Flash outdoors at night - are modifiers even useful?

[Lightstream]

Heya all,

Thought I would ask for some opinions here. I expect to be shooting outdoors at events after dark in a couple of weeks, and naturally I'm bringing a flash. I'm also thinking that direct flash would be most useful - since there would be nothing to bounce it off. Firing the flash upwards would light the sky, which is not my subject ;)

I also plan to drag the shutter to mix ambient light - I find the tungsten/sodium vapor glow of ambient light adds to the mood rather than takes away from it. (this isn't my first event - been there done it.. liked the effect). ISO 1600, f/4, and stabilizer running.

Would you consider any modifiers useful or are they just a waste of time? While I've seen some walk around with the Stofen, I have my doubts that it does anything useful for me.

[Curtis N]

The only modifiers that might help are ones that actually increase the size of the light sourrce without wasting too much of it. Possibilities include the Lumiquest Pocket Bouncer or Lumiquest Softbox.

You won't see noticeable differences on your subjects but the background shadows will be a bit softer.

[Lightstream]

Thanks Curtis, that is basically what I figured. Either that, or be seen walking around with a gigantic bounce card.. maybe use the whole sheet of writing paper ;)

Or maybe this is a good time to start carving up the milk bottle I have been saving :mrgreen:

[Curtis N]

Shooting outdoors at night is a lot like shooting indoors, only worse. ;)

Shadows behind your subject are very noticeable, and redeye can be a real problem.

A flash bracket can help with both of those issues.

[Souwalker]

Hate to bring up this old thread.
What if I only have a 430EX and no bracket? The flash should face forward as mentioned by the thread starter. I'd like to take outdoor (night) flash pictures of my children in front of brightly lite buildings with street lights etc. How best to achieve this?
It's still a long way but we are planning to drop by Hongkong few days before Xmas day enroute to another place and take pictures of the buildiong s with Xmas lights.
Thanks
Pat

[Lightstream]

Interesting.

I actually conducted a shoot outdoors, trying to get a beautiful city skyline as background with my subjects in front of it. I used the Joe Demb Flipit bounce card and it worked great. Flash fired straight up, bounce card straight up, for a very light splash of light on their faces. Slow sync, ISO 3200 Av mode wide open and metered for the background.

Normally I would not do this, but like they say, when you are confident you can safely break the rules and get the results you want, you're ready to break the rules.

[Freff]

I tried this a few months ago using 2nd curtain flash. I metered the scene ambient about 4sec then the flash filled in the subjects, therefore no motion blur by the couple during the long exposure.