Critique New Diffusion ... Opinions Please

Tintin124

Tintin124

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Bryn
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Looks good Bryn. Nice light on the subjects but you've maintained a really lovely balanced light in the backgrounds. I'm not a massive fan of black backgrounds or exceptionally dark backgrounds. Additionally, I'm not overly fond of shots that are lacking ANY kind of highlights or catchlights as the images lose depth. These have ALL come out very nicely in my opinion :)
 
hoftwi said:
Well done Byrn (y) Apart from 1 & 2 are little dark but not too bad, the rest are very good and even. What setting did you use on your flash? TTL?
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TTL no compensation needed, #2 needs to be dark to maintain the detail within the lily :D

IanClark said:
Looks good Bryn. Nice light on the subjects but you've maintained a really lovely balanced light in the backgrounds. I'm not a massive fan of black backgrounds or exceptionally dark backgrounds. Additionally, I'm not overly fond of shots that are lacking ANY kind of highlights or catchlights as the images lose depth. These have ALL come out very nicely in my opinion :)
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Thanks mate... Not overly happy with the highlights need more toning down. My old Tamron softbox is too big for the Venus :(
 
Looking at those set-up pictures I'm not sure how much diffusion the plastic sheet will add. It may just be blocking light (making your flash work harder).

Have you tried some comparison tests with and without the plastic? See if you can get a few images of the flash firing with that setup too. Get some at high shutter speeds and see if you can see where the distribution of light is. I suspect when you look at it, it won't spread out much further than the area of your softbox with the sheet being so close to it.
 
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TimmyG said:
Looking at those set-up pictures I'm not sure how much diffusion the plastic sheet will add. It may just be blocking light (making your flash work harder).

Have you tried some comparison tests with and without the plastic? See if you can get a few images of the flash firing with that setup too. Get some at high shutter speeds and see if you can see where the distribution of light is. I suspect when you look at it, it won't spread out much further than the area of your softbox with the sheet being so close to it.
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Now this is interesting as the plastic actually spreads the light a lot more given an even spread.... eg round the side of the lens is now giving light too... agree its a bit too close to the softbox to be ideal but have just bought a 62mm screw on hood which I will work out a way to get it attached to softbox.

Not noticing the flash working harder in fact I think the opposite is happening as the scene is lit so well... i know the spider is black background but that is because there was nothing within 6 feet of it... where as the click beetle the leaves behind were a 1-2 feet behind.
 
They look ok to me. However I would suspect that the plastic is a blocker of light. In past experiments I have found this to be true - certainly did not help recycle times and needed more power to light stuff up on manual settings than other setups. Be interested to know if this is the case ?
 
ChrisA said:
They look ok to me. However I would suspect that the plastic is a blocker of light. In past experiments I have found this to be true - certainly did not help recycle times and needed more power to light stuff up on manual settings than other setups. Be interested to know if this is the case ?
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Certainly not a blocker of light ... I shot about 7 shots in quick sequence for a stack for the click beetle but unfortunately there was still missing gaps and I wasn't happy with it but the recycle times were fine no problems dont think Flash is powering up any more than normal tbh.
 
ChrisA said:
Fair dos - looks a good option then. Have you tried doing something with packing foam sheets ? That would be an interesting comparison.
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Now that i think will cause the light blocking issue... depending on thickness of the packing foam I guess. The only issue with this sheet is it does increase the red colour cast that the lens produces.

If you want to try a sheet I can send you one :D
 
I think they look good but reckon the plastic needs to be at least an inch from the soft box, the plastic will definitely aid diffusion and give you a much softer light and nicer highlights imo! Yes you will have to up the power but, I think it will be worth it as the light will be so much nicer.
 
Neil Burnell said:
I think they look good but reckon the plastic needs to be at least an inch from the soft box, the plastic will definitely aid diffusion and give you a much softer light and nicer highlights imo! Yes you will have to up the power but, I think it will be worth it as the light will be so much nicer.
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Cheers got an idea for that maybe... need to attach stick to top of softbox and attach it to the plastic.... ummm.... :D
 
Carlh said:
#7 is a corker - you've got me wasting so much time today looking at diffusing ideas
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No you are striving to be better ;) .... you have come up with some interesting finds and some things I thinking how would I use that device :D
 
I went and ordered the one bit for £14+£3 P&P. Will see if its any good - if not for macro, then it might be ok for portraits on-the-move. Should get it early next week so will pop up my results to see how it goes
 
They look very good Bryn, im liking No 6, no shiney bits there.
 
Looks really good Bryn, being ultra picky tho... you are getting the same problem I had with one flash pointing downwards on subjects where the underside of the subject goes very dark, particularly the eyes. This was one reason I started to look at dual flash as I believe it's one of the only methods to combat this.
 
It's very interesting to follow your developments Bryn. I'm trying to improve my diffusion at the moment and it is very helpful to be able to compare, both setups and (as far as I have somewhat similar shots) the results, and to read about the issues you encounter and the ways you try getting round them.

One thing I have found though which makes real world comparisons difficult is that the amount of hot areas I get seems to vary depending on the orientation of the subject and/or the direction I send light in from (centre, left or right in my case). I've been wondering whether some sort of "standardised", reproducible test might be of any use, such as a shot of a two pound coin (which has some interesting characteristics, on both sides) perhaps from straight on and from 45 degrees. And/or perhaps a subject like an AA battery which is highly reflective (I've been using Duracell batteries, not sure if all batteries are similarly reflective) and also has a curved surface which makes it impossible to avoid having hotter areas, and therefore good to see how well a setup controls them.
 
Neil Burnell said:
The images look razor sharp though by the way, have you had to up the power a touch with the extra diffusion?
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That's the interesting thing... the answer as it stands is No in fact I suspect cause it is spreading better the scene is lit more evenly so less power required. This is proven to me at least if I shoot 1:1 or lower I have to put on -1 ex comp on flash and even more in some cases.

GardenersHelper said:
It's very interesting to follow your developments Bryn. I'm trying to improve my diffusion at the moment and it is very helpful to be able to compare, both setups and (as far as I have somewhat similar shots) the results, and to read about the issues you encounter and the ways you try getting round them.

One thing I have found though which makes real world comparisons difficult is that the amount of hot areas I get seems to vary depending on the orientation of the subject and/or the direction I send light in from (centre, left or right in my case). I've been wondering whether some sort of "standardised", reproducible test might be of any use, such as a shot of a two pound coin (which has some interesting characteristics, on both sides) perhaps from straight on and from 45 degrees. And/or perhaps a subject like an AA battery which is highly reflective (I've been using Duracell batteries, not sure if all batteries are similarly reflective) and also has a curved surface which makes it impossible to avoid having hotter areas, and therefore good to see how well a setup controls them.
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A standardised test would be ideal but think the subject needs to have shiny and Matt areas like the cucumber spider above. Obviously my light is from above with a little getting to the sides cause the way the plastic distributes the light. I'm impressed by this little plastic frosted sheet.
 
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