Flash diffuser for 430exii

Jungli

Jungli

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Hey tp'ers,

Family wedding vows renewal this weekend. Been asked to take some photos and I'm happy with that.

I want to get a flash diffuser for a bit later in the evening. The majority of the shoot will be on a boat, river Severn.

Weather helping, it'll be 4pm to 6pm on boat then at a local venue till late.

Should be OK for light till 6-7.

Just flash for the venue, I have the above flash.

Any recommendations on diffuser?
 
Jungli said:
Hey tp'ers,

Family wedding vows renewal this weekend. Been asked to take some photos and I'm happy with that.

I want to get a flash diffuser for a bit later in the evening. The majority of the shoot will be on a boat, river Severn.

Weather helping, it'll be 4pm to 6pm on boat then at a local venue till late.

Should be OK for light till 6-7.

Just flash for the venue, I have the above flash.

Any recommendations on diffuser?
Click to expand...

For events, I don't bother with diffusers or the foamy things. The diffusers are useless, they are too small to have any effect all they do is drain your battery faster. The foamy things are better but not great. My usual approach is to pick the widest aperture to still the subjects in focus, expose for the background, with as slow shutter speed as I can get away with, and then add fill flash using ETTL with an adjustment of -1 or so.
 
Thanks Tim/F1.2/troutfisher.

@TimHughes - Do you use second curtain flash?
 
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TimHughes said:
There are some porky pies in this video. 300% increase in apparent size of something small is still small. Equivalent to a 36-inch umbrella, no chance. Having an impact on that huge group photo? I had to stop watching. @Garry Edwards thoughts?
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Yes, one of my pet hates is deceptive videos, designed to mislead people. The makers know that their victims don't have an even basic understanding of physics and rely on the fast talking and the fast changes of scene to stop people thinking about the wild claims that they've just heard.

Sadly, most of the promotional videos by manufacturers set out to deceive people, and it's even worse when they hire "influencers" to tell the lies on their behalf. They do it because it works:(
 
jromero said:
Ah, that's understandable. Here's a real review instead of an ad.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98nElS10JWo
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I made a DIY version of this. In my experience, it only has a benefit when you are really in someone's face so relative to their face it's a fair size. At event's I'm not taking photos like that, so just the regular speedlight, slightly underpowered to give some fill and a catch-light is all I need. And people love the results.
 
TimHughes said:
yes, always. and always short bursts in case of any blinks etc.
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There’s really no point in 2nd curtain unless you’re absolutely needing to show a direction of travel.

In fact if you’re using any kind of TTL you’re increasing the risk of capturing a blink, and you’re making your timing difficult.

If for instance @Jungli you’re wanting to photograph someone dancing but have a sharp ‘frozen’ image with some ambient exposed movement too. You wait till the moment you want frozen and press the shutter. The unpredictable movement is then captured as a lesser exposure (first curtain = predictable results). If that was 2nd curtain, you’ve no idea what the subject is gonna look like 1/15 of a second later (or later than that maybe).
And when shooting people; that precision matters.
 
Phil V said:
There’s really no point in 2nd curtain unless you’re absolutely needing to show a direction of travel.

In fact if you’re using any kind of TTL you’re increasing the risk of capturing a blink, and you’re making your timing difficult.

If for instance @Jungli you’re wanting to photograph someone dancing but have a sharp ‘frozen’ image with some ambient exposed movement too. You wait till the moment you want frozen and press the shutter. The unpredictable movement is then captured as a lesser exposure (first curtain = predictable results). If that was 2nd curtain, you’ve no idea what the subject is gonna look like 1/15 of a second later (or later than that maybe).
And when shooting people; that precision matters.
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good points - I choose it because if there is movement, I find the second curtain sync gives a more natural-looking result. I rarely use a shutter speed slower than 1/60th and always shoot short bursts of 3 or 4 images as there is always someone blinking. hope this makes sense.
 
Jungli said:
Morning thanks for all the advice @TimHughes @Garry Edwards @Phil V @jromero

I shall try, think using it just as a fill in flash will be the way to go.
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Depends on the space whether it’ll be ‘fill’.

For me though, simple manual underexposure of the ambient by about a stop or a bit less and a bounced flash is simple, subtle, doesn’t look ‘flashed’ and keeps a modicum of the ‘atmosphere’ of the venue.

My favourite bounce angle is to angle the flash head behind me to bounce off the join of the ceiling/wall behind me.
 
TimHughes said:
good points - I choose it because if there is movement, I find the second curtain sync gives a more natural-looking result. I rarely use a shutter speed slower than 1/60th and always shoot short bursts of 3 or 4 images as there is always someone blinking. hope this makes sense.
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I don’t know if this is just a ‘feeling’ Tim :)
2nd curtain doesn’t actually kick in to move the sync signal till 1/30 on canon (I’d presume similar on other brands).
 
Phil V said:
Depends on the space whether it’ll be ‘fill’.

For me though, simple manual underexposure of the ambient by about a stop or a bit less and a bounced flash is simple, subtle, doesn’t look ‘flashed’ and keeps a modicum of the ‘atmosphere’ of the venue.

My favourite bounce angle is to angle the flash head behind me to bounce off the join of the ceiling/wall behind me.
Click to expand...
I'm at college tonight and will try the flash settings in a controlled environment... it'll give me an idea.

Plus, I can pick the lecturer's brain.
 
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Phil V said:
I don’t know if this is just a ‘feeling’ Tim :)
2nd curtain doesn’t actually kick in to move the sync signal till 1/30 on canon (I’d presume similar on other brands).
Click to expand...
always good points Phil! with the R5 the min shutter speed is a bit faster and is the 1/60th that I'll use when in dark locations - https://cam.start.canon/ky/C003/manual/html/UG-03_Shooting-1_0110.html. I've kicked myself in the past for having first curtain and the impression of things moving backwards in the shot as a result I've got religion about making sure 2nd curtain is set "just in case" it will make the difference :)
 
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