Flash Brackets...

How many of you use Flash Brackets to shoot a wedding ? Flash Bracket are great, because they prevent red-eye and they soften the shadows. The main problem with them is when you have to turn the camera from Horizontal to Vertical. Some Flash brackets like the one I own https://www.amazon.com/Custom-Brackets-CB-Rotating-Bracket/dp/B000N29X08 allow you to center the flash over the camera in a Vertical position. Some more expensive Flash brackets, let you turn the entire camera while the flash unit sits centered on top. Some flash brackets the cheaper ones when you turn the flash to the Vertical position the flash sticks out to the right/left side of the camera which can cause harsh shadows to the sides of your subject.

 

I really love my CB Junior, because its easy to use and centers the flash on top no matter whether I'm shooting vertically or horizontally. However, one thing I did not notice until I shot an entire wedding a few weeks ago is that the constant changing from horizontal to vertical puts a lot of strain on the off-the-shoe sync cord. What winds up happening is that you start losing some contact with weird results, or you lose all contact and the flash does not fire at all !

 

I went through 2 Canon cords https://www.amazon.com/Canon-OC-E3-Camera-Shoe-Cord/dp/B000NSL4QS , they both failed on me after a while. These are not the cheap clones you see selling on eBay, but genuine OEM Canon cords !

This caused me to miss an important set of shots like the Bride and Father walking to the Altar. Lucky for me, my partner managed to fill in and capture some of those shots.

 

He recommended that I not use the Flash Brackets at all, because he had the same problem with them. He said I should purchase a Gary Fong to minimize shadows and/or just use a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce. I have a couple of Sto-Fens, but I don't really want to look like the Man-from-Mars with the Gary Fong. Has anybody here used the Gary Fong and how good do they work at weddings ?

Knock, knock is anybody there ? That is alive that is

Flash cords fail. Carry no fewer than two on a job.

 

I used a Really Right Stuff rotating flash bracket which worked well enough, though cumbersome. The flash cable is bolted to the arm, and serves as the flash shoe rather than a plugin.

 

I have better luck with a flash dome, similar to those supplied with a Nikon flash. In addition to white, I have an amber dome for incandescent and green for fluorescent lights. I bound the flash at an angle of 45 degrees for candids. The walls and ceiling serve as the diffuser, rendering very even light and open shadows. For formal groups, I use portable strobe lights and umbrellas on stands.

 

There are too many things to worry about when shooting a wedding or event to deal with some fiddly attachment like a Sto-Fen or Fong.

I use the CB bracket that rotates the camera.

The flash stays in upright position above the camera.

 

A Sto-Fen or Fong are simply diffusers, not a "silver bullet."

Any light modifier has to be matched to the situation, or it is simply the wrong tool.

While I should have an old Stroboframe somewhere, I never used it during an event (or at all) yet. Would utilizing a wireless TTL controller unit instead of a sync cord make sense? Or are those unreliable in a different way?

It could be that I was using a faulty off-camera cord. I recently found another Canon off-camera cord in one of my other bags. I remember buying an extra one because the first one was giving me problems.

While I should have an old Stroboframe somewhere, I never used it during an event (or at all) yet. Would utilizing a wireless TTL controller unit instead of a sync cord make sense? Or are those unreliable in a different way?

 

I have a Stroboframe "camera flip," but the camera flip mechanism did not hold the camera still. It kept shifting on me.

So I switched to the more expensive CB camera rotate bracket.

 

Wireless yes.

TTL only if the flash supports TTL and the wireless sync will communicate the TTL info.

I bit the bullet the other day and purchased one of these off eBay: Rent a Custom Brackets PRO-E Camera Rotation Bracket | BorrowLenses . The newer version is the "Pro M" version which is bigger, heavier and of course more expensive. The only problem with the "PRO E" is that I had problems trying to get my camera to clear under the arm with the battery grip attached (Canon 6D). I figured I could always use an external battery pack. The flipping mechanism from Horizontal to Vertical, is pretty smooth and it doesn't put a lot of strain on the cables like my old flip-style bracket. It does make a moderately loud 'click' sound when the camera engages though...

I bit the bullet the other day and purchased one of these off eBay: Rent a Custom Brackets PRO-E Camera Rotation Bracket | BorrowLenses . The newer version is the "Pro M" version which is bigger, heavier and of course more expensive. The only problem with the "PRO E" is that I had problems trying to get my camera to clear under the arm with the battery grip attached (Canon 6D). I figured I could always use an external battery pack. The flipping mechanism from Horizontal to Vertical, is pretty smooth and it doesn't put a lot of strain on the cables like my old flip-style bracket. It does make a moderately loud 'click' sound when the camera engages though...

 

Just remove the battery grip to use the Pro-E.

If you must use the battery grip, it looks like the Pro-M is the one that works with a battery grip.