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What do you think abou GARY FONG lightsprhere?
- Thread starter bgbs
- Start date
I got one (the cloud type), and IMHO it is a waste of money.
If basically a point light source that spreads the light around. This means that if there is something (ceiling, walls) to bounce off, some of the light it redirects may bounce back and hit your subject. If it there is no surface to bounce off, all that light is simply wasted.
However, if there is something to bounce off, you will get better results by learning proper bounce technique. If there is nothing to bounce off, all it does is to make your flash a lot less powerful with no improvement at all in the quality of light.
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– gisle [ See profile/plan for equipment list ]
Very good marketing company.
So-so performance under just the right conditions.
Terrible waste of camera case space.
Spend your money on a Joe Demb Flip-it. Much more flexible under many more situations, folds flat in your case, and over-all will produce better results than any of the fong domes.
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http://www.almariphoto.net
So-so performance under just the right conditions.
Terrible waste of camera case space.
Spend your money on a Joe Demb Flip-it. Much more flexible under many more situations, folds flat in your case, and over-all will produce better results than any of the fong domes.
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http://www.almariphoto.net
Im Kirk
Well-known member
I used one for a year or so along with some others. But 2 weeks ago I had on my clear lightsphere, ready for the procesisonal until some kid playing with the light switch turned off all the lights and could not get them back on..the wedding went on as planned and the lightsphere was usless. Had no "reach" whatsoever and I was shooting at 800 FEC +1, images were all too underexposed because there was no other ambient light helping. Next time to be on the safe side I'm going to use my bracket and shoot straight on. So no matter what happens with the light I'll be ready with no side shadows, lightsphere gives those also.
v_
Senior Member
One more vote for the Flip-it! Much more convenient than the Fong-bowl IMO.
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Viktor
'Happy shooting!'
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Viktor
'Happy shooting!'
John Deerfield
Senior Member
Add me to the list. The Lighsphere is a waste of money. Where it does the most good (a small white room) it isn't needed (a small white room!). Learning proper bounce technique along with proper lighting concepts will be infinitely more valuable. ALong those lines, I too prefer the Flip-It it for it's versatility. However, I also use the Sto fen style diffuser quite often as well. The claim that the Lightshpere produces softer light only works when you can bounce off something. And if you can bounce off something, then virtually any bounce diffuser will work. The key to soft light is that the light source, in relationship to the subject, needs to be larger. You make a shoe mount flash light source larger by bouncing off of something. Diffusion is simply the scattering of the light. The Sto fen will scatter the light, bouncing light forward off the Demb Flip It will scatter (diffuse) light, as will using a Lighsphere. It is just that the Lightsphere is so expensive, inefficient, and least flexible making it the least favorable solution.
What about these consumer reviews who bought it from BHphoto?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=getItemDetail&Q=&sku=435138&is=REG&si=rev#anchorToReadReviews
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=getItemDetail&Q=&sku=435138&is=REG&si=rev#anchorToReadReviews
AbeFriedman
Forum Enthusiast
I'm not sure the problem of "reach" was with the lightsphere. Yes, you loose about 1 stop of light with the diffuse,r but asking an on-camera flash to entirely light a wedding might be the problem.
Abe
Abe
AbeFriedman
Forum Enthusiast
It's really not a bad device if you understand what it is and how to use it. My major issue is that it's a very expensive plastic bowl. It's easy to use. It helps diffuse the light and reduce shadows.
OTOH, it's expensive. It throws a lot of light in all directions which, if not reflected back, is wasted.
I don't use mine much because I prefer a home-made oversize reflector similar to the "better bounce card". It cost me $2 to make and I have more control over where the light goes and it doesn't go behind me. And the reflective surface is about 10x the lightsphere.
Maybe you could pick up one cheap from all the other posters who hate theirs ;-)
Abe
OTOH, it's expensive. It throws a lot of light in all directions which, if not reflected back, is wasted.
I don't use mine much because I prefer a home-made oversize reflector similar to the "better bounce card". It cost me $2 to make and I have more control over where the light goes and it doesn't go behind me. And the reflective surface is about 10x the lightsphere.
Maybe you could pick up one cheap from all the other posters who hate theirs ;-)
Abe
It's ok if you have to keep the light source on camera, but if you want better looking photos, you NEED to move your light source off camera and use some larger modifiers than the small Fong Dong.
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http://www.bushidophoto.com
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http://www.bushidophoto.com
Once you develop realistic expectations, the Lightsphere is great.
I use mine on the camera, or on a lightstand connected via a Canon off camera shoe cord, with or without an umbrella.
And I use it with and without the top, vertical and pointed forward and pointed backward.
BAK
I use mine on the camera, or on a lightstand connected via a Canon off camera shoe cord, with or without an umbrella.
And I use it with and without the top, vertical and pointed forward and pointed backward.
BAK
Tom Bennett
Senior Member
never really liked the clear one so one day I cut it down making it half as long as the orginal. then I took the hot air gun I have and heated the lid. Turned it inside out rolled over the edges and made an outward dome. next I hot glued the two halfs back together and painted the inside with silver paint. It works better than ever as a soft wide angle difuser
The Lightsphere works well. The concept is simple: rather than having a single cone of light directed in one direction or towards one surface, you spray the light omnidirectionally, 360 degrees, allowing the light to bounce off of every surface. This creates the effect of having a giant light source because the entire room (walls, ceilings, all surfaces) becomes the light source, in addition to the light emanating directly from the Lightsphere towards your subject. Oftentimes, images look like you used several very large light boxes, even though you were actually only using a single hotshoe flash. I find it makes flash photography look very natural, almost as if you hadn't used flash at all. And the nice thing about the Lightsphere is that it works well even when using the camera in vertical orientation since the omnidirectional nature of the light fills in or lightens the side shadows that typically occur when using shooting in vertical orientation is a hotshoe flash. I've posted some images below that I did with a Lightsphere, including close-in shots and vertical orientation shots so you can get an idea of the results you get.
There are a few caveats, though. Firstly, the Lightsphere is basically useless outdoors because the Lightsphere needs surrounding surfaces to bounce the light off of. Secondly, the Lightsphere consumes more battery power since the light is bouncing everywhere. Thirdly, if you're a control freak, you really can't control where the light goes because the Lightsphere simply radiates the light everwhere. (However, having said that, you can still point it in any direction, to somewhat modify its output, as well as removing the top cap.) But on the positive side, the Lightsphere is extremely easy to use, you don't have to think about it, and the results are typically so good that I don't feel the need to control or fiddle with it at all.
You can see that, depending on where you point the Lightsphere, you can somewhat modify where and how any side shadows fall or are filled in. That's why the image below looks slightly different from the image above. I played around with where I was pointing the Lightsphere. Not a whole lot of control, but whatever you do, you still get a very nice wrap-around quality of light.
This image was shot from very close range, very close to the ground (subject is a very small child, after all) with a dark red carpet below and a greenish curtain behind, and a white table cloth to the left...in other words, a whole bunch of different surrounding surface colors. All I did was frame, focus, and shoot because the subject was moving quickly towards me. Even though the camera is in vertical orientation, with the flash off to the side and the Lightsphere pointed straight up, you can see the softness of the light, and the softening of the side shadows.
Overall, I really love the Lightsphere. It works well indoors, is very easy to use, is virtually indestructible, you don't have to spend any time and effort constantly adjusting it, and it gives the effect of a very large, open, wrap-around light. I've played with a lot of flash light modifiers, including a few that I've made myself, but when I just want hassle-free, soft, wrap-around light, I just stick the Lightsphere on my flash.
There are a few caveats, though. Firstly, the Lightsphere is basically useless outdoors because the Lightsphere needs surrounding surfaces to bounce the light off of. Secondly, the Lightsphere consumes more battery power since the light is bouncing everywhere. Thirdly, if you're a control freak, you really can't control where the light goes because the Lightsphere simply radiates the light everwhere. (However, having said that, you can still point it in any direction, to somewhat modify its output, as well as removing the top cap.) But on the positive side, the Lightsphere is extremely easy to use, you don't have to think about it, and the results are typically so good that I don't feel the need to control or fiddle with it at all.
You can see that, depending on where you point the Lightsphere, you can somewhat modify where and how any side shadows fall or are filled in. That's why the image below looks slightly different from the image above. I played around with where I was pointing the Lightsphere. Not a whole lot of control, but whatever you do, you still get a very nice wrap-around quality of light.
This image was shot from very close range, very close to the ground (subject is a very small child, after all) with a dark red carpet below and a greenish curtain behind, and a white table cloth to the left...in other words, a whole bunch of different surrounding surface colors. All I did was frame, focus, and shoot because the subject was moving quickly towards me. Even though the camera is in vertical orientation, with the flash off to the side and the Lightsphere pointed straight up, you can see the softness of the light, and the softening of the side shadows.
Overall, I really love the Lightsphere. It works well indoors, is very easy to use, is virtually indestructible, you don't have to spend any time and effort constantly adjusting it, and it gives the effect of a very large, open, wrap-around light. I've played with a lot of flash light modifiers, including a few that I've made myself, but when I just want hassle-free, soft, wrap-around light, I just stick the Lightsphere on my flash.
The problem with conventional bounce technique is that you can still only point the flash head in one direction at a time, resulting in bounced light that is still rather directional. For example, if you bounce the light off of a wall on the left, then the light is coming from the left, creating a side lighting effect. Likewise, if you bounce the light off of a ceiling, you get the light coming from above, often resulting in under eye shadows. Or if you bounce the light off of the wall on the right, then you get the light coming from the right. Wouldn't it be great to point the flash at each one of these surfaces simultaneously? Well, that's basically what the Lightsphere does. The benefit of the Lightsphere is that you get the light coming from multiple surrounding surfaces simultaneously (wall on the left, wall on the right, wall behind you, as well as the ceiling above). So basically, the Lightsphere addresses one limiting issue with hotshoe flashes: you can only point the flash head in one direction at a time!
BTW, others mentioned the Joe Demb Flip-it. A colleague of mine just got one and I borrowed it to try it out. While it is a good product, one fundamental difference (and limitation, at least for me) with the Flip-it is that it does not spread the light omnidirectionally. You're basically bouncing the flash light off of a single large bounce card, which means that the light is still mainly coming from one single surface. As a result, the quality of light that it produces is more directional, not as diffused, and side shadows are darker/more defined since you're not getting as much omnidirectional scatter light filling in and softening those shadows. On the positive side, the Flip-it is more efficient with battery power since the light is more directional (mainly going in one direction, towards your subject).
But I missed the softer, more diffused, omnidirectional quality of light that i got from the Lightsphere. For example, if I had a big wall behind me (as well as the ceiling and side walls), the Flip-it was still only bouncing the light mainly off of its attached bounce card, completely ignoring the huge wall behind me, and directing a relatively small proportion of the light towards the side walls and ceiling, whereas the Lightsphere would be taking full advantage of all of these huge bounce surfaces to light your subject. On the other hand, the Flip-it works better in large rooms where bounce surfaces are more scarce.
Ultimately, it's simply a matter of taste, a matter of where you're using them and a matter of what kind of result or effect yo want. For me, just like having multiple lenses for different conditions or different results, I think it's advantageous to have multiple light modifiers for different conditions and results. I see no reason why anyone needs to limit themselves to only one hotshoe flash attachment. The average studio can have easily a half dozen or more lighting tools and modifiers to light a subject! There's no one tool that is the best. Besides, these hotshoe attachments are inexpensive compared to studio light modifiers or lenses! But they are no less important! Saying one is universally better than the other is like saying your 24-70mm lens is universally better than your 70-200mm lens. (Or conversely, saying that you're 70-200mm lens is "useless" compared to your 24-70mm lens.) They are different tools for different situations and different results. I think we should approach these light modifiers in the same way. That's why I have to laugh when people say things like "the Gary Fong Lightsphere is useless because I was shooting in a football stadium and the results it produced sucked. It had nothing to bounce the light off of, so it sucks!" Maybe it wasn't the right tool for the situation?
But I missed the softer, more diffused, omnidirectional quality of light that i got from the Lightsphere. For example, if I had a big wall behind me (as well as the ceiling and side walls), the Flip-it was still only bouncing the light mainly off of its attached bounce card, completely ignoring the huge wall behind me, and directing a relatively small proportion of the light towards the side walls and ceiling, whereas the Lightsphere would be taking full advantage of all of these huge bounce surfaces to light your subject. On the other hand, the Flip-it works better in large rooms where bounce surfaces are more scarce.
Ultimately, it's simply a matter of taste, a matter of where you're using them and a matter of what kind of result or effect yo want. For me, just like having multiple lenses for different conditions or different results, I think it's advantageous to have multiple light modifiers for different conditions and results. I see no reason why anyone needs to limit themselves to only one hotshoe flash attachment. The average studio can have easily a half dozen or more lighting tools and modifiers to light a subject! There's no one tool that is the best. Besides, these hotshoe attachments are inexpensive compared to studio light modifiers or lenses! But they are no less important! Saying one is universally better than the other is like saying your 24-70mm lens is universally better than your 70-200mm lens. (Or conversely, saying that you're 70-200mm lens is "useless" compared to your 24-70mm lens.) They are different tools for different situations and different results. I think we should approach these light modifiers in the same way. That's why I have to laugh when people say things like "the Gary Fong Lightsphere is useless because I was shooting in a football stadium and the results it produced sucked. It had nothing to bounce the light off of, so it sucks!" Maybe it wasn't the right tool for the situation?
You can see that, depending on where you point the Lightsphere, you can somewhat modify where and how any side shadows fall or are filled in. That's why the image below looks slightly different from the image above. I played around with where I was pointing the Lightsphere. Not a whole lot of control, but whatever you do, you still get a very nice wrap-around quality of light.
This image was shot from very close range, very close to the ground (subject is a very small child, after all) with a dark red carpet below and a greenish curtain behind, and a white table cloth to the left...in other words, a whole bunch of different surrounding surface colors. All I did was frame, focus, and shoot because the subject was moving quickly towards me. Even though the camera is in vertical orientation, with the flash off to the side and the Lightsphere pointed straight up, you can see the softness of the light, and the softening of the side shadows.
Overall, I really love the Lightsphere. It works well indoors, is very easy to use, is virtually indestructible, you don't have to spend any time and effort constantly adjusting it, and it gives the effect of a very large, open, wrap-around light. I've played with a lot of flash light modifiers, including a few that I've made myself, but when I just want hassle-free, soft, wrap-around light, I just stick the Lightsphere on my flash.
Exactly. It's simply a matter of not knowing what a particular tool does. The Lightsphere depends on surrounding surfaces to bounce light off of. If you're using it in the middle of a church, you obviously have to factor in the fact that the light emanating from the Lightsphere needs to travel to the distance walls and ceiling of the church, then bounce back onto the subject you are shooting! So this is an issue of user error: choosing the wrong tool for the task at hand. But having said that, I've used the Lightsphere in very large rooms, and it does have enough illuminating power, but I was using an external power pack for my flash. Also, you can point the Lightsphere directly at your subject, shooting through the Lightsphere's diffuser cap. That also produces good results (with far more "reach") because it still diffuses the flash by creating a larger light source profile, as you can see below (with the cap placed on the front of the flash head to show the increase in frontal size that it creates). Rather than the light passing through the diffuser cap and bouncing off a distant ceiling, the light is passing through the diffuser cap and going straight to your subject.
So basically, the issue here is that whatever tool you use, you just have to know how to use it properly and when to use it. It's all too easy to blame a product (whether it be a camera, or a flash diffuser, or whatever) for the deficiencies of the user.
So basically, the issue here is that whatever tool you use, you just have to know how to use it properly and when to use it. It's all too easy to blame a product (whether it be a camera, or a flash diffuser, or whatever) for the deficiencies of the user.
irm
Senior Member
I have one, the clear one. I have tried to use it inside with mixed results.
It is not something I would try to use at a wedding or similar function because you have no idea where the bounced light will come from or what colour caste it will add to a white wedding gown in patches.
Further the thing weighs too much and puts considerable strain on the flash head. Additionally it will shorten the life of your flash because your flash is always full power.
Ian M
--
my 2 exposed flashcubes worth.
Ian the pbase supporter.
http://pbase.com/ianm_au
Please check my profile for equipment list.
An amateur with dreams of being a good to excellent photographer.
It is not something I would try to use at a wedding or similar function because you have no idea where the bounced light will come from or what colour caste it will add to a white wedding gown in patches.
Further the thing weighs too much and puts considerable strain on the flash head. Additionally it will shorten the life of your flash because your flash is always full power.
Ian M
--
my 2 exposed flashcubes worth.
Ian the pbase supporter.
http://pbase.com/ianm_au
Please check my profile for equipment list.
An amateur with dreams of being a good to excellent photographer.
You're missing one HUGE feature of the Flip-it. The ability to mix the bounce off the card AND bounce off the ceiling or a wall or anything else in the area.
Since the card is so adjustable - you can mix EXACTLY how much light you want to throw forward from the card and how much light you want to bounce off the ceiling.
The lack of flexibility is the biggest drawback on the Fong domes.
(BTW - we used the Fong domes for about 6 months before switching to the Flip-it.)
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http://www.almariphoto.net
The difference between the light coming from the undiffused Canon flash
and the plastic container cover is negligible -- except for shooting small objects
from a short distance. Also, as is quite visible in the photograph, the actual size
of the 'source' (the hot spot in the center of the plastic cover) is not significantly
bigger than without the diffuser.
This idea that a barebulb can provide 'softer' light or shadow lines is ridiculous.
A bare bulb that directly illuminates the subject will create very hard shadows
regardless of how much light gets bounced around the room. A barebulb which
does not directly illuminate the subject may not have sufficient power for a good exposure and will pick up any room color that is dominant and 'tint' the subject color.
Large sources (relative to the size of the subject) produce soft shadows --
anything else is just hype. As for the highlights on the surface of the subject,
they're dependent on the surface texture of the subject more than the size of
the source -- assuming that the light source is not 'wrap-around'.
Basic lighting theory -- available from any textbook on the subject.
and the plastic container cover is negligible -- except for shooting small objects
from a short distance. Also, as is quite visible in the photograph, the actual size
of the 'source' (the hot spot in the center of the plastic cover) is not significantly
bigger than without the diffuser.
This idea that a barebulb can provide 'softer' light or shadow lines is ridiculous.
A bare bulb that directly illuminates the subject will create very hard shadows
regardless of how much light gets bounced around the room. A barebulb which
does not directly illuminate the subject may not have sufficient power for a good exposure and will pick up any room color that is dominant and 'tint' the subject color.
Large sources (relative to the size of the subject) produce soft shadows --
anything else is just hype. As for the highlights on the surface of the subject,
they're dependent on the surface texture of the subject more than the size of
the source -- assuming that the light source is not 'wrap-around'.
Basic lighting theory -- available from any textbook on the subject.
Raider70
Senior Member
Not an expert using this tool but I like the results most of the time. My son and girlfriend extraordinare.
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