GARY FONG?

Having just wandered from the political thread, I thought I'd toss out a
puzzle of sorts that might get back OT. Does the type of diffuser really
matter? If you think so, then tell me what kind of diffuser was used in
this photo? Heck, if you can't tell, just give your opinion as to
whether you think it did a good or even adequate job.

http://www.dyesscreek.com/hidden_pages/diffuser.html

Here is some additional info:

Camera Canon EOS 5D
Lens Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
Aperture 1.8
Shutter 200
ISO 100

Clues: The model, my daughter, is sitting on a bed in our upstairs
bedroom. To her left, camera right, is an open window. The room has
white walls, a low white ceiling and light carpeting. The room was a bit
dark and it was cloudy today, so without flash her right side would have
been in shadow. That was filled with a canon flash with a diffuser on it.

If you need a hint, I'll narrow the choices:

Gary Fong Lightsphere
White Post-it note
Larry Thong Light Bottle
Lumiquest Pocket Bouncer
Cream colored business card and tape
Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

There you have it. No doubt the people who think the equipment matters
will nail this one.

Incidentally, this isn't being offered as an example of a good photo,
but if you want to critique or flame me, go for it. I will post the
answer later if anyone is interested.

Eric Miller
www.dyesscreek.com

Eric Miller wrote:

...Does the type of diffuser really
matter? If you think so, then tell me what kind of diffuser was used in
this photo? Heck, if you can't tell, just give your opinion as to
whether you think it did a good or even adequate job.

http://www.dyesscreek.com/hidden_pages/diffuser.html

Looks like on-camera flash, not bounced off the ceiling, that leaves two
possibilities unless I don't know what those others are. I can see a
pretty sharp shadow under her chin so actually I vote for no diffuser.
Cute kid!

Gary Fong Lightsphere
White Post-it note
Larry Thong Light Bottle
Lumiquest Pocket Bouncer
Cream colored business card and tape
Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

I'm repeating what I wrote in the political thread as I think it got lost:

I just invented my own diffuser with some experimenting. For the
built-in flash on my D200... I started with tracing paper... almost no
difference... then dug up an old pplastic garden path light diffuser:
plastic designed to diffuse with ridges & frosted surface... a little
better but not a big difference... still harsh flash shadows... then I
cut that in half & doubled it with about a 1-inch gap between the two...
big improvement. This is based on a pricipal I learned from interior
designers for diffusing light through a window you use two sheer white
curtains with some separation, one doesn't do much but two really gets
the job done.

I'm not showing pics of it cause it's butt-ugly but what I did was cut a
piece of plastic to slide into the hotshoe & taped that to the diffuser
which curves over the popped up flash & rests on the lens. Easy to
remove with the hot-shoe attachment.

Then I designed a bouce card. Crinkled foil does a much better job that
a white business card... attachment is with another piece of plastic
(plant label bent with 4 folds), which then slides thru a slot in the
business card after mounting on the hot shoe thru the hole in the pop-up.

BTW I suck at flash... I always avoided it. I don't even get the iTTL
deal: there is almost no change in shutter speed in aperture priority
mode, it just provides fill light, even in slow synch mode and results
in a brighter exposure when flash is a major part of the exposure.
Hmmmm. I figure if I'm going to play with these diffused versions, I'll
keep it cranked up to max output since it's just a wimpy on camera flash
diffused.


--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

Paul Furman wrote:
Eric Miller wrote:

...Does the type of diffuser really matter? If you think so, then tell
me what kind of diffuser was used in this photo? Heck, if you can't
tell, just give your opinion as to whether you think it did a good or
even adequate job.

http://www.dyesscreek.com/hidden_pages/diffuser.html

Looks like on-camera flash, not bounced off the ceiling, that leaves two
possibilities unless I don't know what those others are. I can see a
pretty sharp shadow under her chin so actually I vote for no diffuser.
Cute kid!

No, I didn't cheat, I definitely used a diffuser. She does have her chin
tucked down, hence the shadow.

Eric Miller
www.dyesscreek.com

On Jul 29, 8:32 pm, Eric Miller
wrote:
Having just wandered from the political thread, I thought I'd toss out a
puzzle of sorts that might get back OT. Does the type of diffuser really
matter? If you think so, then tell me what kind of diffuser was used in
this photo? Heck, if you can't tell, just give your opinion as to
whether you think it did a good or even adequate job.

http://www.dyesscreek.com/hidden_pages/diffuser.html

Here is some additional info:

Camera Canon EOS 5D
Lens Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
Aperture 1.8
Shutter 200
ISO 100

Clues: The model, my daughter, is sitting on a bed in our upstairs
bedroom. To her left, camera right, is an open window. The room has
white walls, a low white ceiling and light carpeting. The room was a bit
dark and it was cloudy today, so without flash her right side would have
been in shadow. That was filled with a canon flash with a diffuser on it.

If you need a hint, I'll narrow the choices:

Gary Fong Lightsphere
White Post-it note
Larry Thong Light Bottle
Lumiquest Pocket Bouncer
Cream colored business card and tape
Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

Who knows, but I'm right there with you, brother! AAMOF, here's a fun
game. See if you can tell me which picture was taken with a Nikon
supplied SB-800 diffuser, which one was taken with a Lumiquest
Softbox, which one was taken with a gallon milk jug cut in half
slipped over the flash and pointed at the celing and which one was
just a bounce:

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/82704960

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/82704544 (this room is about
220' long, for reference)

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/63601448

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/73382919

In case you noticed, PBase doesn't list the flash as having fired in
the EXIF - this is a PBase issue - all were most definitely shot with
flash.

Ben Miller wrote:

See if you can tell me which picture was taken with a Nikon
supplied SB-800 diffuser, which one was taken with a Lumiquest
Softbox, which one was taken with a gallon milk jug cut in half
slipped over the flash and pointed at the celing and which one was
just a bounce:

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/82704960

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/82704544 (this room is about
220' long, for reference)

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/63601448

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/73382919

The baby was a bounce.

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

"Eric Miller" wrote in message
...
Having just wandered from the political thread, I thought I'd toss out a
puzzle of sorts that might get back OT. Does the type of diffuser really
matter? If you think so, then tell me what kind of diffuser was used in
this photo? Heck, if you can't tell, just give your opinion as to whether
you think it did a good or even adequate job.

http://www.dyesscreek.com/hidden_pages/diffuser.html


Eric Miller
www.dyesscreek.com

I can't see the page but I'll wade in with 10¢ worth.

The notion that "Gary Fong" can reinvent the wheel and charge 30 times the
cost of the vinyl thingy he sells is pretty much self explaining.

Diffusion of harsh light has been taking place for as long as Photography
has existed. Igniting flash powder to produce even harsher light than the
sun to level out the light and shade was perhaps the earliest example.

Later methods, many of which survive today all centred around scattering
light rather than allowing the raw (harsh) light from a small source to
illuminate the subject. Perhaps the most durable way of doing this is by
using a woven diffusion screen. (call it a soft box cover).

A German seller on eBay offers a set of "diffusers" for speedlites. One of
these is a sock made from a Woven diffusion screen material that looks
amazingly like the face of my softbox. It has a black panel sewn in one
side. It's main failure is needing +3 stops of flash increase to get close
to correct exposure.

An accessory diffuser that comes with this "kit" is way more useful. It's
like the vertical card trick for specular highlights except it has a slope
to it so the flash is directed more closely towards the subject. This device
works remarkably well. Much better than the "Gary Fong" thing which consumes
a considerable amount of the flash's power, just to function.

As other's have said in the earlier thread, these 6¢ plastic wonder caps -
first the "Sto-Fen" now the "Fong" all have one thing in common... The
producers are out to make a big buck from those stupid enough or lazy enough
to think this will cure their lighting problems.

Doug

Paul Furman wrote:

BTW I suck at flash... I always avoided it. I don't even get the iTTL
deal: there is almost no change in shutter speed in aperture priority
mode, it just provides fill light, even in slow synch mode and results
in a brighter exposure when flash is a major part of the exposure.
Hmmmm.

Surely you wouldn't get much change in shutter speed in aperture-priority,
'cause it works by modulating the flash intensity.

Rita Ä Berkowitz wrote:
dmac wrote:

As other's have said in the earlier thread, these 6¢ plastic wonder
caps - first the "Sto-Fen" now the "Fong" all have one thing in
common... The producers are out to make a big buck from those stupid
enough or lazy enough to think this will cure their lighting problems.

BRAVO! I'm glad another person out here understands this. What's really
perplexing is Bret uses a Fong and claims it has improved his
photography so
it has to be good.


Well I'm sure Bret's photography can be improved by it. He just has to put it
over the lens.

Eric Miller wrote:
Having just wandered from the political thread, I thought I'd toss out a
puzzle of sorts that might get back OT. Does the type of diffuser really
matter? If you think so, then tell me what kind of diffuser was used in
this photo? Heck, if you can't tell, just give your opinion as to
whether you think it did a good or even adequate job.

http://www.dyesscreek.com/hidden_pages/diffuser.html


To be fair, Eric, your shot doesn't exactly scream out for large soft-
box type lighting..! I'm not having a go at the shot - it's lovely
and you have balanced the light very well. But it's not like she has
complexion issues to hide, she is fully face on with an up-tilted
button nose (so it's really just under her jaw that a shadow is
obvious), and you obviously have nice soft indirect window light
(bouncing off all those white walls!) - so it looks as if the flash
contribution is not that great (which is backed up by the flash shadow
not having an awful lot of contrast...

Lastly, at the size displayed, the amount by which that shadow edge
has been softened is very hard to detect.

Having said all that, I'm tempted to go with the post-it, or the
business card even.

I agree with your premise, although if I was shooting for a huge
poster of a supermodel for a cosmetic company...

Richard Polhill wrote:

Paul Furman wrote:

BTW I suck at flash... I always avoided it. I don't even get the iTTL
deal: there is almost no change in shutter speed in aperture priority
mode, it just provides fill light, even in slow synch mode and results
in a brighter exposure when flash is a major part of the exposure. Hmmmm.

Surely you wouldn't get much change in shutter speed in
aperture-priority, 'cause it works by modulating the flash intensity.

Is there a way to set the flash power & have the darn thing adjust the
shutter speed? I did read the manual, apparently not carefully enough. I
would think the metering should change right away when popping up the
flash but yes, it obviously doesn't know exactly what impact the flash
will have until the iTTL business does it's preflash, especially without
focus distance info from the lens... hmm. If I shoot in manual mode, is
that the way to use the full power of the flash?

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com