Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hi Everyone,

Just really starting to learn how to use my 430EXII flash properly and I was thinking about getting a Lightsphere to take better indoor pics of my 4 month old and I cannot afford a better Lighting setup.

What is everyones opinion of the Lightsphere? Is there something better out there? I've read a bunch of reviews online and they all sound pretty good, but I figured I'd ask for people's specific opinion on here.

Thanks,

Paul

Check out my amateurish review of the Gary Fong Lightsphere collapsible:

http://flickr.com/gp/29718273@N06/w30V93

Click on each individual pic for commentary.


-Spencer

I've used one, it's very good for what it's designed to do, but I found it a pain to lug around. Got rid of it and got myself a $30 set of wireless trigger/receivers. It's very inconvenient and quite intimidating to your subjects, yet makes you feel like a weirdo too.

Mine looked different than Spencer's

I have it too and like others say, it does the job. I too hate how it's so attention grabbing, and never take it with me on the go except when I'm shooting as an 'official' photographer. Otherwise, I feel silly with it.

For a cheap and easy DIY solution, try this:

http://www.themoment2cherish.com/DIY-Bounce-Card/

I've tried it myself and the results are just as good. Unfortunately, it does nothing to help the silliness factor.

if you are using it to take indoor pics of your 4 year old, i doubt you'll have any worry about the attention-grabbing nature of the LS or feeling silly so..

I have one. Works as advertised for the most part. I keep it in my bag and slide my lens into it so it fits without any real issue. Yeah, only it grabs attention when you use it but family pictures in your own home - you have nothing to worry about.

You may want to try a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce - way more portable that the Gary Fong.

http://www.stofen.com/

I sold my Fong for many of the reasons cited here - it is a decent light modifier but is bulky. The Sto-fen produces nice light IMHO.

My bro-in-law shoots with one and the lighting looked good so I picked one up. What I found was that it does work as designed when in the right environment. The drawback is the bulky size that doesn't fit well in an already packed camera bag. The collapsible one is just, well, BIG.

http://super.nova.org/DPR//DIY01/
and/or
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... K:MEWAX:IT

Thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated.

Assuming your ceiling is a white you can always just bounce the light off the ceiling. That's what I end up doing 90% of the time.

If there are no white ceilings or walls you could always enlist the services of 'Bounceman'...

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/09/bo ... -time.html

All these contraptions do is to redirect some of the light bounced vertically to the ceiling laterally so it can bounce off some walls as well. This gives you a bit of fill.

That being said, whether you spend 50$+ on a fancy Tupperware jar or DIY from a shampoo bottle the results arr about the same.

The key is you need walls and a ceiling to bounce your flash off.

Putting a shampoo bottle on your flash isn't going to go over well with your clients.

Vee - +1. Depend what 'image' you are trying to protray while out shooting. Amateur/Hobbist like myself, I care less about that but if people are paying you to be the primary shooter at an event then professionalism counts.

Radup70 - I find that the Gary Fong and Sto-Fen, real or knock offs, throw a fair bit of light forward so in my limited experience in using them they could be used in situations without viable walls or ceilings.

As far as I know Lightsphere can also be used to just diffuse flash when shooting head on, and this is the technique used outdoors, just point the flash directly at the subject, but have the top diffuser on

+1 - Provided the Lightsphere does not get in the FOV of the lens

They do and this is precisely how they are supposed to work. The thing is without some significant large object to bounce off they do very little in terms of increasing the effective size of your light source.

Putting bouncing aside for a second these modifiers do a couple things. They increase the size if the light source, sometimes as much as ten times bigger. If you have ever looked at the flash head you would agree it's very small. So bigger light in general produces softer light. The second thing it does is raise the angle if the light source so the shadows are better hidden behind the subject. The third thing it does is provide fill when bouncing which evens out the light and the overall effect is the light wrapping around the subject.

If that's the case, then one should be using a flash bracket with flash cord.

I was a big user of the ABBC as well as the OEM diffuser, but found that using a flash bracket gave me better results than using the ABBC or any type of diffuser.

I have both the clear and cloud original GF Lightsphere, and must admit that I haven't used either for a few years. I think they work well, but only for certain situations.

More often I used the white card found in my Nikon SB800. Just easier, in most situtations.

Sometimes I use a bracket and shoot direct. This works well for verticals - I dislike the side shadow that comes from using the GF Lightsphere in vertical mode. In my opinion, the direct flash gives some pop while I find a bounced/diffused image to be flat.

Recently, I did buy a Gary Fong Origami which is small, light and foldable. I liked the results alot - it seems to act as a bigger white card and some more controls via a flap. I must admit I use it in the reverse way that it's instructions dictate with the flap behind rather than in front of the flash. What I like is that less flash power is used with the Origami vs. the Lightsphere which allows me to shoot multiple shots in a row (I found the Lightsphere sucked lots of power/wasted light and did not enable you to fire multiple shots in a row). I tend to shoot multiples of people to avoid closed eyes/bad expressions, etc.

I just picked up the Gary Fong Lightsphere before Christmas and just love it - definitely reduces shadows more than any other diffuser (including Stofen) I've used and provides a more even distribution of light. It is unfortunately bulky in size that can attract attention.

If you are not sure about getting it then I would suggest buying it from a store that would allow you to return it.

Try Demb Diffuser.

I don't know if this read might help you at all:

http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot.com/

The Origami is a nice one to have, but be very careful when you remove or store it. The smaller flaps are very easy to break off, as evidenced by my broken Origami and the one a friend of mine owns whic also broke the same way.

A bit of clear or white tape fixes it right back up.

+1 on the Demb Flip-it and Diffuser. My taped up Origami has not been out of the closet since I got a Demb Diffuser. Joe Demb gives outstanding customer support.