Photographers have forged an uneasy relationship with on-camera flash over the years, one born more from necessity than affection. No one really likes using attachable flash units, but we turn to them when dim conditions prevent us from shooting otherwise.
The good news for photographers is that advances in imaging sensor technology have made available light photography at high ISOs a relatively low-noise proposition. Despite such progress, there are still many situations where you really are going to need a flash.
I shot an afternoon wedding with a friend last summer and, fed up with the "deer-in-the-headlights" look our Speedlites were giving us, we made a pact to only use natural light. We got some very nice images, but the extra time spent in Photoshop tweaking exposure was a pain, and there were several extreme low-light shots that just weren’t salvageable.
At the time, I didn’t know about a product called Lightsphere II, but it probably would have made me rethink our "natural light only" experiment.
Light of His Life
Invented by now-retired wedding photographer Gary Fong, Lightsphere II is an inverted dome diffuser made of soft, pliable vinyl that fits directly on the head of your attachable strobe unit. The "soft, pliable vinyl" part is important to note since it makes the Lightsphere II very easy to squeeze into your camera bag, unlike an earlier version which was made of hard plastic.
Even more important is what Lightsphere II is designed to do: diffuse the harsh light of your on-camera flash to make it appear more natural and evenly balanced. I recently tried out the Lightsphere II system on my Canon Speedlite 430EX flash gun attached to a Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN with a Tamron AF28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di lens.
For my test, I compared the effect of direct flash from the Speedlite on my subject versus bouncing it off the ceiling. I then used Lightsphere II, which you slide on top of your flash and turn upward to produce a more even bounce with greater diffusion.
To see how it would fare versus studio lighting, I took shots of a model at a friend's studio using his Dynalite strobe system and compared them to Lightsphere II with just the house lights on. Overall, I was quite impressed with images I shot using the device.
Lightsphere II looks like a small plastic lampshade which you pull over the head of your flash. There’s an elaborate sizing chart on Gary Fong’s website and if you’re considering this product, make sure you consult it. The model I tried fit snugly on my 430EX.
The Lightsphere II comes in two flavors – a "Clear" version which is designed to produce cooler, more contrasty diffusion for photojournalistic work; and a "Cloud" version for softer, warmer light for portraiture. While I generally preferred the warmer tone I got with the Cloud model, the difference between the two was not dramatic. Both come with hard plastic inverted dome caps that fit on top of Lightsphere II to reduce light by about a stop.
In a Flash
For my first test, I photographed a friend in her apartment with two lamps as the only light source. As expected, aiming the 430EX directly at her washed out her skin and made it look overly oily, while increasing shadows behind her head. Bouncing the flash off the ceiling produced better results, but created long shadows under her eyes, making her look tired.
Attaching the Cloud Lightsphere II with the inverted dome cap on top – since it was a low ceiling – did noticeably reduce the shadows around her face, giving her skin a healthy even glow. In a couple of instances, the Lightsphere II also added pleasing catch lights in her eyes, though it only reduced but did not eliminate the shadows behind her head.
While the Lightsphere II was no match for the studio lighting which did a great job of blowing out the background and calling attention to my model, it was far superior to pointing my Speedlite directly at her.
Because the model I photographed in the studio had dark skin, shadows were less noticeable under her eyes when I simply bounced the flash off the low ceiling. Still the effect with Lightsphere II was better, producing skin tones that rivaled the studio lighting while bringing out the bold reds in her lips.
As a final test, I took the Clear Lightsphere II outdoors on a cloudy day and, as recommended, pointed the unit directly toward my model for a series of horizontal and vertical shots. Though the difference between direct flash and direct flash with Lightsphere II wasn’t noticeable on my camera’s LCD, when I took the images home and opened them in Photoshop, sure enough, the Lightsphere II had produced even exposure in the face, while direct flash created several nasty hot spots.
While Lightsphere II is not likely to alter my love of shooting in natural light without a flash, the next time I find myself in a situation where I need to fire up my Speedlite, I can’t imagine shooting without it.
www.garyfong.com.
Pros: Produces warm, even skin tones; extremely portable; no-brainer to use
Cons: Still creates some background shadowing; difference between Clear and Cloud versions not dramatic
Pricing
Lightsphere II: $49
ChromeDome attachment (increases light output) : $39
AmberDome attachment (warms up light): $14.95
Source:
http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/prodtech/reviews/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003545988
http://www.ct-graphics.com/other/water-drops-2582.html
http://www.ct-graphics.com/domestic/page2.html
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