Stofen question

What would happen if I lined the back and sides of my Stofen with tin foil. Has anyone tried this? I would not line the front or top of the stofen, so some light goes foward and up instead of all around....

I have used the partially raised white panel (of the 580ex) and also with a foil surface in place of the panel. There is slightly more shadow penetration although the overall amount of light varies little as borne out by a flash meter. For simplicity, I prefer the panel.

darktiger wrote in post #2929815
What would happen if I lined the back and sides of my Stofen with tin foil. Has anyone tried this? I would not line the front or top of the stofen, so some light goes foward and up instead of all around....

Sounds interesting, I may just try it someday.

Darktiger is thinking about flash efficiency. This is a good thing.

All I can say is, give it a try and report your findings! You should be able to measure the efficiency by shooting a neutral target with the flash in manual mode (not E-TTL). Adjust the aperture to get the histogram spike centered, with and without the foil. The difference in aperture will indicate how much more efficiency you gain.

I will be interested in seeing the results. But my first thought is that this sort of defeats the purpose and functionality of the Sto-Fen. Without foil, the Sto-Fen will send out light in all directions. This light will bounce and bathe the subject in all-around light, assuming there is something around for the light to bounce off of. If i'm understanding what you are going to do, the foil will block the 'side' and 'top' light and concentrate the light coming directly to the subject (like direct flash).

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see the results.

The flash on Manual, the Stoffen with and without the aluminum turkey roaster lining, and a flash meter ought to provide some definitive answers about what improvement in effciency of light output is accomplished!

any results?