Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

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jzucker
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p.1 #1 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

Was all the rage a few years ago. Just wondering ...

Aug 21, 2012 at 07:00 PM

BrianO
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p.1 #2 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

A lot of the wedding photographers I know use BB.

I don't have a BB-capable flash, so I simulate it with a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce cap on my Speedlite. When doing the "getting ready" shots in the bride's dressing room I find it really helpful for getting a lot of soft bounce fill into the shot while still having some directionality from the direct beams.

If Sunpak 120js were still available new I'd get one in a heartbeat. Since they're not, and since Quantum Q-flashes are so pricey, I'm holding out until I get a battery-powered monolight or something along those lines.

Aug 21, 2012 at 08:31 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #3 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

Thanks Brian. We've been doing some experimenting with using a DLite2 without a reflector. Haven't used it on a gig yet though.

Aug 21, 2012 at 08:39 PM

dmward
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p.1 #4 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

Biggest draw back for me with BB was the color balance issue from all the light bouncing off all the colors.

That said, I routinely bounce my speedlite and block the light from hitting the subject directly. So still have the color balance problems.

Although AWB seems to handle it well.

Aug 21, 2012 at 08:48 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #5 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

why would you block the bb from hitting the subject? That's the main point of bb.

[edit] nevermind, I understand what you're saying. Sorry.

Aug 21, 2012 at 09:05 PM

BrianO
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p.1 #6 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

jzucker wrote: why would you block the bb from hitting the subject? That's the main point of bb.

Actually, that's one point of BB. Like most tools in photogrpahy, the uses are only limited by your imagination.

Using a BB flash or strobe as a multi-directional bounce source, while preventing direct light on the subject, is used fairly often in multi-light location shoots.

Aug 21, 2012 at 09:18 PM

wilt
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p.1 #7 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

If you stop and think about it, products like Stofen and Fong have actually allow speedlights to mimic the light provided by bare bulb capable portable units (Quantum, Norman, Lumedyne, others) with removeable reflectors !

And there are many folks using those plastic products (although not always in the most appropriate situations!)

Aug 23, 2012 at 05:08 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #8 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

not sure I agree about the fong products. I don't think they spread the light nearly as much as a bare bulb. The light coming out of those speedlites is like a fresnel lens and the only way to really get that light to spread 360 degrees would be to shoot it backwards into an umbrella or to use a bounch dish like the beauty dishes have. In the white, transluscent fong adapters that fit over the fresnel portion of the speedlight, the light is still quite directional.

Aug 23, 2012 at 05:14 PM

BrianO
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p.1 #9 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

jzucker wrote: not sure I agree about the fong products. I don't think they spread the light nearly as much as a bare bulb. ...the light is still quite directional.

You've tested this?

Aug 23, 2012 at 07:19 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #10 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

BrianO wrote:
jzucker wrote: not sure I agree about the fong products. I don't think they spread the light nearly as much as a bare bulb. ...the light is still quite directional.

You've tested this?

yes, and additionally, you lose a huge amount of power with the fong adapter

Aug 23, 2012 at 07:45 PM

BrianO
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p.1 #11 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

jzucker wrote: not sure I agree about the fong products. I don't think they spread the light nearly as much as a bare bulb. ...the light is still quite directional.

BrianO wrote: You've tested this?

jzucker wrote: yes...

That's interesting; I'd like to see some test data and/or test images.

I use the Omni-Bounce, but I tested the Fong Lightsphere II. In my tests I found that due to its omnidirectional projection sometimes there wasn't enough direct light on the subject (as you mention, it absorbes a lot of light) unless the accessory internal "kicker" reflector (ChromeDome) was added.

Aug 23, 2012 at 08:05 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #12 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

i have the stofen omni and the fong lightsphere. The lightsphere actually works pretty well on closeups as a mainlight if the sphere is rotated 90 degrees from the subject but of course you lose about 3 stops of light and with a 430 that doesn't project very far. It doesn't fit my 580 which is annoying. Wish they had made the design more universal.

I have images from them somewhere but I long ago abandoned them and now use a studio flash, a 39" octobox and a vagabond battery. The reason I was asking about barebulb is that I recently got the small elinchrom dlite2 and with the reflector off, it's very portable. We're going to take it along and do some test shots with it this weekend using it as a barebulb but it's a round, circular flash tube and not a light bulb style flash tube like you traditionally see for barebulb but i don't think that matters much.

Aug 23, 2012 at 08:39 PM

BrianO
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p.1 #13 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

jzucker wrote: ...The reason I was asking about barebulb is that I recently got the small elinchrom dlite2 and with the reflector off, it's very portable. We're going to take it along and do some test shots with it this weekend using it as a barebulb but it's a round, circular flash tube and not a light bulb style flash tube like you traditionally see for barebulb but i don't think that matters much.

I agree. I used a D-Lite i.t. last summer, and it appeared as though the modeling light were the source if you looked at it during firing. (Not recommended except at lowest power!) It seems as though the ring-shaped tube is close enough to the modeling light's base that it's firing much of its output through it. Maybe not a true point source, but close enough.

Have fun this weekend!

Aug 23, 2012 at 08:59 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #14 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

we usually pull out the modeling light though because the light doesn't work properly with the vagabond if the modeling light is toggled on and because it's a soft switch if you forget and leave the switch on when you try to turn on the light connected to the vagabond it acts kind of scary. Therefore, I learned very quickly not to take the modeling light when using the elinchrom's on location.

Aug 23, 2012 at 10:40 PM

wilt
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p.1 #15 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

I did say, "products like Stofen and Fong have actually allow speedlights to mimic the light provided by bare bulb ", I made absolutely no comment about how well they mimic, about efficiency loses, etc. Not defending them, not endorsing them (heaven forbid).

They do mimic bare bulb...light goes in all directions (360 degree arc about the position of the light; upward and some downward (though not directly down)

Aug 24, 2012 at 12:28 AM

jzucker
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p.1 #16 · Anyone using bare-bulb for fill flash on location anymore?

but in bare bulb the light intensity is uniform in all directions of the arc. With stofen and fong, the light coming out of the front of the unit is the strongest and the light coming out in the 360 degree arc is the weakest. I have found that the fong unit turned 90 degrees away from the subject works really nicely at close range (corroborating your point somewhat) but it is extremely inefficient.

Aug 24, 2012 at 12:45 AM

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