Flash brackets

Gonetae

Gonetae

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Tommy
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Ello folks, I'm curious about flash brackets and I can't seem to get my head around how useful they may be. I've been toying with the idea of buying one and a flash lead but does it really make that much difference just moving the flash a few inches to the side? I'm probably missing something really obvious and as you can no doubt guess I'm very much a beginner to the lighting side of things.

I'd love it if you could fill me in on what difference they make and for what situations they are best used.

Tommy.
 
This is a popular one. Loads of different suppliers on ebay, I just picked one at random. Just do a search for 'flash bracket'.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Flash-Rotatin...s_JN?hash=item43992cd0dc&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I have one and it lives on one of my cameras. Useful is not the word. Essential is the real word for one of these. They allow you to quickly switch between portrait and landscape mode whilst keeping the flash above the lens.

I dropped a 5D at a wedding last weekend from about 4 feet with one of these and a flash attached. Without this I would have been looking at a damaged lens and camera. The bracket took all the impact and despite a bend in the bottom of the bracket continued working.

Don't leave home without one and a 'Carex' diffuser.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=151813

John
 
Thanks for that John, how does the effect of the flash differ from being mounted on a bracket, that's what I'm really struggling to understand. Does the slightly greater angle from a bracket mounted flash towards the subject make a lot of difference from one mounted on the hotshoe?

Tommy.
 
shadows behind the subject is one thing i'd say .if you take a picture of someone in portrait with the flash on the hotshoe you get a horrible shadow to one side , but if its on a bracket and above the lens ,not as bad
 
The older style side mounted brackets were really meant for cameras that did not allow a hotshoe mounted flash (older medium format and some earlier DSLR) and where the size of the camera and the top mounted flash would have been unwieldy to say the least. It was a quick way of getting the flash off the the camera and reducing red-eye and in many cases the only way of having a flash at all but can give heavy side shadows and does not lend itself as easily to rotation between portrait and landscape mode. It did give you a nice easy way of carrying the camera though.

The bracket I linked to raises the flash another 3 inches (give or take) above the hotshoe (once you have your cord adapter in place) and this reduces red-eye significantly. It is also far easier to switch between portrait and landscape mode giving you a lot more flexibility when shooting.

Unless you are shooting medium format without a flash hot shoe then I would not bother getting a flash arm. I would get the rotating bracket instead.

John
 
I bought the Nikon SK6a power bracket and it definately made a difference having a side mounted speedlight in some situations. However, after reading an article I've recently bought a Stroboframe pro folding flip bracket - this piece of kit is worth it's weight in gold and it now goes everywhere with me. It 'flips' arounf when you move from Landscape to portrait view and is everything the SK6 should have been. I haven't used the SK6 since.
 
I have a Stoboframe Pro T bracket permanently fitted to my camera for wedding work. It is a fantastic piece of kit and ensures that the flash is in line and above the lens meaning that shadows fall behind the person. I simply turn the arm on the bracket when switching from landscape to portrait format meaning that the flash is always correctly aligned with lens.
Highly recommended.
 
Hi Tommy,
Well I suppose it depends on what your shooting.
In my case I use a Kirk ext flash bracket with either a 300mm or 500mm lens,
which places the flash about 300-400mm above the lens.
If I try to use flash without it the birds (mainly owls ) come out with horrible steely blue eyes or terrible red-eye. That is with a Better Beamer as well.
What or who are you photographing.
C
 
what about...

3781221183_cd6e35c6af_m.jpg
 
I'm usually photographing the bride and groom as I do weddings.
 
I'm usually photographing birds/wildlife but would like to try my hand a bit more portrait type stuff also.

Graham, that looks pretty funky is that the type you are selling in the classifieds atm?

Tommy.
 
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