Light Sphere

[iskandar_azaman___kuala_lu]

Hey Paul...

 

I know why the shadows are still there that is why i use the stofen with a bracket and a lot of times point it upwards or at 45 degrees depending on the ceiling situation. With this setup i get pleasing results.

 

I did order the LS2 but they accidentally sent the wrong one so i need to return it and get the correct one before i'm able to test it properly.

[picturesque]

William--that was the first question in my mind when I saw the unit being used without a bracket. There was another series of shots like the one of the girl outside at night that is no longer on Gary's web site. The same girl was photographed inside, and they were vertical shots. You could see the cast shadow to the subject's left, but the LS shot's shadow was very diffuse, probably due to the light scattering around off walls and ceilings. Also, if you look at the sample shots (cake cutting, the photo of the unit on a camera being held by a woman), you can make out the faint shadow to the left of the subject. Again, if there is anything to bounce off, the shadow becomes very diffuse (also helps to drag the shutter). Probably the only time you'd see any kind of definite shadow is if the subject was up against a wall and there wasn't much else for the light to bounce off (dark ceiling and other walls) to make the shadow diffuse.

[lb-]

hi,

 

yeah there are most definitely side shahows with the LS in vert shots.

 

diffuse but there.

 

here's example of soft but visible side shadow with the LS.

 

canon 20D, 50mm lens at f4.

 

cheers

 

lucas<div></div>

[paul_chuah]

Iskandar,

 

The nice thing about the LS II is that you no longer need a stroboframe bracket of that sort to keep the flash directly over the lens at all times to get shadowless pictures on vertical framing.

 

So long as a white ceiling presents itself, you simply remove the dome to allow the excess light to bounce off the ceiling forming the main light while the frosted front of the bottle shape LS facing the subject becomes the fill-light.

 

 

Lucas,

 

Did you remove the dome when you shot the portrait? If not, the light that was supposed to be bounced off the ceiling was weakened(by the frosted dome) in turn making the frosted side(of the sphere) facing the subject the main light, so therefore the shadow behind. You need more light coming from the ceiling to kill the shadows behind. Repeat the shot again this time with the dome removed.

[fotografz]

When I get a minute, I'll run a controlled in-studio test with the LS in different

configurations and a subject close to a white backdrop: direct mount to camera, straight

up, dome off in landscape mode, bounced off of white ceiling; portrait mode with direct

mount LS, dome off, to side bounced off white ceiling; flash/LS directly tilted down with

dome on pointed at subject; Then repeat it with no modifier, a Lumiquest soft, and a

Stofen. I'll put them in a folder and create a link for review. BUT only if I get a minute to

myself.

 

Any other configurations?

[lb-]

hi paul,

 

the dome was off for that last sample.

 

normal white 8' ceiling. here's another shot in the same kitchen. dome is off and 550ex is

pointed straight up.

 

it's not a great example, an I personally don't find it bothersome but you can clearly see

the side shadow.

 

cheers

 

lucas<div></div>

[paul_chuah]

Yes I noticed the shadows, Lucas.

 

Looking at Marc's pictures, if one is to follow strictly using the diffusor fixed at 90? upright all the way, I can safely say that the ceiling height and the flash/camera distant to subject does play a major part in getting the act right. It could be a restrictive working combination of camera-to-subject-distance based on ceiling height just to get the pictures to look as perfect like Marc's.

 

If the distance from you to the subject goes beyond 10 feet for a 8 foot ceiling bounce, the bounced light will only be directly over yourself and the reflected spill-off will now become a soft frontal light for the subject.

 

I use a somewhat similar self-made conical diffusor and I bend the rules a little. Instead of using the flash head fixed at 90? all the time, I vary the tilt angle to point at the ceiling mid-way to the distance from myself to the subject. This will allow the reflected bounced light to reach behind the subject so that it kills the shadows sufficiently.

 

You might want to experiment to see the results.

[lb-]

hi,

 

one of the limitations of the LS is that due to it's weight it really can't be tilted forward to maximize the angle for bounce. The flash head just won't stay put. the soup shot was only about 6 feet from subject. Frankly I think if the subject is right up against a wall you're going to have shadows which I personally don't find all that offensive.

 

marcs examples above are great, but as you can see the subjects are off the background a good bit.

 

my next invention is going to be a flash helmet with a bracket and a 20" umbrella for bounce! it'll look really stupid but I bet it will work!

 

the thing I'm concerned about now is figuring out what the heck is going on in PS. When I use the "save for web" function the colors go crazy! I've posted in the digital darkroom forum and I got some suggestions but so far I can't seem to figure it out. my above sample are not that red!

 

hmmmmmmmmm.

 

cheers

 

lucas

[fotografz]

Did you convert to sRGB before saving for web?

[lb-]

well, I when I open the image in PS I check for it to convert to working space which is set at sRGB. Does that count? I've been shooting JPEGS( I know I know ) so far but just started sorting out my workflow for RAW.

 

A PS class or some books are on my new years list. I've been hacking my way though for a while but I have some pretty major gaps in my knowledge.

 

cheers

 

lucas

[fotografz]

Are you sure your working space is sRGB? Unless you only correct images for the

internet, it should be RGB (like Adobe RGB 1998) not sRGB.

 

Also, what do you have your camera set on? Working space isn't always the same as what

the camera is set to. So, if your camera is set to sRGB, and your working space is RGB,

when that dialog box opens and you click "working space" you may be changing it from

sRGB to RGB. After correcting the image, and then saving for web, the colors will look

funky.

 

Here's the way to check what the image's active color space is: open the image in PS, go

to top menu >Image > Mode > Assign Profile. The image's color profile will have a black

dot next to it. If it isn't sRGB, you can change it by clicking on the bottom one (Profile) and

scrolling to a sRGB profile and selecting it. Watch how the color of the image changes.

Which means you'll need to re-correct it to look good on the web.<div></div>

[cjfraser]

About the color shift in Save for Web: Don't know whether you ever solved your problem, but I had the same problem and by searching the archives finally found the solution (thanks to Beau Hooker). Convert your edited file to sRGB (you already know this part). Call up "Save for Web." See the little arrow on the top right, above the preview window? Click that and make sure "Use Document Color Profile" is selected. (On my machine, "Uncompensated Color" was.) The colors in the image in the preview window should then match your original. A simple solution to an irritating problem that my archive search indicates is shared by quite a few people.