first attempt with Rogue speedlight grid/gel kit

Well I got to test out my newly purchased Rogue speedlight grid and gel kits on a black backdrop. Long story short, I did not get results I was hoping for.

The two shots below were taken in Manual mode at FULL power with my 600EX-RT using the 45 degree grid and the Follies Pink gel.

The first one was shot at 4 feet away from the background, the second one was 6 feet away. Both were set to 20mm zoom.

At full power, I was expecting a brighter background.

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Change your settings.

Get to your max sync speed (in your case, set your shutter speed to 1/200).

Open up your aperture a bit more. (I'd say f/6.3, f/7.1 or f/8).

Raise your ISO a bit (you're at ISO200, go to ISO400)

Your background light will now be stronger.

You'll have to dial down your key light now (whatever is lighting up minnie mouse).

The reason you're underwhelmed by your flash power is because you're pushing it to the limit (f/11 @ ISO200 really cuts down your working distance in addition to adding a grid and gel, which takes off about a 1.5-2 stops as well)

Lee describe the density of their Follies Pink gel as 2 f/stops.

Keep in mind the more power you fire thru gels, the more washed out the color is going to be.
And yes, open your aperture. There is no need for F11 on a shot like this.

Okay, so I bumped my ISO to 400, turned down my key/fill lights to minimum power, and got 7.1 as the aperture at 1/125 sec. I couldn't get my L-358 to give me an aperture value for 1/200 sec because the available shutter speeds are whole stops (1/60, 1/125, 1/250).

But I'm confused here....don't these new settings really just constitute the same exposure as when I used f/11?

In any case, below are 4 new shots, each at 20mm zoom on the flash. The flash is 4 feet from the background. The first is no flash, the 2nd is 1/4 power, then 1/2 power, then full power.

I wasn't expecting to have to use so much power. I'm hoping I have to use much less when I get my grey background this week some time.

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The type of and color of fabric you're using could play a roll as well. Some fabrics absorb light like a black hole.

coeng wrote in post #15491971
Okay, so I bumped my ISO to 400, turned down my key/fill lights to minimum power, and got 7.1 as the aperture at 1/125 sec. I couldn't get my L-358 to give me an aperture value for 1/200 sec because the available shutter speeds are whole stops (1/60, 1/125, 1/250).

But I'm confused here....don't these new settings really just constitute the same exposure as when I used f/11?

Same exposure, yes, but now achieved with less flash output, which in turn allows the background light to appear brighter.

The light from a flash lasts only for a short time. Opening up the aperture captures more of that light during that short time. When mixing flash and ambient light you use shutter speed mostly to control how much ambient light is captured and aperture to control the flash. It is a completely different thought process from just getting the camera's exposure meter to center up.
Do some tests for yourself. Set up your gear and only change the aperture while keeping flash power, shutter speed and ISO the same. Keep notes and check the results. Now go back to your starting point and do the same but this time just change shutter speeds.

So what is the ideal background material to gel with a gridded speedlight that requires the least amount of flash power use? I sold my paper backdrops last year because I now have to deal with a carpet.

The darker the background material, the greater the saturation you can achieve with gels but the more power you need to get the colouration other than minimally. Conversely, if you want a pastel tint only then a white background is the way to go.

In either case, you control the saturation by the changing exposure of the background relative to the main subject. Black VELVET will give you the ultimate saturation you can achieve - cotton is better than nylon - but you need a fair bit of power from the gelled flash.

This thread shows what an awesome site POTN is. Lot's of good information shared by helpful and knowledgeable members and good examples being shown by the orignal poster.

Q-Man wrote in post #15493192
This thread shows what an awesome site POTN is. Lot's of good information shared by helpful and knowledgeable members and good examples being shown by the orignal poster.

Couldn't agree more and that's why I've been on this site for 11 years. Even though I have a limited amount of free time to improve my knowledge of photography, this site has always been there to help me. Thank you POTN.

great info here. Been thinking of getting one of these for this exact same reason.

Try zooming the flash head on the 600 to 200mm and take the grid off. The grid is designed to narrow the light cone. The zoom on the speedlite does the same thing. The difference is that the grid diminishes the light intensity while the zoom increases it.

If, when zoomed to 200mm the light cone is still too wide for your shot, then put the grid on. And take note of how much light it is "absorbing". You can also control the size of the cone on the background with the distance the light is from the background. Get it closer for smaller cone.

I'd spend some time experimenting with zoom settings and distance from background to get that where you want it, then add the gel. By starting with just the light, you can determine the power you need to get a mid-gray with the black. Let's say it comes out to 1/8 power at 3 feet with a zoom setting of 100mm. Now you know that adding the pink gel will need the power upped to 1/2 because the gel is rated for 2 stops. This approach makes it easy to change gels during a shoot since you know what the baseline power setting needs to be and can easily compensate based on the gels rating.