How To Diffuse Your On Camera Flash
Don't you lot just hate that little pop-up flash on your camera? Harsh shadows, diddled highlights, ugly photos; no fun at all! If only there were a fashion to turn this little wink into something that y'all could actually use without existence embarrassed of the results.
Today nosotros're going to take a expect at a production that promises to practice just that: The Gary Fong Pop-Up Flash Diffuser. We'll discuss pricing and setup and take some test shots to come across if information technology really makes practiced on its promise.
The Plight of the Pop-up Wink
If y'all're a new photographer, you might be dislocated almost a trend in professional cameras. Generally, the more expensive the camera, the less likely it is to have a popular-up wink. This is of course counter-intuitive. Why would Canon and other manufacturers start stripping features as the toll increases? Shouldn't information technology be the other way effectually? Why does the $600 Canon T1i come up equipped with a flash while the $two,000 Catechism 5D Marker Ii doesn't?
While I can't pretend to fully sympathize Canon'southward reasoning, an of import part of the equation no doubt lies in an analysis of the client purchasing the photographic camera. Nearly people that buy 5Ds aren't just looking for something to shoot photos of their kid's next altogether party, they're likely engaged in a level of professionalism.
These professional customers are also likely to know a thing or 2 about photography while Rebel customers are often at a well-nigh-beginner level. The affair that the professional knows that the newbie doesn't is that pop-upwardly flashes are generally regarded as horrible devices.
What'due south So Bad About My Flash?
Pop-upwardly flashes are harsh and direct. They can brand photos taken with a $700 camera look similar they came from a disposable flash and trash. Sure, y'all have the benefit of really being able to take pictures where you lot otherwise wouldn't, but the result is oftentimes flat, uninteresting images with harsh shadows and horrible white balance.
Many professional person photographers desperately avoid lighting scenarios like the 1 above. So you can see why expensive cameras don't even come equipped with a popular-up flash. Professional photographers more often than not apply dedicated flash devices that toll nearly as much as an unabridged camera with a popular-upwardly flash!
So Is My Flash Useless?
The information above isn't very encouraging to anyone who owns a camera with a popular-upwardly wink. Odds are, yous aren't ready to run out and spend hundreds of dollars for a skillful flash, so does this mean you're out of luck?
Fortunately, the answer is no. To be honest up front, your popular-up wink will probably never produce the kind of results you'll get from a Canon 580EX Ii, but you can take steps to make your wink usable and helpful.
Improvidence Techniques
At present that we've bashed pop-up flashes, you should know that even the high-grade on-photographic camera flashes have a dirty little secret: they're harsh likewise! Information technology's simply the nature of the technology in its electric current state. They might be more powerful and spread the light out much better, but information technology's also quite easy to use them to take horrible photos.
Professional photographers that aren't a fan of directly hit subjects with a bare flash mostly take ane of ii routes. The first is to bounce the flash. Professional on-photographic camera flashes have a pivot machinery that allows y'all to bespeak your wink at the ceiling, a nearby wall or a reflector card. This ensures that the subject field isn't taking the harsh flash directly only rather receiving much softer, reflected calorie-free.
If you take a look at your pop-upwardly wink, this technique doesn't really help you much. It would be ingenious of Canon to requite their pop-up flashes a degree of swivel, even if just to point them up, simply we have no such luck. Instead, the wink is fixed in its forward facing position.
The 2nd technique that you'll see professional photographers use is the application of a flash diffuser. The most popular of these are made my Gary Fong. Fong makes several diffusers but most of them generally wait like a piece of Tupperware retrofitted onto a Flash.
These "Lightspheres" work much in the same way that a lampshade does, dispersing and softening the light all at one time. When used properly, this eliminates the harsh shadows and apartment lighting typical of wink-lit shots.
Since yous tin can't apply the first technique very well with your pop-up flash, you'll accept to take the second route and use a wink diffuser if you lot desire to reduce the affect of your flash. Let's have a await at a product specifically for this purpose.
The Puffer
Gary Fong diffusers are generally for professional utilise and offset at about $sixty. Nonetheless, Fong also makes a dandy little diffuser that you can pick upwardly for effectually $xx called the Puffer. This flash diffuser is specially designed for pop-upwards flashes like those found on Canon Rebels (Puffers exist for Nikon, Sony, Pentax and other cameras also). I recently purchased one of these for my Canon Insubordinate T1i so I could evidence you how to use it and see what kind of results it produces.
Installing the Puffer
The Puffer comes in two pieces, both made of plastic. The first piece is the holder mechanism. This is cleverly designed to fit right into the hot shoe on your camera.
The second piece is the actual diffuser. It'southward a piece of curved, translucent plastic with several holes in a vertical strip on either side.
Put these two pieces together and you've got your Puffer. The pegs in the holder pop right into the holes on the diffuser. Multiple holes help you position the diffuser properly in front of your pop-upward flash. I used the third hole from the bottom for my T1i, you should experiment to run across what works best on your camera.
Once y'all've got your Puffer put together, just slide it into the hot shoe on your camera. Note that there'southward naught electronic here, the hot shoe is only beingness used to hold the diffuser upright.
Isn't that something? Now let's practise some tests to come across if I wasted $18.
Testing the Puffer
Offset, I establish a fairly poorly lit department of my house. It was in the centre of the twenty-four hours so the firm felt quite bright to my eyes, but my photographic camera didn't quite agree. I was attempting to simulate a lot of the inside shots I've had trouble with during family gatherings, parties, etc. The resulting epitome was quite dark, even at a fairly boring shutter speed. Notation that all of the images in this department are straight out of photographic camera and have not been edited in any fashion bated from resizing and labeling.
Next I repeated the same shot, once with the diffuser and once with just the bare flash. The difference between the two results wasn't nearly every bit dramatic as I had hoped, but they are noticeably unique.
Neither technique created harsh face shadows (I was straight in front of the photographic camera), nor did either produce an overly harsh, apartment look. Even more than surprisingly, i isn't significantly brighter than the other every bit I had expected.
The surface area that seems to display the nearly difference is the temperature of the epitome. The diffuser made the photo noticeably warmer (which is a skillful matter). This is more evident if nosotros sample the skin tones from the two images using the same reference signal.
Since my kickoff setup wasn't creating whatever harsh shadows to analyze, I moved on to something new. This time I changed the camera settings a bit to adjust to the new room and repeated my with/without the Puffer procedure. Below are the results:
Here you tin see the results of the Puffer much better. The shadows are softer and the light is more spread out, resulting in an overall brighter looking image.
In 1 final examination, I wanted to really see the difference between how the two different methods dispersed the calorie-free. Basically, I wanted to analyze the shape of the flash and the resulting lite rays. The easiest fashion I could effigy out to do this was simply to stand in front of a mirror and take a few shots.
The prototype on the peak shows the flash with the Puffer and the image on the bottom shows the wink without the Puffer. The images are both hideous, but again we see an overall better dispersal of light when the Puffer is introduced.
Is Information technology Worth The Coin?
The Gary Fong Puffer did exactly what it advertised, information technology softened my shadows and spread out the wink. However, I must admit that I had hoped for a more than dramatic improvement in the quality of the resulting paradigm. To be fair, much of this can probably be attributed to the fact that Canon placed a not-so-horrible wink on the T1i.
To quickly answer some questions that you might have about the Puffer: No, it doesn't eliminate redeye or pivot lighting (little dots in the eyes). The flash carries around a big room a bit better, simply is still not ideal for shooting anything more a few feet away. No, I however wouldn't utilise a pop-up flash in a dark professional situation such equally a wedding reception. Though I might consider using the Puffer in an already bright outdoor shoot to add together some filler.
So will this piece of plastic take a pop-up flash from horrible to amazing? Certainly non. Am I glad that I have one? You bet. I've spent a lot of fourth dimension with information technology in the past month in lots of different lighting scenarios and I almost always get better results with the Puffer than I do without it. Sometimes the difference is and so subtle that most people would meet no real comeback, just a photographer's eye will ever spot the warmer skin tones and improved light spread.
How Do You Diffuse Your Pop-Upward Flash?
Now that we've seen how the commercial product works, permit's have a look at some of your homemade methods! I know many of you have faced this problem before and I've seen some pretty inventive methods for a DIY diffuser, everything from a film canister to vacuum bags!
Leave a annotate below with a link to your diffuser hacks. Were yous satisfied with the results? How would you improve your rig if you did it all over. As well be sure to permit us know what y'all think of the Puffer!
Did y'all discover this post useful?
Source: https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-diffuse-your-pop-up-flash-with-a-fong-puffer--photo-5404
Posted by: mcculloughhimper.blogspot.com
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