Gary Fong Lightsphere example pictures from last night

shortpballer · Sep 6, 2009

I took a bunch of pictures at a party we had in my apartment for my roomate's birthday. These were all taken with poor lighting. All I had was a 430 ex and a gary fong cloud lightsphere. I think they came out AMAZING. these were hardly photoshopped, just changed white balance. Let me know what you guys think.

#1

#2

#3

I think it was well worth the money. Even though it was quite expensive.

kundalini · Sep 6, 2009

#1 - Nice exposure. Had you moved to your right some, you could have avoided the tangled mess of cords.

#2 - The dude with the fingers in the air should be taken outside and..... Sorry, what I meant was that in #2, if you had dragged the shutter, you could have gotten more ambient light in the background, rather than the dark space.

#3 - Is it natural to look goofy and grab your crotch?

I don't have a GF LS, but the exposures look pretty good. But I think your WB is still a tad bit too warm. Thanks for sharing.

....... got any from later in the evening?...... :lol:

musicaleCA · Sep 6, 2009

My reaction is "meh". As I noted in this thread I really just don't see the point. The lighting in these images is flat and directionless. In the third there is a shadow (albeit a soft one, but still a shadow) cast behind the black guy.

My opinion on diffusers is that if it takes away control from me, the photographer, it's not good enough. The Gary Fong takes control away, by sending light everywhere. If there are walls I want to avoid (colour casts, mirrors, odd angles), I can do that with other devices. My personal preference is the Presslite Vertex (no, I'm not selling it; I just prefer it above everything else I've used, including the Gary Fong—borrowed it from another photographer), but I would take a black foamcore flag and elastic on a bare flash over this any day.

Edit: Ditto on kundalini's comments regarding dragging the shutter. As long as people aren't moving much and you're steady, 1/15 is quite safe.

inTempus · Sep 6, 2009

Now try bouncing your flash without the Fong and see how amazing your shots look. It's why I don't use my Fong all that much.

Derrel · Sep 6, 2009

You oughtta' be a pal and tell the girl in frame #3 that her "picture face" makes her look about 15 years older,and a lot less attractive than she would look if she tried to present herself in a normal manner, like the girl who is seated in the office chair in the first shot.

I saw a funny collection of Myspace pics of one young woman,about the same age as the girl in number 3, who put the same idiotic, ugly expression on her face for photo after photo, across about a 2-year span. And answering the question posed by kundalini, yes, a lot of young males today find it perfectly normal to grab their crotch and look goofy; the guy with the A's hat is doing it, and the girl grabbing his hand is putting on her, "I want to look like I'm 35 and really drunk face"; the pair of them together is priceless!

The lighting? Meh...it's soft and diffused and easy to work with. It looks better than direct flash and redeye,right?

shortpballer · Sep 6, 2009

kundalini said:
#1 - Nice exposure. Had you moved to your right some, you could have avoided the tangled mess of cords.

#2 - The dude with the fingers in the air should be taken outside and..... Sorry, what I meant was that in #2, if you had dragged the shutter, you could have gotten more ambient light in the background, rather than the dark space.

#3 - Is it natural to look goofy and grab your crotch?

I don't have a GF LS, but the exposures look pretty good. But I think your WB is still a tad bit too warm. Thanks for sharing.

....... got any from later in the evening?......

Yes I do. But those are just for me

doogan · Sep 7, 2009

I don't know what a gary fong lightspehre is, but I always use a white plastic dome over my Nikon SB 800 and really like it. I think your pice are great, to me it doesn't look like flash was used. But then I'm not a picky technical person, I basically only care about the emotion, facial expressions, like that. If they were mine I would tone down the busy background in some of the pics, but only if I wasn't feeling too lazy.
Regards -Bob G.
________________________________________________
http://www.dreamworldimages.ca

fiveoboy01 · Sep 7, 2009

I don't use my Fong all that much.

I'll stay away from that one:lmao:

To the OP, #1 is the only one I like and you really need to get your GF out somewhere where you don't have such crappy backgrounds, her photos would look MUCH nicer.