Outdoor On-Flash Diffuser

[Cadnium]

Hi All,

I know it is a bit of a controversial topic, but I was wondering what most people would use for shooting outdoors at dusk/night time to improve the lighting quality from their flash? I am doing some shooting as an amateur for an upcoming event which runs from 5pm-9pm and was planning on pairing my 70-200f/4l with my 580ex-ii.

I have not done much outdoor flash photography; I have mainly been practicing indoors. For indoors I have been using a sto-fen with a custom made better-bounce-card and generally shooting at a 45deg angle or so to get the balance of bounce-to-direct flash. It works ok indoors, but I am not so sure it will work outdoors.

At a wedding on the weekend I noticed the professionals using two different methods - one shot straight on with their 580ex-ii and simply used the inbuilt bounce card and the wide angle diffuser whilst the other shot straight on with an e-bay translucent diffuser a bit like a standard 1 stop diffuser to create shade when in direct sunlight. The convenience of these methods was pretty appealing.

I really want to be able to shoot in E-TTL with my flash mounted straight on my camera; an I understand that I will be dragging the shutter for ambient but just wanted some thoughts on what to put on the flash head (if anything) to soften the light.

Thanks for any advice.

Cadnium

[kiwi]

I have some mini soft boxes that have some effect, you can also use a fong......but I'm not sure any of them make a significant difference outdoors

[reaction]

Every professional I've seen at a wedding has used the inbuilt bounce card and pointing straight up bouncing off the sky.
I really don't know why, and would love to hear a professional its use. Maybe the inbuilt bounce card is weaker than direct at 1/128? But I'm sure their ETTL systems are going crazy.
I've never seen a professional at a wedding or prep (indoors) using any kind of diffuser.

[kiwi]

I see stofen's all the time pointed direct indoors and outdoors, and what youve described too (which also seems to be a waste of time - perhaps its just so that the flash is active if you then actually do want to use it for fill etc, I dunno)

[flame70]

I love my Fong

[Cadnium]

Thanks for the replies guys. It is kinda like what I was thinking... from a technical viewpoint I can't really see how anything that doesn't make the flash 'bigger' in respect to the subject will help.

I am actually thinking that I might go and order one of the Rogue Flashbenders or similar as this atleast to me should if shot at 45deg with it bent over the flash should be able to make the head appear bigger and hence softer. If nothing else I can always just use it to replace my quickly degrading home-made 'better bounce card' which is looking worse for wear.