gary fong lightsphere or omin bounce for event portraits

Ill be shooting some portraits at an event and some of a few gust speakers on stage next week and would like some advise as far as lighting. Time constraint will be very tight so I want to get this down right. I have a stofen omni bounce for my 550 ex flash on 20D. I also should be getting the gary fong lightsphere sometime this week. Id like to know which will work better for some candid portraits of speakers prior to them hitting the state. During speaking Ill have to shoot from the wings with no flash, and then can use flash again at concession stands and book signing.
So what would you use? gary fong lightsphere or stofen omni bounce?

My setup will probably be a 20D, 550 ex, and not sure, but for portraits maybe the 85 1.8, 50 1.8 or 70-200 2.8L. I also have a 17-40L. What would you use for portraits in waiting room prior to speakers going to stage?
Any advise or help would be great.

What lens depends on how much of the person you want in the "portrait"

Head and shoulders, like an appointment announcement or passport?

Half-body, holding something that illustrates the person's expertise?

Stretched out with his feet on a table, eating an orange to build up enegy before going on stage?

Anyway, and 85mm lens is probably too long inside a smallish room, but there again, the size of the room matters. And with an 85, and flash on camera, you need that flash to rech a pretty long way, suckingup power so that repeat shots need to be spaced far enough apart to allow recharging.

BAK

IM thinking more along the lines of have the guest speakers pose together in varying size order. There will be from 3-6 and varying heights. I was thinking of stagerring them so taller people are further behind the shorter ones to even it out. probably waist up should be fine. Would the 17 -40 be a better choice to get right up front in thie face? or will the flash be too powerful that close to them?
Also may have a few of them holding their book or soemthing.

Well all the answers I have seen are about what lens to use. The title was which modifier to use. I have a stofen knock off right now and have done alot of reading on both the stofens and the LS's and from what I can tell it depends alot on the situation which will be better. The varablibles are cceiling height, colr etc, and amount of light needed. If you are in asmall room with a low ceiling then I think the Light sprear might be best but if not the Stofen would be better unless you use the cap on the lS but then in a small room it might be too much light. I think I will try one eventually but I am looking at a softbox first.

I don't see what the problem is. I have the LS on each of my cameras and I never take them off, if the ceiling is to high to bounce just aim the LS straight out at them. Just remember to use TTL or TTLBl and not manual as the LS will confuse the flash on manual.
Randal

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thanks jeff
N.Y.

cloud. ls worked rather well too. I did get some strange looks and a few asked what the heck is that!???

smith2996 said:

During
speaking Ill have to shoot from the wings with no flash, and then
can use flash again at concession stands and book signing.
So what would you use? gary fong lightsphere or stofen omni bounce?

Click to expand...

Will there be a low white ceiling overhead to bounce the flash? If not neither will give you results much better than direct flash since without the ceiling they don't diffuse much:

With ceiling:



Without a ceiling:



I use a different, more efficient approach, a large reflection diffuser, which operates the same whether there is a ceiling overhead or not:







See http://super.nova.org/DPR/DIY01

smith2996 said:

My setup will probably be a 20D, 550 ex, and not sure, but for
portraits maybe the 85 1.8, 50 1.8 or 70-200 2.8L. I also have a
17-40L. What would you use for portraits in waiting room prior to
speakers going to stage?

Click to expand...

The 70-200mm would allow you to shoot both the shots from the wings and the head shots with the same lens. The 50mm and 17-40mm will put you too close to the subjects. The 85mm is nice for potraits but requires a good bit of space to work in for more than a tight head shot.

CG

I use the DEMB flash modifiers. They include a completely adjustable reflector and diffuser. They are nice because different events, ceiling bounce heights and crowds require different lighting. The DEMB system is so adjustable that it's been easy to find the right lighting for every event I have shot. DEMB also offers a new bracket that works well with the flash system.