Speedlite in softbox / umbrella - use diffuser dome?

I'm setting up to use a Godox speedlite with umbrella or softbox for portraits and location shooting of crafts makers in their workshops. I'm wondering if I can avoid hotspots by attaching a dome diffuser to the speedlite.

This recent DPR article got me thinking about it: https://isn.page.link/7Lio.

I would be grateful for any insights. Thanks!

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elliotn said:

https://www.dpreview.com/news/39133...ifiers-and-filters-to-regular-hotshoe-flashes

Click to expand...

Eek! I was trying a new link shortener. Oh, well. Thanks for posting a working URL!

runbei99 said:

I'm setting up to use a Godox speedlite with umbrella or softbox for portraits and location shooting of crafts makers in their workshops. I'm wondering if I can avoid hotspots by attaching a dome diffuser to the speedlite.

This recent DPR article got me thinking about it: https://isn.page.link/7Lio.

I would be grateful for any insights. Thanks!

Click to expand...

The answer to your question is, "Yes, the diffuser will reduce the inevitable hotspot that the focused beam from the speedlite will create.

Here is a video that's not about speedlites, exactly, but the comparison made between the flash with the same diffuser in a modifier and without will tell you the same tale, starting at 3:35:

It's pretty simple to fire a speed light (zoomed wide) into an umbrella with a diffuser on the umbrella . Big, soft even light and fast, easy trans port and setup on location

Some of the umbrella opening softboxes for hot-shoe flash have a deflector plate as well as one or two fabric diffusers. The smaller ones with a deflector plate are frequently called beauty dishes but in fact they don't produce light that is even close to what you get from a beauty dish, they are simply softboxes.

If the flash is mounted outside the softbox and shines in from the back a deflector plate helps prevent a hot spot. If the softbox only has a single fabric diffuser you get a hot spot without the deflector plate. Add the deflector plate and it may cast a shadow on the front diffuser, giving you can get a slightly darker area in the middle of the illuminated area.

Two fabric diffusers will give you pretty even lighting. Add a deflector plate and it is even better and you usually don't get the dark area. Adding a Tupperware type cup diffuser can even out the light a bit more but at the cost of a small loss of light output.

If the flash is inside and bounces light off the back of the softbox that is the first diffusion so a single layer of fabric gives you double diffusion. A cup might help a bit at the cost of some light output.

I've tried it with an old Gary Fong diffuser, it works surprisingly well...but at the cost of even further reduced output. It was only a test with a mannequin head so I didn't shoot a lot, not sure if it's have any issue with heat or anything...but for about a dozen shots it worked really well. Had I not gone out and bought an AD200 that speedlight and GaryFong would've been my go to for fill light for portraits.

Thank you RDKirk - exactly what I hoped to know!