outdoor wedding at night

tim wrote in post #8700025
Outside at night you'll be at a very low power so a battery pack probably won't be necessary. I use CP-E4 battery packs as well. I tend to buy all Canon, at weddings I want reliability, especially after I had a cheap brand of flash fail once.

I can see this happening to any product though. I bought a brand new 580exii and it would not flash but preflash only. This was with less than a year of useage. Shipped it to canon and they said its fine?? My local camera shop gave me a brand new replacement. Buy yes..... in most cases going OE is a good thing.

I will admit the yongnuo battery pack (8 batt version) works extemely well. I have two of them.

the reason I suggest using flash manually with a fong bong lightsphere is so that ETTL doesn't suck the heck out of the batteries.

The OP's situation is definitely a tough one.

wow, this is almost the hardest situation you can be at for a wedding.

definitely 2 speedlites minimum. one on top of your camera and the second one on a tripod. both bouncing with a bent bounce card. if you have an assistant that would be great to help you hold one lite.

looking forward to the results.

Another option since you have to shoot semi-direct would be a taller bracket and one of the 15inch softboxes like the alzo.

gonzogolf wrote in post #8702266
Another option since you have to shoot semi-direct would be a taller bracket and one of the 15inch softboxes like the alzo.

Yes, I was about to suggest this, too. I have this bracket and softbox, pretty good and portable stuff, though I haven't used them in a wedding.

AlanU wrote in post #8701778
the reason I suggest using flash manually with a fong bong lightsphere is so that ETTL doesn't suck the heck out of the batteries.

I don't follow your logic. Any diffuser wastes light, the fong dong more than most since it throws light everywhere rather than just in the direction you need it. Because of this the fong dong makes for slower recharge times and less flashes per set of batteries. Running manual makes little difference as you'll have to increase the flash power to compensate for the diffuser.

(This bit isn't a comment on Alan)

When people think about lighting you have to think about where the light's coming from, the direction it's going, and where it's going to go after it hits the diffuser. Think about light as a particle. It leave the flash head from an area perhaps 10cm square, headed generally toward the diffuser. It hits various parts of the diffuser, and because it doesn't come from a point source hits different parts of the diffusers and goes in different directions. Lighting is all about the angles and the physics.

My logic may be a tad off but earlier in my post I suggested to point the flash forward with the lightsphere on . Its substantially larger than a stofen. I hate direct flash but sometime theres no alternative (except your crafty remote "cross flash" setup). I think I'm gonna experiment to see if the quality of light is any better using a fongdong LS pointed straight forward vs. direct bare flash. I did try this earlier this year and found the LS directly pointed had decent results.

In a dark room I did a test shot using f/4, 1/200, ISO 400 using my 580EXII w/ LS pointed straight forward and I required 1/64 manual mode to expose correctly. In this case I think that would conserve battery power. I could be wrong since this is only a test shot vs. a night of shooting.

I'm hoping to learn something from this thread because I wonder if others can chime in with there experiences using a small softbox on flash.

tim wrote in post #8703409
I don't follow your logic. Any diffuser wastes light, the fong dong more than most since it throws light everywhere rather than just in the direction you need it. Because of this the fong dong makes for slower recharge times and less flashes per set of batteries. Running manual makes little difference as you'll have to increase the flash power to compensate for the diffuser.

(This bit isn't a comment on Alan)

When people think about lighting you have to think about where the light's coming from, the direction it's going, and where it's going to go after it hits the diffuser. Think about light as a particle. It leave the flash head from an area perhaps 10cm square, headed generally toward the diffuser. It hits various parts of the diffuser, and because it doesn't come from a point source hits different parts of the diffusers and goes in different directions. Lighting is all about the angles and the physics.

AlanU wrote in post #8704707
My logic may be a tad off but earlier in my post I suggested to point the flash forward with the lightsphere on . Its substantially larger than a stofen. I hate direct flash but sometime theres no alternative (except your crafty remote "cross flash" setup). I think I'm gonna experiment to see if the quality of light is any better using a fongdong LS pointed straight forward vs. direct bare flash. I did try this earlier this year and found the LS directly pointed had decent results.

In a dark room I did a test shot using f/4, 1/200, ISO 400 using my 580EXII w/ LS pointed straight forward and I required 1/64 manual mode to expose correctly. In this case I think that would conserve battery power. I could be wrong since this is only a test shot vs. a night of shooting.

I'm hoping to learn something from this thread because I wonder if others can chime in with there experiences using a small softbox on flash.

A small soft box would be more efficient and give much the same light.

I've used both the Fong, and the westcott micro apollo softbox. The softbox was much more efficient and gave better light in rooms where there was no place to bounce. The light from the micro apollo is softer than direct, but still rather harsh compared to bounce or a bigger softbox. Pointing the Fong forward doesnt make much sense to me as you are aiming the smallest surface of the thing at your subject, the dome is designed to reflect light back into the device to be spread out the sides, a majority of which would be wasted aimed that direction. With it up you would have a bigger surface and more light aimed straight at the subject.