Do you use flash bracket?? RRS L plate? Shoe Mounted flash?

Just wondering what ppl use? I've seen some use flash bracket, but never tried it myself. It looks too bulky!! What do you think? I'd also like to see some setups of what you use!

Thank you!

we used the Junior Brackets for about a year, but for about six months now, they've been collecting dust. We've pretty much determined that they're bulky, unnecessary, and add weight to what is already a pretty heavy rig. Just our opinion...
Anyway, they're for sale.
Chris

True 'wedding pros' widely use flash brackets because they allow the shadow cast from any direct flash to be generally hidden from the lens...you cannot always rely upon indirect lighting (ceiling bounce) so you need a dependable way to use flash even without dependence upon ceilings!

Newton Brackets or Custom Brackets are both high quality, rigid products that keep the flash directly above the axis of the lens, which is necessary to avoid ugly side shadows.

Although a bracket can be cumbersome, I wouldn't shoot a wedding without one.
Having my flash above the camera lens gives me shadowless lighting. AND, any modifiers I use (StoFen, Demb, Lumiquest) do not require me to twist and turn my flash head. Just flip my camera from H to V. Easy enough. The bottom line is the look of the photos.

In my humble experience, I have found that the flash bracket will keep your flash centered over the lens when you switch from landscape to portrait mode. Sometimes a shoe mounted flash does not give very flattering results when it is turned to the side.

Wilt wrote in post #6480305
True 'wedding pros' widely use flash brackets ........

I would have to disagree with that statement a bit. I have been shooting weddings for several years. I would consider myself more of a non-traditional wedding photog. I have found that in my experience "old school" wedding photogs tend to use a flash bracket. I personally rarely put my flash on my camera. I like to do off camera flash or if it is on camera definitely bounce the flash.

Again I have worked with a lot of wedding photogs-- most of whom I hire as a second-- and my observation is that old school types like the bracket.
Personally I will never get a bracket--- I don't want more to carry around and it does not really fit into my shooting style.

No right or wrong here but I have found that it does not work for me.

I did say 'widely' and I didn't say 'all' !

I use the wpf-1 RRS bracket...its a very portable solution...folds up and takes up almost no room in my bag...

Yes I use custom bracket. Newton brackets are the best imo but they are out of my budget.

The wrong bracket is cumbersome, bulky, and/or unwieldy. The right bracket is not.

I use a bracket whether direct or bounced, even when I have off-camera lighting going on. I don't consider myself old school, although others might since I don't vignette the crap out of all my shots.

cdifoto wrote in post #6488169
I don't consider myself old school, although others might since I don't vignette the crap out of all my shots.

How true. I visited the Professional Photographer's convention here a few weeks ago, and could not believe the amount of vignetting being displayed. It looked clumsy, an artifice, and had little artistic merit in most cases. A fad.

I have a Stroboframe Pro T bracket it allows the flash to remain above the lens in both the horizontal and vertical orientations.

I am an "old school" shooter who uses Stroboframes. My DSLR is so much lighter than my old RB67 that it is like I am holding nothing. However, one thing I have noticed is that by not having the flash tube lined up with the film plane (ir both both being horizontal or bothbeing verticle) I am seeing vignetting. The other problem that I fight with brackets is that the exposures don't seem to be as accurate. When I leave the flash on camera exposures seem to be more consistent. I know other photographers who quite using the brackets because of such exposure problems. This one issue really drives me over the edge.

I haven't noted any exposure problems that I can associate with the use of a bracket. Usually just the typical E-TTL idiosyncrasies that occur regardless.

My last party I shot was my family and was in a small room. So I placed my 430EX on a hotshoe foot with my stofen diffuser on the DJ's speaker about 12 inches from the ceiling and pointed it up. Then I placed a rented 580EX II on the TV on the opposite side of the room about 5 feet above the ground and also pointed it up.

Then I shot in the almost dark room with my 40D & speedlite transmitter which has a great focus assist light. The lighting in the room was perfect! Consistent every time!