Outdoors Fill Flash - Sto-fen or Bare Flash?

Indoors, I use a bare flash bounce (when possible) and a white card. Works well for me. Outdoors, as a daylight fill-flash, I usually use a direct bare flash fill, and occassionally use a FEC setting. I have seen numerous professional photographers use the sto-fen omni bounce (or one quite similar) for direct, non-bounce outdoors shots. Some, have even angled them upward, which seems weird to me, as there is nothing to bounce off.

So, is there any advantage to using a sto-fen omni-bounce for outdoors fill flash?

i use a sto-fen for all my outside fill flash.

I use a Lumiquest Ultrasoft...

Try it and decide for yourself, that's the best way with most photography things.

The Omnibounce is for bouncing, I use naked flash outside.

In regards to angling the flash outdoors, it's often quicker to point it up quickly to reduce effective output than it is to go in and change FEC back and forth. I leave the Omnibounce on all the time, even for outdoor portraiture. It seems to soften the light a bit to me, reducing extreme highlights on the bridge of the nose, etc.

Of course, I'd have to buy it first. That's why I came here and asked all of you experts.

Good call. Don't bother IMHO.

I've tried outdoor fill flash both with and without the ommibounce and can't say I've noticed a lot of difference. It works best indoors.

The ommibounce also soaks up quite a bit of light, so your flash will likely take longer to recycle if that's important to you.

I leave my diffusers on all the time as well, except for my slave which often is bare. The stoffen is supposed to be angled up in most situations, mine almost always is...even outdoors.

why should the the stofen be angled upwards outdoors, what will this do ?

For outdoors probably a mini soft box is best. Depends a bit on how far you are from your subject. I have one, but haven't tried it outdoors.

I haven't seen a logical explanation for this in any thread yet. The only thing I've read about the Sto-Fen outdoors, is that straight on, it would soften the light a bit, such as keeping hot spots off a face or bald dome. Makes sense to me, but doesn't seem all that worthwhile.

The little piece of paper that comes with the Sto-fen (the one that no one reads) says specifically that it should not be used straight on, but always at a 45 degree angle. I would guess that is has to do with the way the light is released from the sto-fen... I would guess that it doesn't come out of the front (straight on) very well, but rather around the edges. Can anyone else offer a better explanation? I'm just guessing here as to the why, but I do like the results better with a 60 degree angle most of the time.

Try it and see. I used the stofen straight on once, the person in the photo came out strangely orange, whereas at 45 degrees it was fine.

It's called an omnibounce for a reason... use it when you bounce, otherwise use direct flash IMHO.

Yes, I agree with Tim about the strangeness straight on with the sto-fen... however, I think it bounces inside the plastic. I dont' think it should only be used when you bounce off a wall, ceiling or reflector. The light bounces inside and comes out of the sides in a softened fashion... I'm totally guessing though, I could be way off.