Outdoors Fill Flash - Sto-fen or Bare Flash?

If you're telling me that the ONLY factor contributing to a light's softness/hardness is the size of the light source, then why would you have an assistant hold up a translucent disc, for sunlight to come through onto your subject? That doesn't make any sense to me. The transl. disc sure isn't making the sun a larger light source in order to soften the light. Wasn't your point point a few posts back that the omnibounce doesn't soften the light when its not bounced off walls/ceilings because it doesn't increase the size of the light source? Thats the way it read.

Maybe it's not the only factor, but IMHO it's the most important factor.

The sun is effectively a point source, because it's so far away - think about in terms of angles. The disk softens the light, and prevents harsh direct sunlight hitting the person.

When you bounce the omnibounce you effectively use the wall/roof as a light source, so the light source ends up huge.

I think there's a small gap in your understanding here, i'm happy to help out anyone who asks nicely.

You're probably right. With or without walls & ceiling, firing your flash through a frosted piece of plastic is going to change the way the light hits the subject, more than likely softening the light. Are you telling us that is not true in your opinion?

dsze wrote:
You're probably right. With or without walls & ceiling, firing your flash through a frosted piece of plastic is going to change the way the light hits the subject, more than likely softening the light. Are you telling us that is not true in your opinion?

The best plan is for you to try it and work it out for yourself, that's how I learned pretty much everything I know.

Stupid question, when using the omnibounce should you change flash position when going in for a vertical shot?

Yes, you have to keep it bouncing off your choice of surfaces.

I have just been swiveling the flash head 90 degrees to the right so its shooting straight up when I do vertical shots...is there a better combo?

Don't think so, just aim the flash head at your bounce surface.

Mycroft wrote:
If you go to Stofen's own website and check out the "how it works" link, http://www.stofen.com/​Info/HowItWorks.htm , you will see that it bounces the light off nearby surfaces to soften shadows, etc. while also directing some of the light on the subject directly. This is how the majority of diffusers work, and if you have no walls/ceiling to bounce the light off of, i.e. outdoors, the only thing the omnibounce is going to do is kill your flash batteries faster by reducing your light output by about 2 stops.

How does it "kill" your batteries?

Light goes everywhere, therefore it takes more light to illuminate your subject, therefore your batteries run down a LOT quicker than they would've otherwise. It doesn't kill them, it just drains them.

Are most people still bouncing from the ceiling when shooting vertical? Whats your flash head orientation when doing this? Sorry for the newb questions, I have never really learned about flash photography.

I guess my other concern is...does having a flash diffuser really eliminate the need for a flash bracket? My frustation comes from the requirement of keeping the flash head at an angle at the same trying trying to keep flash coverage above my lens..if that makes any sense.

So with the onibounce on, the flash intensity increases? How does the flash know the omnibounce is on the flash?
I know this must sound stupid to some of you, but I really don't get it?

I use a flash bracket, so it's not a big issue.

ETTL2 and the preflash - best read this: http://photonotes.org/​articles/eos-flash/

It doesn't know. But it does know that the pre-flash it asked for came back fairly dim (since the OmniBounce absorbed and scattered the light), so it needs to juice up the "real" flash to get enough on the subject.

For an "Outdoors Fill Flash", I don't see an advantage in getting the flash far away from the cam, since it will just add another shadow?