factory diffusers 600ex-rt

who uses these and really i guess more importantly when do you use them?

i rarely use my speedlite primarily because im a bit confused/intimidated by them compared to my old sunpak 444D.

i ask because i was shooting a football game last week. there was a professional shooter there. they were going to shoot pics of those giant checks they use when there are big donors for projects and so the pro popped his flash on his camera (nikon stuff) and added his diffuser...

he shot a few pics of myself and another photographer with the head "bounced" up about 45o and then again same angle but at 90o to the lens. it didnt look like he was shooting at a very high power level so im just kind of curious just how much light he was actually adding...

It is not a diffuser. It is a bounce card. What was he bouncing his flash off. Planes? I'm not sure why he shot at 45 degrees. Maybe he needed to get less flash power than lowest setting would give him for some reason when shooting at 45 degrees. At 45 degrees that bounce card is not much bigger than the bare flash head thus is just as hard a light source and he would have just needed more power than at 90 degrees. Very little difference if any between both as far a soft or hard light for that situation.

Only thing I could see is the source of light that was bouncing off the card at 45 degrees was a little higher that pointed straight which looks a little more natural. We see light coming down onto things. Still a hard light source.

digital paradise wrote in post #17738152

• It is not a diffuser. It is a bounce card.
  
• What was he bouncing his flash off. Planes? I'm not sure why he shot at 45 degrees. Maybe he needed to get less flash power than lowest setting would give him for some reason when shooting at 45 degrees.
  
• At 45 degrees that bounce card is not much bigger than the bare flash head thus is just as hard a light source and he would have just needed more power than at 90 degrees. Very little difference if any between both as far a soft or hard light for that situation.
  
• Only thing I could see is the source of light that was bouncing off the card at 45 degrees was a little higher that pointed straight which looks a little more natural. We see light coming down onto things. Still a hard light source.
  

^^^ on all points

He may have been 'paid' but he did not know his craft!

Just to illustrate. There difference between hard and sift light is the size if the light source and it's distance to our subject. This is universal and there are no magic bullets.

i'm not going to disagree with anything that has been said, but will add my experience and something that has not been mentioned yet.

there is a technique that is mostly associated with softboxes and studio lighting called "feathering". The idea is that the light coming off the front of the box is brightest in the center. If you aim the softbox away from the subject they are hit with the feathered light at the edge.

Not going to get into the reasons to do this in studio, but a reason to feather a bare flash on camera is so that the foreground is not too bright in relation to your subject. This is only necessary if the ground between the camera and subject is part of the scene.

With the flash pointed straight ahead and lets say 15-20 feet between camera and subject, the foreground will be quite bright due to it's close proximity to the flash head … the further the light has to travel, the less intense it will be … inverse square law. If you don't feather the light it becomes quite obvious and a little distracting to have the foreground so bright. Tilting the flash head up will keep the vast majority of the very focused speedlight light from hitting the ground directly in front of the camera and give a much more pleasing image.

it really works, but again, if you are just shooting 3/4 or head shots it is pointless.

I assume you mean the little clear clip on thing that comes with a 600EX ?

Its not a diffuser, its a gel holder.
There should be a little plastic wallet with two yellow/orange bits of plastic film in them
One is a CTO - for turning the flash yellow to match tungsten light, the other is either a 1/4 or 1/8 strength (i think its 1/4) for adding a warm touch to the flashlight.

I took one of the gels, carefully traced around it into a sheet of hard plastic and cut it out - now cutting custom gels takes 30 seconds - put sheet down, put template down, cut around with stanley knife, label and slide into wallet.

Echo63 wrote in post #17738258
I assume you mean the little clear clip on thing that comes with a 600EX ?

Its not a diffuser, its a gel holder.
There should be a little plastic wallet with two yellow/orange bits of plastic film in them
One is a CTO - for turning the flash yellow to match tungsten light, the other is either a 1/4 or 1/8 strength (i think its 1/4) for adding a warm touch to the flashlight.

I took one of the gels, carefully traced around it into a sheet of hard plastic and cut it out - now cutting custom gels takes 30 seconds - put sheet down, put template down, cut around with stanley knife, label and slide into wallet.

I did think of that but because it was at 45 at one point I thought it must be the bounce card.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17738255
i'm not going to disagree with anything that has been said, but will add my experience and something that has not been mentioned yet.

there is a technique that is mostly associated with softboxes and studio lighting called "feathering". The idea is that the light coming off the front of the box is brightest in the center. If you aim the softbox away from the subject they are hit with the feathered light at the edge.

Not going to get into the reasons to do this in studio, but a reason to feather a bare flash on camera is so that the foreground is not too bright in relation to your subject. This is only necessary if the ground between the camera and subject is part of the scene.

With the flash pointed straight ahead and lets say 15-20 feet between camera and subject, the foreground will be quite bright due to it's close proximity to the flash head … the further the light has to travel, the less intense it will be … inverse square law. If you don't feather the light it becomes quite obvious and a little distracting to have the foreground so bright. Tilting the flash head up will keep the vast majority of the very focused speedlight light from hitting the ground directly in front of the camera and give a much more pleasing image.

it really works, but again, if you are just shooting 3/4 or head shots it is pointless.

Well I said light looks more natural coming from above, even if a bit. How far you are away from the subject does makes the difference. If you feather then you need to add more flash power so the inverse is still the same. I can see the angle cutting some of that blast down right at the very front but I'm not sure how many feet are effected. All depends on the focal length as well as distance.

digital paradise wrote in post #17738271
Well I said light looks more natural coming from above, even if a bit. How far you are away from the subject does makes the difference.

Height of the flash was not what I was addressing.

We're doing a lot of speculating because we still don't know exactly what the photographer added to his flash or even an approximate focal length/distance from subject. After reading OP again, it kind of sounds like a sto-fen. You're right though, f he was wide and close tilting up might give a slightly higher angle from the flash, from a distance it would be irrelevant.

A stofen would make my first post irrelevant as it would spray the light everywhere, and at any power it would indeed light the foreground and make the raised flash head irrelevant.

but with the focused beam of a bare speedlight you can equalize the amount of light hitting the foreground and a more distant subject, regardless of flash power. Within reasonable distances, of course.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17738675
there is a technique that is mostly associated with softboxes and studio lighting called "feathering".

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17738675
A stofen would make my first post irrelevant as it would spray the light everywhere, and at any power it would indeed light the foreground and make the raised flash head irrelevant.

but with the focused beam of a bare speedlight you can equalize the amount of light hitting the foreground and a more distant subject, regardless of flash power. Within reasonable distances, of course.

I put together this drawing to show the concept of feathering many, many years ago and provide it now to illustrate the principle in action obliquely across a very large group, and used so that the members of the group closest to the flash are not overexposed. (Different use, yet similar, to Left Handed Brisket's use for foreground vs. background with vertical feathering)

Ltdave wrote in post #17737995
he shot a few pics of myself and another photographer with the head "bounced" up about 45o and then again same angle but at 90o to the lens.

Don't assume that because a photographer puts Tupperware on his flash that he's a "pro".

When I read added his diffuser I figured it meant the pull up card but it could be a tupperware. Even worse.

Wilt, I think we all expect that outside under stadium lighting, the photographer should be balancing ambient and flash. If there were no ambient your example would be more relevant.

There are regular discussions here about hyper sync and the gradient it causes across the frame. When balanced with ambient, and in the hands of a capable photographer it becomes a non issue.

Likewise, my scenario works when balanced with ambient. The irregular or unpredictable edge of the speedlight lens becomes a non-issue. You are also working at distances that exaggerate the "hard" edge and irregular nature of the speedlight.

Unfortunately I trashed the few images where I forgot to tilt the speedlight up, but here are a couple where I feathered the flash. Both are shown in the camera orientation they were shot. With the camera in portrait I still tilt the flash up 45° to feather the light.

note the shadow from the tape and strong reflection of the flash on the pot of bratwurst and the lack of a strong light (or any noticeable artificial light for that matter) on the foreground grass.

All excellent points, showing that used in the right circumstances even the shortcomings that I illustrated can be non-issues. Thread readers need to see that what does not work well indoors might be very acceptable outdoors!

I note that the example photos are shot under overcast skies, leading to the absence of shadowing. Were the shadows stronger (bright sun), I dare say that the HSS gradient becomes a moot issue, as you can't use HSS effectively very far (-2EV and more loss of flash power), for fill in the synchro-Sun situation...GN190 at 105mm setting drops to GN95 at best, or limited to 8.5' at -1EV fill (assuming f/16 due to Sunny 16 conditions; or 12' assuming f/11, 17' at f/5.6, 24' at f/4...have we run out of higher shutter speeds yet?!).

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17738675
Height of the flash was not what I was addressing.

We're doing a lot of speculating because we still don't know exactly what the photographer added to his flash or even an approximate focal length/distance from subject. After reading OP again, it kind of sounds like a sto-fen. You're right though, f he was wide and close tilting up might give a slightly higher angle from the flash, from a distance it would be irrelevant.

A stofen would make my first post irrelevant as it would spray the light everywhere, and at any power it would indeed light the foreground and make the raised flash head irrelevant.

but with the focused beam of a bare speedlight you can equalize the amount of light hitting the foreground and a more distant subject, regardless of flash power. Within reasonable distances, of course.

I do realize height was not what you were addressing. I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Since flash is pretty much playing pool with light I find visuals helpful.

I'm not sure how accurate this is but should be close enough yellow representing the spread of light.