diffusers for outdoors....

i wanted to ask for some advice about a flash diffuser to use for fill while shooting outdoors in daylight. i intend to go out during the day and shoot some outdoor concerts, candids, and anything (or anyone) else i may encounter in my walk around the city.

i know that the famous gary fongs may be great for indoor use but perhaps not so much for outdoor use. there's actually a free concert that's free this friday and i'd like to go and do some test shots, hopefully with a diffuser and look at the results.

thanks

jobv2 wrote in post #12673347
i wanted to ask for some advice about a flash diffuser to use for fill while shooting outdoors in daylight. i intend to go out during the day and shoot some outdoor concerts, candids, and anything (or anyone) else i may encounter in my walk around the city.

i know that the famous gary fongs may be great for indoor use but perhaps not so much for outdoor use. there's actually a free concert that's free this friday and i'd like to go and do some test shots, hopefully with a diffuser and look at the results.

thanks

Well the Gary Fongs may be famous but for indoor us their indoor greatness is debatable. If you are shooting concerts, etc you have to remember that soft light is based on size of light source and distance to subject. Light beams travel in straight lines.

If you look at the first illustration we have a 2' by 4' softbox 50 feet away from the subject. I know that is too far away but just bear with me. No matter how many lines I draw I will not be able to get the light around the face to eliminate the shadow behind it.

We moved the softbox to within a few feet of the subject. The box is now much bigger than the face and the beams can illuminate he wall behind the head.

Third illustration we moved the light source back and added a wall/ceiling to show bounced light.

This post shows shadow in bright sun with no fill vs. shadow with flash and no modifier vs. shadow with flash and small modifier. It shows that modifiers only reduce the effectiveness of the fill flash!

https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=12144306&po​stcount=49

https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=12396412&po​stcount=61

ok so no diffuser then for fill.
this might be a difficult question to answer but how do i setup the flash or do i let the flash/camera handle that (ttl, ettl, etc) at the moment i have manual flash but i can rent a flash for this friday (not sure if i should get 430ex ii or 580ex ii or just use my manual flash)

i understand what you both are saying about wasting light.

if i DO shoot manually, how do i determine flash output (distance to 1/1 or 1/4 or 1/16, etc)

i would like to do some practice shots before i got out and actually apply it, trying to determine where to start.

thanks thus far

You don't want to shoot the flash manual in this situation unless you are in a fixed position. Even then this is more of run and gun situation so I would recommend ETTL and FEC as required. However you do have experience shooting manual so you can try that first.

As for camera mode is this during the day or night? What do you normally shoot with M or Aperture Priority. You have a 1D mk2 so can you bump the ISO up to 1600 and have a clean file? I figure you should but I don't know that camera.Try to bring in quite a bit of ambient light. In either M o AV high ISO and opening up the Aperture will provide fill light. You can even try some shots w/o flash if there is enough light.

In my signature there's a link to a thread about how to use flash outdoors.

By the way those shots I posted. 5D2, ISO 3200, Mode M, Canon 580 II on ETTL and I used a flash bracket because I had nowhere to bounce.

i will read the link as suggested by curtis.

by the way this will be an EARLY morning concert, between 7am and 9am and will be outdoors. i do plan on shooting a few indoor concerts but im specifically asking about the early morning concerts (there will be quite a few this summer that i will attend)

thanks

If you're shooting concerts, you could gain a lot of insight in the Performing Arts Talk and Performing Arts photo sharing sections of this forum.

I never use flash for concerts and there are a whole lot of reasons not to. But shooting them using available light is sort of a learning curve unto itself.

not even for fill? interesting to know ill head over to that section and get my "learning on."

At a concert there's somebody running a light board and throwing funky colors on the stage. He may be good at it or he may suck at it, but his ego is huge. He's an "artist," you see.

Now you can endeavor to capture that scene that the lighting god creates, or not. But it's almost a guarantee that your light will be a different color than the stage light (even if he's using bare tungsten without gels) and make the whole thing look unnatural. And unless you wear an umbrella strapped to your head, your light will create hard-edged shadows and look "flashed."

And every time your flash fires, you run the risk of irritating the performing artists, the lighting god, and the audience. Frankly, when I pay to see a show I think I deserve better than to have some dude flashing away and causing a distraction.

But if you lay low, stay out of the way, respect everyone involved and shoot without flash, you stand a much better chance that the 300 pound security dudes will leave you alone.

Not to hijack the thread but I have a questions that may help someone else. I have a wedding in August that is in a white tent..ceiling and walls of the tent are white, I try to use bounce or straight on flash. I usually use the betterbouncecard (different sizes when needed) when bouncing. Thank you.

Bounce, by all means!

Curtis N wrote in post #12728360
Bounce, by all means!

Ok will do..thank you.