#speed lite

Pulling out all the stops

I continue today with comparing light modifiers and how they work with studio strobes versus speed lights. I am not advocating for either. Just comparing.  For the sequence below I tried to keep everything as consistent as possible. Camera on tripod (Canon 6D with 50mm f/1.4 EF lens). Consistent aperture (f/7.1). Mannequin to maintain pose, facial expression, distance from background, etc. (I couldn't bear to make a human model sit through hours of changing out modifiers). Similar light to subject distances when possible. Soft boxes and the Photek Softlighter can get in closer than umbrella because they don't have the shaft sticking out, so they were used in closer, as I would in a real situation. In this main set, I had a consistent white balance setting. Color changes between images are due to the diffusion materials (some of my soft boxes are older and warmer) and the difference between the Speedotron 202VF head with UV-coated flash tube and the Canon 480EX II speed light. I've made no exposure or color corrections to these images. The original image is 2400x6480 pixels and about 2.2MB. You can download it, open it in Adobe Photoshop, and cut/paste the individual images to get better side-by-side representations of specific modifiers you might be interested in.

In all images except the ring flash, the flash was about 45-degrees to camera left, light centered just about at the mannequin's eye level. Mannequin was close to the background so that you can compare the shadows created by each light/modifier combination. The lights were feathered slightly forward of the mannequin. The ring flash was obviously at the camera.

In the second image, I put together a side-by-side comparison of the Speedotron and the speed light in the same umbrella reflectors. I also attempted to neutralize the color temperature differences between the two lights.

Have fun with these and let me know what your go-to favorite light modifier is in the comments.

And now for the umbrellas...

More than just the size, it is what you put into it

A big rage the past couple of years has been a proliferation of low cost 7' "parabolic" umbrellas from various manufacturers. I'm not going to get into the arguments of who created the first one, or who stole who's design. My concern is more with how they are being used.

By now we should all know that the size of the light relative to the subject determines the quality of the light. Large lights give a softer, less-shadowed look. Smaller lights give a harder, more contrasty look. So, the immediate thought about a 7' umbrella would logically be that it is a very soft light. And it is. Or at least it can be. But it also to depend on what light source you use with the big umbrella.

I see a few kits offered with the 7' umbrella and a  bracket to use your speed light/lite with it. Speed lights are normally a small and hard light source. So, if you bounce it into a gigantic umbrella it should become a big and soft light. Makes sense, no? 

Maybe not!

Below is a set of images of such an umbrella with a speed light attached and bounced into the umbrella. The flash is a Canon 430EX II in manual mode. The three images across the top row were taken with this combo. In the first one, the flash was set to the 105mm zoom position. There is hardly filled any of the umbrella. Yes, the light will be larger and softer than direct flash. But probably not what you were expecting. So, for the second image the flash was zoomed out to the 24mm position. Uh-oh! That isn't all that much wider than the 105mm position when the umbrella is so close to the flash head. Additionally, we see that the flash bracket doesn't come close to pointing the flash into the center of the umbrella. What to do?

The third image was taken with the flash head's built in diffuser panel popped out and over the flash. It does a much better job of filling the umbrella, but I had to open up 3+ stops to get enough light into the umbrella. And it still doesn't quite fill the umbrella evenly, note how dark the bottom portion of the umbrella is.

Just as a way of comparison, I took two more shots using a studio flash head, a Speedotron 202VF. The first of these images has the standard 7" umbrella reflector. Even with this combination, the umbrella isn't quite filled by light, but overall it is much more efficient. To get the umbrella to fill with light, for the last image I took the reflector off the strobe head. With the bare tube the umbrella is finally filled. It is not quite as bright. And you need to be a lot more careful if using the umbrella rig off to the side that direct light from the bare tube doesn't hit your subject causing very distracting shadows.

Take from this what you may. I just wanted to make sure you understand that just having a super large light modifier doesn't mean that you have a super large light source. I encourage you to do a similar test with your own lighting equipment to see what it is really doing.