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Anyone used one of these?
- Thread starter The23rdman
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Yes - the reflective version is proving to be much more popular than the shoot-through one though - there's a thread (or two) somewhere in this section about them, with example pics...
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I understand the reflective versions do quite well, but I'm a little worried about power loss on them. I've used both shoot through and reflective brollies and find I'm nearly always at 1/2 to full power with the reflective compared to 1/2 power and down with the shoot through (reasons obvious).
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What those threads confirm is that both users have MUCH more powerful speedlights than I do. My most powerful flash is a 430EX, which I think might struggle with the reflective brollybox.
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The shoot-through ones are essentially just regular umbrellas with a black backing on them. Whilst the backing will prevent ambient spill it's not reflective (any more than any other black material is) so won't bounce it forwards again
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That makes sense. Mmmm, I wonder if it's possible to reline the black backing.
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The reflective ones do eat a fair amount of power, 1/2-1 stop just from the fact that it's a bouce brolly, then another 1/2-1 stop going through the next layer of diffusion to hit your subject, but I've used it successully with the SB-600 (which is nowhere near as powerful as the SB-900).
This setup was using SB-900s in the wings in bounce brollies (just so I knew their spread & powers would be even) for rim lights, and an SB-600 above the camera on-axis to light the subject from the front.
This is the lighting setup
This is the same setup, but outdoors on a sunny day and using the 24" double diffused softboxes instead of brollies as rim lights, and an SB-900 in the brolly box.
And one more. This was shot at 2pm on a sunny day @ f/8. The subject was in shade. SB-900 in the brolly box camera right and above the model, 43" bounce brolly directly left on the model, and a bare SB-600 at the back as a hair/rim light. All three flashes were covered with full CTO gels (cutting about another stop of light) as I had my white balance set to indandescent to turn the ambient blue.
I think your 430EX should be powerful enough for indoor stuff at least, and for the sake of 20 quid, I think it's worth finding out.
This setup was using SB-900s in the wings in bounce brollies (just so I knew their spread & powers would be even) for rim lights, and an SB-600 above the camera on-axis to light the subject from the front.
This is the lighting setup
This is the same setup, but outdoors on a sunny day and using the 24" double diffused softboxes instead of brollies as rim lights, and an SB-900 in the brolly box.
And one more. This was shot at 2pm on a sunny day @ f/8. The subject was in shade. SB-900 in the brolly box camera right and above the model, 43" bounce brolly directly left on the model, and a bare SB-600 at the back as a hair/rim light. All three flashes were covered with full CTO gels (cutting about another stop of light) as I had my white balance set to indandescent to turn the ambient blue.
I think your 430EX should be powerful enough for indoor stuff at least, and for the sake of 20 quid, I think it's worth finding out.
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Thanks, John. The most important line in your post is the last one. I'd quite like to use it outdoors too. 
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It might be worth adding some YN460-II flashes onto your shopping list to pick up at some point if your 430EX isn't quite powerful enough, and then just double up on flashes and trigger them via RF-602 receivers.
I've got two of the YN460-II flashes at the moment, and I let a friend borrow them during an outdoor shoot a couple of Saturday's ago as he only had high voltage Vivitars with him, and they obviously wouldn't work with the RF-602 receivers. He loved 'em, he's got a few of those on his shopping list now.
I'll definitely be picking up some more at some point.
I've got two of the YN460-II flashes at the moment, and I let a friend borrow them during an outdoor shoot a couple of Saturday's ago as he only had high voltage Vivitars with him, and they obviously wouldn't work with the RF-602 receivers. He loved 'em, he's got a few of those on his shopping list now.
I'll definitely be picking up some more at some point.
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It might be worth adding some YN460-II flashes onto your shopping list to pick up at some point if your 430EX isn't quite powerful enough, and then just double up on flashes and trigger them via RF-602 receivers.
I've got two of the YN460-II flashes at the moment, and I let a friend borrow them during an outdoor shoot a couple of Saturday's ago as he only had high voltage Vivitars with him, and they obviously wouldn't work with the RF-602 receivers. He loved 'em, he's got a few of those on his shopping list now.
I'll definitely be picking up some more at some point.
Yep, I've got one of these and I'm pretty impressed with it for 40 quid. Certainly gonna get another one to add to my arsenal of cheapo speedlights.