought I should.. I have both the Cloud and Clear models of the Light Sphere II and plan to perfect my portraiture with them.

I did absolutely no post processing in any of these pictures..

Thanks for reading.

 

[rufus5150]

What happens when you use the SB600 pointed straight up without the tupperware?

Aiming straight forward with a flash (onboard or otherwise) and then comparing a shot bounced off a ceiling is pretty apples and oranges.

 

[stsinner]

What happens when you use the SB600 pointed straight up without the tupperware?

Aiming straight forward with a flash (onboard or otherwise) and then comparing a shot bounced off a ceiling is pretty apples and oranges.

Tupperware.. Wow.. Pretty rude, but I'll take that challenge just because I like the Light Sphere that much. Be with you in a minute-Straight up SB-600 and then straight up SB-600 with Light Sphere II Clear.

 

[stsinner]

Here is a picture taken with the SB-600 pointing straight up.. What I noticed right off the bat were the shadows of the shelves and the lamp shade.. I know they're not straight, but the room is pretty dark, and it's hard to see anything straight.. The only light is the fish tank.

SB-600 pointed straight up:

And with the Tupperware.... The Gary Fong Light Sphere II Clear attached and everything the same:

Case closed, no?

 

[rufus5150]

. Thanks for retaking the shot. And the 'tupperware' comment wasn't intended to be rude. I happen to find Tupperware very useful and you have to admit, it's quite bowl shaped. Not sure it's worth the $40 for the slight improvement, though, at least from my perspective.

 

[Ls3D]

Yeah tupperware is pretty standard slang. The soft fill is pretty impressive.. now can you try a foam cup?

I kid (well kinda, it would be interesting), thanks for posting. Looks like you have plenty of fish food!

-Shea

 

[stsinner]

Yeah tupperware is pretty standard slang. The soft fill is pretty impressive.. now can you try a foam cup?

I kid (well kinda, it would be interesting), thanks for posting. Looks like you have plenty of fish food!

-Shea

I guess it does look like Tupperware... As for the fish food.....wood pellets. It's how we heat our home.

I am just surprised at how omnidirectional the Light Sphere is. I didn't expect it to make that big of a difference.

 

[chrisburke]

it seems as though your just playing with the flash in this one.. so I'm sure you noticed that they are VERY slanted.. but if your just playing with the flash and sphere, you probably werent caring about that.... unless your house is slanted... then they look just fine... lol

 

[davebmck]

I have one of those too, and I agree they really work well. However, I made myself some bounce cards as shown here: http://www.abetterbouncecard.com/. These work just as well, in my opinion, and way more portable.

 

[William Petruzzo]

I really like the lightsphere, but it does start to feel like I'm wasting flash power trying to fill up the whole room with flash power. I've been thinking of trying out some bounce cards instead.

 

[stsinner]

Holy cow! I watched the video on the website you provided and had flashbacks of Richard Simmons in the 80's... eek.. It was disturbing the way he kept calling the round shape of the foam backing, "Beautiful.." I had a really hard time finding the beauty in it. It was neat, maybe even clever, but beautiful.... Nah.

Maybe I'll try that. It does appear to be more portable. I didn't realize just how large the Light Speres were going to be.

 

[usayit]

I really like the lightsphere, but it does start to feel like I'm wasting flash power trying to fill up the whole room with flash power. I've been thinking of trying out some bounce cards instead.

Your observations are just right.... it gets progressively worse once the size of the room increases, subject is farther away, and the ceiling is higher. Other options to soften light up while being a little more efficient is to bounce the light through a larger diffuser. There are lots of DIY project to make one or you can spend money here: www.lumiquest.com While not as diffused as the tupperware method but a bit more efficient.

 

[Big Mike]

Most of the flash accessories have situations where they thrive and situations where they are not so good. A small room like this, is perfect for the Lightsphere, but as mentioned, as the room gets bigger it becomes less and less effective and more wasteful.

When doing a test like this, you should also note the power that the flash used. It might not be much, in a small room but in a larger room, the flash might be firing at full or half power, when it might only need to be firing at 1/8 or 1/16 if facing forward. That means slower recycle times and more battery usage.

Used in most indoor situation, the Lightsphere is pretty good. But remember to think about when it's not so good. I've seen way too many photographers using these things outdoors.

Also, to add to your test. Use the 600 bare, but turned around and facing behind you and up at 45 degrees.

 

[stsinner]

I really like the lightsphere, but it does start to feel like I'm wasting flash power trying to fill up the whole room with flash power. I've been thinking of trying out some bounce cards instead.

I just carry an extra set of rechargeables. All a bounce card does is "bounce" the light, but the Light Sphere fills in the entire room from the ceiling down, eliminating most shadows, and even illuminating the walls behind the subject better than a bounce card can due to the light hitting the ceiling and every direction in between. It's truly omnidirectional.

I didn't understand the guy in the abetterbouncecard videos talking about how important it is to block your flash from going in peoples' eyes. He even implied that you wouldn't get invited to do another wedding if you were blinding people with your flash.. I hardly think that's the case.

 

[stsinner]

it seems as though your just playing with the flash in this one.. so I'm sure you noticed that they are VERY slanted.. but if your just playing with the flash and sphere, you probably werent caring about that.... unless your house is slanted... then they look just fine... lol

Don't you have diapers to change, or something? LOL.... Yeah, I noticed they were really slanted, but as I mentioned in my post, the only light that was on was the fish tank, and while looking through the viewfinder it was hard to see the corner where the wall meets the ceiling in order to straighten the shot. And, yes, I was just playing with the flash to see what a difference my new toys make. I just got them in the mail a few days ago, so I'm like a kid at Christmas time. I also bought a 2X converter for my prime lens, but I wonder if I'll lose some detail going through all that glass. I know I'll probably lose a stop or two, as well..