Diffusers

K

Kaplow

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Im a complete novice when it comes to flash photography so please bear with me. I have volunteered to take part in a project at work which involves taking photo's for a department newspaper that will be distributed globally. This will involve taking portrait photos as part of the "Know your colleague/manager" article and also photographing social and sport events...and whatever else they throw at me...

I have ordered a Canon 580 EX II from Kerso which hopefully should arrive sometime this week and I have now started reading up on diffusers...I have been looking at some on Ebay but there are quite a few different types...Can someone please explain to me what the difference is between say a Stofen diffuser and a Gary Fong diffuser?...Do they all do the same thing?...I have read that the 580 EX II has some sort of diffuser built in is this effective enough?...

Any advice you could provide would be much appreciated

:thumbs:
 
The built in diffuser is of no real use at all. The stofen does do something but the fong is a fair bit better.

There is no reason not to get a copy though. :)
 
dazzajl said:
The built in diffuser is of no real use at all. The stofen does do something but the fong is a fair bit better.

There is no reason not to get a copy though. :)
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate?...What does the Stofen do? and why is the Fong a fair bit better?...They look very different in the Ebay pictures :thinking:

Thanks for your feedback BTW :thumbs:
 
OK, to waffle a bit more ;) both the fong and stofen are pretty small in terms of a light source. If you look at a softbox for example, it does what it does by emitting it's light from a large area and hence it doesn't create harsh shadows like a light from a point does.

The Fong does give you a light source about 3 or 4 times bigger than the stofen, so while neither are big, it's at least much bigger.

The copies you can buy seem to be every bit as good the the real fong, just a small fraction of the price.
 
I have the fake lightsphere. Its brilliant! even my mate who uses stoofen is amazed and said "that gary fong thing works great!" :)

The DIY plastic bowl is ugly-doesn't look professional, takes a long time and hard work to make, and it looks like it sucks a lot of flash power-just a guess, Though its a very genius idea. No offense intended to the person who posted it.
 
I've got both the Stofen and the Lighsphere ( All the way from HK. ) I use them both, depending on the result I want. The nice thing about the 'sphere is that you can put a small piece of aluminum foil in it to give a more directional light. Horse for courses
 
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