I'm in the market for a New TTL hot shoe Flash for my Olympus, and I have noticed some of them (Not many of the powerful one's unfortunatly!) have a small fill flash built into the body for bounce fill. Since I'm interested in bouncing myself, I'm wondering if this addition is of great value when not shooting direct, it seems to me it would be, as without it you would need some sort of reflector to fill. Any opinions from bounce shooters would be appreciated.
I have never used a flash with a built in fill light, so I can not help with that. I use a nice adjustable reflector that has lots of flexibility in the way it is used. Look at the FlipIt line of adjustable strap on reflectors made by Demb. He has examples of use on his web site. These can get your fill higher and from a larger source of light, which is helpful. They can also be used as the main light when there is nothing to bounce off of, so your get the same benifits of raising the light source and increasing the size of the source. I am very happy with the products, and they are very portable also compared to some other designs.
That is a nice accessory Roland, I may get one of them for times when I can't find a light color wall, but I'm thinking of something for filling in those full wall bounce shots, it seems that little extra speedlight on the flash body might be the only answer.
The flashes with flash fill secondary source are not the solution they seem to be! Wedding pros who used Metz flashes with film cameras quickly discovered that, while the bounce flash gave nice light with reduced shadows, the fill 'wink' light was a tiny light source which cast harsh shadows!.
It is better to bounce up with the main head, and to use a forward reflector to cast the light which is seen as catchlights in your subjects' eyes. A Lumiquest ProMax or Lumiquest 80-20 are examples.
Thanks Wilt, I had heard something about that! Looks like most of my choice's will not include that option anyway! While I'm on the subject of speedlites, When a Flash manufacturer states their Model XLX-602 is for Canon, Olympus, or whatever camera ..does that mean all three of those cameras TTL systems will work right out of the box with that flash model? or is there a seperate Module or Program for each camera brand.
Image1 wrote:
What about using a diffusion sheet on the wink Light?
That would depend on how far from the light you could get the diffusion material.
Contrary to what some would have you believe, soft light cannot be created simply by placing a material directly in front of a light; it's enlarging the relative size of the light that causes it to be soft. That's why bouncing off a wall creates soft light, and why a soft box does: the size of the light relative to the subject is increased by many times.
You can test this for yourself:
1) Take a common table lamp, remove the lamp shade, and place the lamp in the middle of a room.
2) Place an object like a vase of flowers or a statuette against a wall, with only the bare bulb of the lamp is lighting it, and examine the shadows.
3) Now, get a large piece of waxed paper or other translucent material and put it between the lamp and the object.
4) Move the diffuser closer to and further from the lamp, and note how the quality of the light changes: it will be hardest when the diffuser is closest to the bulb, and softest when it is closest to the subject.
In general, snap-on / clip-on "diffusers" don't do anything but waste light when used as a direct source; they may scatter the light wider, but the direct rays that are falling on your subject are still coming from too-small an area, and so are too parallel to have any more softness than the unmodified light did.
I said "in general" because if they're used in a small room there will be some additional fill from scattered light bouncing off the room surfaces; but a modifier that was designed to cast such bounced light -- like a Demb Flip-It! or a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce would do a better job than a little sheet or lens placed directly against the flash head.
KellyJerod wrote:
...When a Flash manufacturer states their Model XLX-602 is for Canon, Olympus, or whatever camera ..does that mean all three of those cameras TTL systems will work right out of the box with that flash model? or is there a seperate Module or Program for each camera brand.
It depends on the particular model of flash: some have different models in the same line that are dedicated to a particular brand of camera (this is the most common these days), but some have interchangeable modules for the dedication.
So in the former case a Canon user might get the XLX-602C and a Nikon user would get the XLX-602N, for example.
In the latter case, one would order an XLX-602, and also a CDM-602C module for Canon or a CDM-602N module for Nikon. If you change cameras, you can keep the main flash unit and just order a new module, usually at lower cost than a new flash unit complete.
Thank you all so much for your professional advice, I have a much clearer picture of what I need to look into before buying. I have one more question but I think it would be better if I make a new Topic for it, I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with a Flash name (Zeikos ZE-FL70 Professional Digital SLR Camera Flash) and if it's known for any real troubles. Thanks Again Kelly
