Hi all,
I am looking for ideas for having a small setup for modifiers when you are walking but still want to be able to soften up the light.
I am thinking for cases where you have a camera with an off camera flash (triggers or 3meters cable) and you can put the flash at the 45 degrees to light a portrait at location.
I am having a 43 inch umbrella but it really looks too big for putting in to a small walking bag (where my sony a6000 camera and three lenses fit easily). As my travelling modifiers I have already a rogue flash bender and a grid but I still looking for something that can soften my light.
Do you have any ideas/tutorial where I can have a look for?
I would like to thank you in advance for your reply
Regards
Alex
--
“The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don’t know what to do with it”
(written at 1927 by Edward Weston)
Funny what passes for portable, but in a way everybody is right. I need to travel with my lights all the time as I shoot Real Estate. I use almost everything that's been mentioned here, ranging from portraits to interior spaces.
But, I also get drafted or paid to shoot events frequently. These are usually dinner soiree's and a lot of the time I can't use a flash depending on where I am (more below). Other times it's not a problem (especially outside) so that's where the small modifiers come in.
Truly portable modifiers, the things you can walk around with - I prefer the Rogue flashbender as it's totally flat, or can be rolled up or whatever. As you know, you can do a lot of things with it. That's always in my bag. As is the FlashStoppers flash disc. I'm really impressed with this little thing, which folds up teeny tiny. It's a heck of a light modifier and does a great job softening light.
I was sure we'd be seeing clones on the market, but here I'd suggest supporting the poor guys that invented the thing. I'm not keen on tupperware, although I do have the prerequisite flash diffuser which I never use. Gary Fong comes to mind. Takes lots of space and has very flat, dull lighting. To each his own I guess.
Here are some youtube tutorials/reviews on the fstopper flash disc:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fstoppers+flash+disc+review
I was going to get a
lastolite a while back, one I could use off camera (handheld) as well. But I was so pleased with the results of the speed disc, that I took a pass on this. There are many similar designs of soft boxes for flash. The fstopper product seems to imitate a much larger light source though because of the drum shape.
On a shoot, I typically take a couple of speedlites, the Manfrotto portable light stands (mini 1051BAC) which fold flat, snap together and are one of the best things Manfrotto makes. Neil Van Neikerk did a review of them and loves them:
http://neilvn.com/tangents/review-manfrotto-lightstands.
In a medium sized
tripod bag I can fit 2 of these stands (27" long), the swivels and parts, and a couple of westcott 2015 45" convertible umbrellas (29" long). You can always get a small umbrella, but even a small one isn't that much smaller (these are pretty small).
If you've not seen Neil's site - he shoots weddings and is a bit of a guru of flash photography. He loves his "black foamie thing" which is like the flashbender, only it's made out of craft foam. He prefers the black for bouncing, and uses it to great effect. Search his site to see how he uses this. Pretty impressive.
A few years ago at a party I put flashes on light stands and triggered them with my aputure trigmaster plus triggers. I was just bouncing them, but it did a good job. The problem with modifiers is people can and will run into them. The flashes on stands don't take up much room, and when they did get knocked over it was no big deal.
Also, I will haul along 1-2
Adorama RoveLights. These are fantastic 600W battery powered wireless strobes. I'll take these for larger shoots. They're really easy to setup and take down. I can trigger them a variety of ways. I'm thinking of seeing if the new Yongnuo YN-E3-RX will trigger them as well. If so, then I'd be able to use the YN-E3-RT transmitter to set them off, or one of my 600EX-RT's.
Recently I set one of these at a party, with (so far) an umbrella and taken groups over to shoot them. This works out great and usually at events there's always people who want their pictures taken. Or with their dogs. Candid it's not, but the results are good. You can shoot several people at once. The Manfrotto stands hold them just fine. I was able to do this inside and outside of the event.
