It has been a lightning ride, but barely 2 months after fleshing out my sparse flash kit, I am now weighed down with options.
I felt it time to look at these options and see if;
any were noticeably better than others,
any were more trouble than they were worth in comparison with other, easier options,
any are not worth using in comparison to others.
First up, the process such as it was.
All images were taken at the same time, in the same location (overcast day), with the same gear (except the modifiers). Some were lightened slightly in post as I underexposed them on my old EM5, by reviewing in a dark room and judging poorly, but I am more after the effects, not consistency of process.
My wife is three metres away from the light stand, 1.5m from the wall and the lens iwas a 50mm equiv.
All except the 7” diffuser set at the end were shot at ISO 200, F2 (AV), -1.5 ex comp (‘cos a wasn’t paying attention), with the zoom at 80mm (which they seem to keep defaulting to when left alone for a while). This meant that almost all of the light in the room was supplied by flash.
Flash power ranged from 1/64 to 1/32 +0.7 in 1/3 stop increments.
I should have used a tripod for camera consistency.
The dark shadow bottom left is a clothes stand between the light and wall.
37.7” umbrella/octagonal soft box. The latest to arrive, this one set up well enough for a soft box*. Nice soft light, open shadows. I rate this one second to the big brolly for softness.
Actually a 40”. Harder shadows than the soft box, but a little more brilliance/contrast. The zoom setting possibly effected this one making it a little “hot spot” prone. I will simply diffuse the flash if I cannot get to the bottom of it re-setting itself to 80mm all the time.
The 40” white as a reflector. Slightly softer shadows and more even light (again zoom settings). Apart from being the least efficient option, by about 1 1/2 stops to the best, it is in the top end of softness. This looks to be the flattest, most consistent light, but I can spark it up with a small catch light or similar.
Harder than the white (but more efficient and controllable), the 33” silver is efficient, but would need some fill in the shadows for a group (wife clearly not impressed by this one). This would be the “drama” added option, possibly sitting in the mid point between soft and controlled/contrasty.
The massive 72” brolly as bounce. Not practical outdoors (or sometimes even indoors), hard to fill with a single flash and is very heavy on the mounting bracket and stand, it does however fill a room with beautiful, soft light. I could see myself filling a large room group shot with this alone, maybe using two flash units.
Same thing as a shoot through. Softness award so far goes to the 72'“ as a reflector above (as it should), but in either configuration, it’s big. The “white” of the brolly looks to be slightly warm if the wall colour is anything to go by. I will have to use the less friendly metal umbrella brackets on the big stand for this one, and I may need 2 units to fill it, which will need the metal brackets anyway.
The smallest soft box, looks much like the silver umbrella, but with maybe a darker periphery. This does have a double baffle that was not used, but looks to be mandatory.
With the grid, the light does not seem much more focussed in this space. The grid is designed to reduce light spill, but it looks in this scenario, it made little difference.
The next set were taken at different camera settings because 1/128th power at ISO 200 and F2 were too bright! Way to go little flashes.
Designed for control, the 50 degree grid on a 7” diffuser dish is much more focussed than the 24” soft box A half way point would have been the 16” soft box option. This would be good to create a gel-coloured background with semi-gentle feathering or for dramatic shadows on a face. Remember to, this is direct light, so colour gelling would be first hand, not diffused or reflected.
The 30 degree grid starts looking spot-lighty, as wanted. Too tight for feathered background colour, this one creates more of a halo effect for a small group.
The 10 degree grid leaves you in no doubt that the subject is all it will cover. If I want a halo effect around a single subject or to light a single face against the flow of light this may work, or my next step is a flagged flash, maybe even a snoot. I am not seeing a massive difference between this and the 30 degree at this distance.
Not tested were the 16” portable speed-light circular soft boxes and the mini soft box I bought for quick field work or the 8x32” rectangular soft box because to be honest, it is a pig to assemble, so I would only used it pre-assembled in a studio situation.
For softness in this scenario I rank them;
72” as reflector (nice and neutral)
37” soft box (much more practical than the big brolly, but slower to set up than the 40”)
72” as shoot through
40” as reflector (wins the award for easiest to use by a country mile).
If diffusing the 40” shoot-through’s make a difference, they will be the in the field standard that all others are compared to, with the soft box as a better option if time allows.
The rest are not soft enough to matter by that measure, but instead bring some level of control and contrast. The award for possibly least useful goes to the 24” soft box.
It looks like, after going through the catalogue of ideas in my head, the 40” white shoot through brollies, which I bought first, are overall the most useful and efficient of the lot.
Shopping list?
Maybe another 37” soft box and 7” diffuser for added control.