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HVL-F1000 with Umbrella

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Robert Way

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I just got my lightstand and umbrella this past week to use with my HVL-F1000 which I made an extension cord for like the one Monk and Jared5 depict in several threads (thanks guys). I set everything up and did some tests shooting my daughters stuffed animals. Now I'm relatively, well, really new to all this stuff and to my suprise, the result was awful, the flash barely fired and I got more ambient light in the shot then flash. I started thinking about it and remembered the F1000 has the little sensor on the front, I covered it with something temporary and took some more shots. My wife though the sun had landed in our family room, HOLY BRIGHTNESS BATMAN.

In looking at other external flashes I see some have the ability to flip the head all the way back so the sensor is still facing the subject while the flash points at the umbrella, like the ProMaster 5750 DX (it swivels back but same thing in the end). I actually have had pretty good shots with the F1000 as I use a Sto Fen Omni Bounce on it at 45 and 60 degrees.

I'd like to know if there is a way to control the flash better without the sensor pointing at the subject, I kinda like the flash but if I have to sell it or buy the 5750 as well to be able to make better use of the umbrela setup I guess I'll need to.

HEre is a shot I did with my F1000 pointing straight up (90 degress), with the omni bounce on it, sensor at the subject, with the 36" umbrella behind it. (I was trying anything... all technical booboos I guess but the shot was pretty good for a newbie)

 
Robert Way said:
I just got my lightstand and umbrella this past week to use with my
HVL-F1000 which I made an extension cord for like the one Monk and
Jared5 depict in several threads (thanks guys). I set everything
up and did some tests shooting my daughters stuffed animals. Now
I'm relatively, well, really new to all this stuff and to my
suprise, the result was awful, the flash barely fired and I got
more ambient light in the shot then flash. I started thinking
about it and remembered the F1000 has the little sensor on the
front, I covered it with something temporary and took some more
shots. My wife though the sun had landed in our family room, HOLY
BRIGHTNESS BATMAN.

In looking at other external flashes I see some have the ability to
flip the head all the way back so the sensor is still facing the
subject while the flash points at the umbrella, like the ProMaster
5750 DX (it swivels back but same thing in the end). I actually
have had pretty good shots with the F1000 as I use a Sto Fen Omni
Bounce on it at 45 and 60 degrees.

I'd like to know if there is a way to control the flash better
without the sensor pointing at the subject, I kinda like the flash
but if I have to sell it or buy the 5750 as well to be able to make
better use of the umbrela setup I guess I'll need to.
HEre is a shot I did with my F1000 pointing straight up (90
degress), with the omni bounce on it, sensor at the subject, with
the 36" umbrella behind it. (I was trying anything... all
technical booboos I guess but the shot was pretty good for a newbie)

Click to expand...
--
Mike V.
Robert, Great shot! AWWWW!!!! what a little angel!!
Mike V.
 
Robert Way said:
... I started thinking
about it and remembered the F1000 has the little sensor on the
front, I covered it with something temporary and took some more
shots. My wife though the sun had landed in our family room, HOLY
BRIGHTNESS BATMAN.
Click to expand...
I just got hvl-f1000 yesturday and I'm getting either too much light or next to none... Anywasys, whenever I try to use the unit facing backwards the flash is veeery weak.

Covering the sensor on f1000 helps a bit. Th ebest way to control it would be having few ND filters to cover the sensor in order to have more control on the flash level.

The method I found useful was using the flash facing forward and attaching a mirror to the unit so that all the light from the flash is bounced backwards (to umbrella / other reflector.

Feels kind of dumb to use "automatic" flash that way, but it works (at least better than just having it facing backwards).

v
 
First of all, this is not a BUMP, Ihope it isn't taken that way. Anyway, I forgot to ask if using some sort of mini SoftBox on the F1000 is a better way to go, for portrait stuff, than the umbrellasetup???

Thanks in advance,

Robert
Robert Way said:
I just got my lightstand and umbrella this past week to use with my
HVL-F1000 which I made an extension cord for like the one Monk and
Jared5 depict in several threads (thanks guys). I set everything
up and did some tests shooting my daughters stuffed animals. Now
I'm relatively, well, really new to all this stuff and to my
suprise, the result was awful, the flash barely fired and I got
more ambient light in the shot then flash. I started thinking
about it and remembered the F1000 has the little sensor on the
front, I covered it with something temporary and took some more
shots. My wife though the sun had landed in our family room, HOLY
BRIGHTNESS BATMAN.

In looking at other external flashes I see some have the ability to
flip the head all the way back so the sensor is still facing the
subject while the flash points at the umbrella, like the ProMaster
5750 DX (it swivels back but same thing in the end). I actually
have had pretty good shots with the F1000 as I use a Sto Fen Omni
Bounce on it at 45 and 60 degrees.

I'd like to know if there is a way to control the flash better
without the sensor pointing at the subject, I kinda like the flash
but if I have to sell it or buy the 5750 as well to be able to make
better use of the umbrela setup I guess I'll need to.
HEre is a shot I did with my F1000 pointing straight up (90
degress), with the omni bounce on it, sensor at the subject, with
the 36" umbrella behind it. (I was trying anything... all
technical booboos I guess but the shot was pretty good for a newbie)

Click to expand...
 
Robert,

This shot was taken using the HVL1000 and a Sto-Fen Omni Bounce.

You can see it gives a prety even spread of light.



Richard_
 
Thanks for the responses. I also have the StoFen on my F1000 and even tried it off camera by itself at 45 degrees to the subject. I didn't play that much with it but I still neeed to learn a bit about portrait photography... photography as a whole actually.

Any good word about mini softbox things like from Lumiquest?????
 
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