580 EX Built In White Card

I made my version of the Better Bounce Card and it worked really well but I was wondering if anyone used the pull up white card that is built into the 580 EX? The white card is small and I suspect is mainly to provide some catch light to the eyes though it may direct more light than I think. I haven't had a chance to experiment with it yet and wondered if anyone was using the built in bounce card and if so can you share some of your results.

i use it all the time but not to reflect any light on the objects photographed. i use it just for the catcheye effect...
i don't think it bounces that much light...
i want to make a better bounce card but i can't find the paper in Egypt

I use it a lot.

Curtis N wrote in post #4762821
I use it a lot.

+1

I think it works quite well at directing just enough light at your subject to offset the shadows from a ceiling bounce.

I use it all the time, I think it works great for being as simple as it is and included in the flash!

amironsi, I made my first better bounce card out of printer paper. I just folded the edges at an angle to make a trapezoid and used a rubberband to hold it to the flash. It worked great. By using a full sheet of paper it was larger than necessary but really projected a lot of light forward. I have since found some of the foam sheet and have made a couple of smaller cards out of the foam. I have not tried them yet but will soon. If you take a sheet of printer paper and fold it in half and then fold the edges on a diagonal you will end up with a bounce card that is just about the right size. It is very inexpensive, gives pretty good results, and is very cheap.

Here is one shot I took with the printer paper bounce card.

Sparky98 wrote in post #4765117
amironsi, I made my first better bounce card out of printer paper. I just folded the edges at an angle to make a trapezoid and used a rubberband to hold it to the flash. It worked great. By using a full sheet of paper it was larger than necessary but really projected a lot of light forward. I have since found some of the foam sheet and have made a couple of smaller cards out of the foam. I have not tried them yet but will soon. If you take a sheet of printer paper and fold it in half and then fold the edges on a diagonal you will end up with a bounce card that is just about the right size. It is very inexpensive, gives pretty good results, and is very cheap.

Here is one shot I took with the printer paper bounce card.

i would try that printer paper, did you mean Matt or glossy one or just normal 80gm paper?

I used normal ink jet paper not photographic paper. Photographic paper might be whiter and you could experiment with matte or glossy to see what effect that might have on your pictures, I would assume that matte would diffuse the light better, but standard paper does a decent job.

I have used the little white pull-out card on the 580ex for thousands of weddng shots with excellent results. Much of the time I"ll have the strobe pointed straight up, but will angle it slightly depending about the venue or distance to subject.

Ben is absolutely right about this.

So often we see people on this forum spending hundreds for "whale tails" and other modifiers and diffusers that DO work after a fashion, but often only marginally better than what's already built into the 580. The only thing cheaper is the rubber band and index card..... same dif.

ben_r_ wrote in post #4764885
I use it all the time, I think it works great for being as simple as it is and included in the flash!

I don't use it. Primarily because before I bought my bracket it wasn't practical being on the long side, so I made something similar with velcro to put on either the long or short side as desired. Now I simply use the velcro version out of habit.

I use the same concept quite often (not all the time) though!

Way to go cdi - I have a similar velcro setup.... I took a bright white plastic white place mat and cut a hunk out that's about 4 times the size of the white pull-out. It DOES throw forward a lot of light and is quite useful for really dark reception halls.

cdifoto wrote in post #4772828
I don't use it. Primarily because before I bought my bracket it wasn't practical being on the long side, so I made something similar with velcro to put on either the long or short side as desired. Now I simply use the velcro version out of habit.

I use the same concept quite often (not all the time) though!

sapearl wrote in post #4772869
Way to go cdi - I have a similar velcro setup.... I took a bright white plastic white place mat and cut a hunk out that's about 4 times the size of the white pull-out. It DOES throw forward a lot of light and is quite useful for really dark reception halls.

Nice. I cut 4 rectangles out of the 4x6" thin cardboard (more like card stock I guess) that comes with Epson's paper of that size. It has a white semi-gloss-ish side and a white-ish matte side. I use the matte side since it's not as specular as the semi-gloss-ish. I took a piece of the 4x6" glossy paper and printed my logo on it then superglued that to the back (semi-gloss-ish) side of the cardboard. Gives it a longer life than just the cardboard itself, especially since the velcro is industrial strength and all that yankin' on it through the day quickly rips an un-reinforced version.

I have a bounce card style diffuser that I bought in a cheapo lens accessory kit with batteries and other stuff. It's more durable than the BB card, but basically the same thing. The key is one could even make this themselves. Remember the type of 3 ring binders that were made out of just tough plastic with no cardboard structure to them, just all plastic. That's basically what this is made out of. They have made a couple of creases in it so it does a little origami kind of folding so it bends to touch 3 sides of the flash gun. They sent velcro to attach it, but I just use a heavy rubber band. A guy could do the same thing with a notebook and a little ingenuity for making the creases. I may post a pic of it here later on.

Anyone know why there is not one built into the 430EX? by the I like that the 580EXII has the catch light card.