DIY Gary Fong Lightsphere

[Kym]

Bump - as the Fong has come up in discussion (again)

[Topgunn]

Thanks for bumping this Kym

[Wayne]

The SB800(and 900) come with a diffuser dome, which then aoutomagically set the flash zoom setting to 14mm in width. So the flash aoutmatically spreads the light more evenly. Sometimes(last time at my sisters house shoot) I remember I didnt; want that, I wanted the light to be more concentrated, but still soft and diffused, and I had to adjust the elevation of the flash head, as well as slightly unclip the diffuser dome(to undo the 14mm fixed zoom setting) and it worked kind of OK.

Put the diffuser dome on upside down, it clips on fine and won't throw the unit to set 14mm.

[hongbongkid]

Thanks for the views and insights guys! I've played around with bouncing and creating my own diffusers too, but never really thought about bouncing off other items, i.e. poles etc. I shall never throw away bubble wrap again! Love Rog's idea of the GF!!! lol

[jheeno]

Hello All,
First time poster, long time reader.

I am an amateur that recently purchased a speedlite and wanted to practice bounce flashing.

My main purpose is to bounce flash indoors typically in a poor lit room (ie inside a restaurant and the lights will generally be dim).

Secondly I with the photos I took, I wanted to take shots that are zoomed out so I can freely crop later on during post processing.

At first I just wanted to buy a sto fen omni bounce and a gary fond light sphere and be done with it.

When I googled gary fong light sphere I cam across this thread.

Since I wanted to further practice on my bounce flashing, I decided to take on the challenge of this DIY.

In total it has cost me $20 and I can probably make another 10 more with that $20 so allot of extra materials.

Velco is from any $2 shop and the other materials were purchased from Bunnings.

Here is what the mess currently looks like after making my first prototype





and my first test piece

[jheeno]

bear with me as I edit my test photos as it might take 10-20 minutes for my subsequent posts.

Heres what it looks like on my camera at ETTL 2 settings and also at full power

Camera is a canon 7d, Tamron 17-50 2.8 lens and a using a speedlite 430exii.
All shots used the following settings f4, iso 100.
Flash shots using shutter speed 1/160 in manual mode evaluative metering, f4, iso 100.
non flash shots using aperture priority, shutter watever the camera recommended, f4, iso 100.

[jheeno]

First photo I took was what the room appeared to look like through my eyes so lighting from the window was okay.

second shot is a direct shot, third shot was bounced on the ceiling and the fourth was bounced through the right.
1.


2.


3.


4.



Now the next set will be with my DIY light sphere

[jheeno]

Now with the DIY attachment on the flash
Pic 1-3 are bounced to the ceiling but the head rotated at several positions. Not much difference.
Pic 4 is a direct flash shot using ettl2 and estimating distance too.

1.


2.


3.


4.

[jheeno]

ok so I made a variant and the next test shots are more tighter now

[jheeno]

First column direct, second column bounced from the ceiling

First row no diffuser

Second row the diffused from the DIY above

Third row is the cylindrical shaped diffuser

Thanks everyone for looking.

Generally ill be using one of the diffusers i've made but I'll keep doing test shots to make me decide on which i'll use and put in my camera bag

[pollen]

In the situation shown by test shots, based on your results, there is no perceptible benefit whatsoever from using the diffuser device - why persist with it?

[jheeno]

In the situation shown by test shots, based on your results, there is no perceptible benefit whatsoever from using the diffuser device - why persist with it?

tested it on a person's face and the diffused light does make a difference (on the persons skin tones)
but not as dramatic as what is shown in the following links

http://www.nikonians.org/html/resour...ere/index.html

http://www.garyfongestore.com/lights...sible-370.html

[colinbm]

I have seen a white plastic grocery shopping bag used as a defuser, & it works very well.
Col

[pollen]

tested it on a person's face and the diffused light does make a difference (on the persons skin tones)
but not as dramatic as what is shown in the following links

http://www.nikonians.org/html/resour...ere/index.html

http://www.garyfongestore.com/lights...sible-370.html

No I mean between a bare bounce and using a bounce with a modifier