White Card Flash Bouncer

I have a 420EX Canon Flash and i was looking for a flash bouncer for

it. I've seen some photographers on tv using some piece of white card

attached to the flash top with a rubber band. By the general use of

it, it must be effective. My question if i use an identical solution,

what dimensions should it have to be effective? Is there any rule of

thumb?

 

Help.

 

Regards,

Miguel

Check out the LumiQuest ProMax System. If you can't afford to buy one, you could at least try to duplicate how it works. A web site to see it is: http://www.lumiquest.com/lq931.htm

There is no rule of thumb guiding the size. However, the larger it is and further it is from the flash head, the softer the light will be. Of course, the further the card is from the flash, the bigger it has to be. Most of the guys on tv use an index sized card because they have to balance the softness with the usability of the flash at distances.

 

If you're just using it for personal shooting where the subject isn't that far away, i.e. family flash shots, I would just bounce the flash off of the ceiling. Or you could make several different "card bouncers" of different heights and sizes and see which size you like the best. Bouncing off of the ceiling will give the softest look but sometimes ceilings are just too high to bounce.

 

Personally I use a Stofen Omnibounce with the flash tilted up slightly. I've been quite happy with the results.

All of those little bouncers and diffusers don't make up for two indisputable facts:

<P>1.)

hot shoe mountd flashes are small light sources.<P>2.) hot shoe mountd flashes are

pretty low power lights.<P>

You can use a heavy white piece of foam core or cardboard or even a 4" x 6 " unruled

note card and get 90% of the same effect as an expensive, more elaborate and top

heavy diffusion system.<P>

You also need to work close to your subject -- within the 5 to 6 foot range. Further

than that and you are jsut throwing away light and working range. <P> i have four

diffusers /bounce cards I use regularly: the little card built into the Nikon SB-28dx

Speedlight; An Onmi-Dome, an old Domke flash bouncer ( a roughly 5x7 piece of 1/

4' white plexiglass that attaches with either gaffer tape or rubber bands, and a

Chimera Min. The Chimera Maxi is a 16 x22 softbox that the flash attaches to. That is

the only diffuser I have that actually makes a real world difference in terms of light

quality. I have also owned and used the LumiQuest units, I didn't see a real difference

so thye were given to an assistant after collecting dust for a couple of years. They

sure do look pretty & "professionally geeky" though.

If you are primarily bouncing the flash off of the ceiling (hopefully a white ceiling of normal hight, in a normal sized residential room), the effect of the soft bounced lighting off the ceiling and the white index card attached to the flash, to fill in shadows under peoples eyes and provide a catchlight, can be very pleasing. Similar to an Omni bounce, but softer. Cost about $0.10

I use a piece of white plastic from Tap Plastics. However, my reflector is a 5" round and I can place very large cards behind the reflector--and bolted on. A 8x8" card is very large for this portable situation. A 5x6 card is still a performer. A 3x4 card would give you about 1 stop less power than the large 8x8".

 

Then there is the whole issue of reflectivity. My cards slightly bend into the light to make sure I get some power. You won't want to do that with a small rectangular flash. Therefore, you should expect to get a 3 stop loss when using the card as a total light source compared to direct flash, and it could be worse. My light loss is only 2 stops; and when I bounce off of a ceiling, I lose 2 stops from that proposition. Therefore, I have equality, with light bounced off of the ceiling equal to the light bounce off of my white card at about 5-6 feet, a 1/2 body shot. At full length person, I lose another stop, 3 stops from my card; whereas the light bounced from the ceiling loses about the same, another 1 stop.

 

I use 200-320ws of power for my bounces. This gives me about a f8-f9 for a full length person with 100 ASA negative film. With your little weakling of a flash, probably about 50 ws, you need to add 2 more stops for the same result, and maybe 3 stops due to the inefficiency of your smaller card and angle of the card. Therefore, you will be using f2.8 with ASA 100 film for a full length body shot.

That is pretty slim, f2.8.

 

Therefore, just use 400 ASA film if you are going to use this system.

 

Timber Borcherding timberborcherding

To quote Paul Seawright, "the larger the card, the softer the shadows and the more ridiculous you look!"

 

Seriously, about 6cm high and 10cm wide will do the job, then do tests, and see from there.

 

Dave Wyatt

The size of the paper isn't too important, any exposed area from 3" by 2" to 3" by 5" will do the trick. Note that the white card is only used to fill in with more front light. The main softening and shadowless effect is due to the *HUGE* bounce light from the ceiling. As a result, this trick won't work without a light-colored ceiling.

 

You should also pay attention to the angle. Let's say 0 degree is front (normal) flash, and 90 degrees is vertical (all light to the ceiling). I often use 75 degrees plus the card because this way you project more light to the front, hopefully over the subject.

 

In a normal room with light colored (or white) ceiling, this technique loses about 2 stops of light. I.e., a GN100 flash gun is reduced to a GN50 one.

 

And, yes, it is a very effective techique. You do need a flash head that tilts. A Vivitar 285HV, 283, Sunpak 383 or similar type of flash should be sufficient. The 420EX has about the same power, and it has a tilt head as well.