Getting Drunk And Using A Gary Fong Lightsphere

Okay. You're reading this. That headline got you. I knew it would. Read on and see what the connection is.

Note: if you are going to be all awkward about the drunk bit, substitute barley water and improving tracts if you wish - the Gary Fong advice still applies.

The Gary Fong Lightsphere is a device that has undergone a number of development changes. Early versions were made in two grades; clear and cloudy - and you had to pick the exact model to fit your speed light. Our shop had to stock about eight of them to service all customers. It was a beeping night- mare to get the right diffuser to the right customer.

Things have changed. Gary saw the light ( ! ) and got his factory mates to make a universal diffuser that not only fit all comers but was made in flexible plastic to fold down upon itself. It could be used for a whole new range of speed lights.

The basic idea of the Lightsphere is to fire the blast of flash light vertically into a roughly spherical translucent ball and let it spill out and make optical friends from there. If the flash was connected to a camera via some sort of TTL coupling, the light that spilled out of the front of the accessory illuminated the subject while the stuff that went out in an annular pattern and up to the ceiling  was weakened but still contributed to the look of the image. You got a softened effect on the main subject and adequate illumination of their surroundings. All in one shot with one flash on or near the camera. A real boon to event photographers who did not have the luxury of complex light set-ups.

Weddings. Dances. Concerts. Environmental portraits that have to be done with minimal preparation. Not perfect but better than straight blast-flash. Absolutely better than no-flash and f:1.4 and hope that it looks like art...

It is the equivalent of being drunk and still competent. You might not be able to operate a nuclear power station or do brain surgery but you can still turn on the lights or put on a band-aid.

And sometimes that is exactly what the situation requires. Gary Fong. Making people look good the easy way.

Steaming Through The Photos With The Gary Fong Lightsphere

The secrets of successful event photography are:

1. Go to interesting events.
2. Find interesting people.
3. Use a Gary Fong Lightsphere on your flash.
4. Pick the highest usable ISO that you are comfortable with.
5. Be close to the door when the fight starts.

N0. 5 usually only applies to weddings.

The other points are amply illustrated by last Saturday's visit to the Grand Steam Punk Affair Ball at the WA Museum. A night affair, and in a venue that had attractive and interesting lighting.  I set an ISO of 1200 on my Fujifulm X-100 camera and connected the Fujifilm EF42 flash with a TTL cable. I balanced it on my new Cullmann 622T tripod and started accosting strangers.

Note - everyone at a Steampunk ball is a stranger but some are stranger than others. As I was dressed as a Russian sailor* I fit right in...

The portrait of the gentleman in the startling hat - Gavin - is an illustration of the value of the Fong. It sits high over the lens axis on the camera and the shape of the diffuser means that there is an expanding ball of light with each exposure. It lights a face well without making a flat mask of it. Perfectly usable for weddings and outdoor portraits as well - it would be my first recommendation for all speed light work when people are involved.

But look closely at what the flash does with the background - in the first image Gavin is isolated in blackness - in the second he has the warm colours of the ball around him. The difference was setting the flash on the Fujifilm X-100 to "slow synchro". It let the shutter stay open a little longer to record the ambient light.

Note: balls and weddings and parties are close-range affairs. The initial use of the Fujifilm X-100 with the 23mm lens was fine but it got squeezy later on - so I screwed the WCL-100 wide angle converter onto the camera and there was space for all. Great event camera, the X-100 - no mis-focused or badly exposed files all evening.

Win.

* Ironclad Ship "Novgorod" ...Black Sea Fleet.

Moment Of Force In Photography

The term " moment of force "used to bother me in high school physics. Actually, sitting down in the classroom and opening a Physics text used to bother me, and everything thereafter was just the icing on the urinal cake. But one day it changed.

I was in shop class and trying to free a rusted nut with a crescent wrench. I applied great force on a short hold - to control the application of the force - and got nowhere. Then I lengthened the hold on the wrench and applied mild force - still no movement. Then I applied a great deal of force to the outer end of the wrench handle and was rewarded with the thing turning rapidly and delivering my knuckles to the nearest sharp surface. A lesson writ in blood...

So, having understood moment of force by the most practical means, I was able to diagnose an equipment failure last Saturday night and remedy it in time to save the job.

My rig was the trusty Nikon D300s with the Stroboframe Press-T bracket attached and an SB 700 flash on top of this. My standard flash rig for the last few years when I need to move around at a bellydance show. I can flip the flash from landscape to portrait mode and still have it positioned over the lens axis.

This time I decided to gild the lily and add the Gary Fong Lightsphere II to the mix to soften the light blast. It was to be indoors so the top of the Lightsphere was also needed.

All worked well for a while as I played paparazzi at the party, but halfway through the flash started playing up. Nikon flashes don't play up - they are mega-reliable - so when the thing missed firing intermittently I looked to see if there was another explanation. Sure enough, I had over-egged the pudding with the Lightsphere. Out there on the front of the flash, it was perfectly balanced when in the landscape mode, but once it was headed sideways in the portrait mode on the Press-T, the extra weight of it pulled the contacts for the flash away from the corresponding spots on the hot shoe....no flash.

The moment of force was too great for the flash and shoe contacts.

Moral of this is that it is either one or the other - the Press-T and a bare flash for chasing stage events or the SB 700 mounted directly on the camera with the Lightsphere for interiors and people event shots. I quickly demounted the bracket, shifted the flash to the camera shoe, did the Fong Shuffle, and carried right on. My thanks to the decorator of the country club who decided upon white walls and ceiling.

Well That'll Teach You...

See what you get for opening this blog on Monday morning. You'll know better next time.

My sentiments exactly when I went to a family party last Saturday. It was a cheerful affair - a 21st birthday - and things seem to have moved on somewhat form the 1960's. In this one the boys did eventually mingle with the girls. The girl guests were still better dressed and better looking than their male counterparts, but at least the strict segregation of sexes has been relaxed - no morre keg to stand around.

Where was I? Taking party photos with the D 300 in a dark cave of a restaurant in Cottesloe. SB700 on top, diffuser on the front, 400 ISO and TTL Bl. 1/125 of a second and f:8. It could not have been easier - push the victims together ( " Grip and Grin, Kids..") press the little button on the front of the handgrip, and look round the place to see where the girl with the tray of spring rolls had gotten to. Every. Picture. Worked.

I expected no less as the Nikon system has a seamless integration of the pre-flash, the camera computer, and the main shot. The little diffuser on the front of the SB 700 is not as good as a Gary Fong Lightsphere II but if you angle it a little it spreads things out. You will get enogh power from the flash for a good shot with a little of he ambient light as well - if you want more ambient, drop the shutter speed a couple of steps and open up a stop. Simple.

I found it sobering to watch some of the partytographers try to do the same thing. Equipment ranged from telephones to full-frame DSLR's , and the former more successful than the latter. I zeroed the settings on the DSLR and set it up for the lady who was using it but I am afraid she was not convinced that it was a good idea - she changed them all evening. I do not envy her the time she will spend on post-production...

Moral of this is simple - it is moral to be simple when the situation demands. Nothing is fully automatic, but you can set yourself up to be nearly so, and then just go and trust to your eye to find the subject. And make sure that you watch the kitchen door, because that is where the girls with the trays of food come from.

Under The Radar At A Wedding With Lightsphere

Please note the dome in the heading photograph. This is not the targeting guidance system for an Atlas E missile - though they are nice as well. It is a Gary Fong Lightsphere - in this case one of the collapsible ones. Beside it is a packet of gel filters made by Honl. They are the absolute bullet for event and wedding photographers.

Those of you who reel back in horror at the thought of a flash at a wedding - like M. Cartier-Bresson - are welcome to move further down the car. By all means ramp your ISO up and clap a 2.8 zoom to the front of your DSLR and hover over there in the shadows. I'm sure your photographs will be all the better for your artistic decision. I should de-saturate a few of them and tilt a horizon to provide variety. Remember to browse the salad bar at the reception...

I shall be running around in the meantime popping up out of prepared positions to ambush the bride with my camera and the flash attached. That'll be me down there at the front of the aisle as they exchange vows - look for the balding head and the occasional electrical discharge. Note that I will have the Fong Lightsphere firmly attached ( and it does attach firmly ) to my DSLR and a short zoom on the front. And I will be elbowing interlopers out of the way.

If the wedding is to be held in the warmth of a tungsten-lit church I will push one of the amber Honl filter gels down the throat of the Lightsphere to match the prevailing light. Likewise I will push in a slightly weaker amber if I am filling an outdoor shoot in the last hour of the day. My flash will be about the same as the sun then and the subsequent computer work will be so much easier.

If, horror of horrors, the wedding is in a filling station lit only by flickering fluorescent bulbs and the demonic eyes of the guests, I will substitute one of the green filters. Don't laugh - I once covered a wedding where the groom chased the bride through a burial ground with an axe. Nice colours. Nice axe.

The Lightsphere softens and spreads the flash so that there is s pretty good agreement between the illumination on the main subject and the stuff that filters through to the background. Of course you can force the flash to put out more or less light with the controls on the back - all flashes can do this to some extent - and you can force the light to spot the subject by your choice of positioning and distance, but generally you can set a ratio and then just chase the bride at will.

The amazing part of it is that even if you think that your flashes are disruptive, it is unlikely the happy couple will notice. I spoke with the bride from two weeks ago and she did not realise I was working as much as I was until she saw the video from another guest. Thats under the radar. Mind you, if I wanted to promote the brand I would have to have a sign on the back of my shirt advertising the studio to the wedding guests.

Colour Your World - with Honl

It is often tempting to colour a backdrop with our lighting systems - whether it is flash or steady , we have all been fascinated by the business of shining the light through something translucent and seeing what happens on the backdrop. If you pop a piece of coloured glass or cellophane in there you can get amazing tints. Tempts you to just keep one roll of paper on the back and change the appearance from the flash.


Well, if you are using a roll of backdrop paper that is white or very light grey, you may be disappointed with what you get. You can generally see a strong colour when you are  setting up the shot but when full power goes through the gel and records on the sensor surface, it can be nearly a complete washout. You see a little colour round edges or where there is some shadow, but very little else.

What you need is a mid neutral grey or even a black. These give some "tooth" for the gel to bite on and depending upon the level of lighting, you can get some very strong colours.

Honl make a number of small gel sets that can be attached onto most speedlights and you can choose Hollywood, Colour Correction, Deep Colour, Autumn...well you can match the foreground mood no matter what it is. They are not expensive, and are the best way to experiment with this form of illumination.

If you need to do bigger lights such as LED panels, or hot lights, you need Lee theatrical gels. These can also be bought in a large set, or ordered in rolls. Generally you have to make your own holder depending upon what sort of light housing is used. It is not hard - my studio has several sets that flop onto the front of Elinchrom lights and the holders are variously 1/8" ply or a couple of sheets of stiff cardboard. There's nothing quite like a hatchet lighting scheme with magenta and electric green to liven up a portrait. Add a smoke machine and a pile of plastic skulls and you have a wedding to remember. 

Uncle Dick's Feijoada

Well, it's that time of the week, folks. The icebox is full of leftovers and the only decent thing to do with them is put them all in the pot and heat it up.

1. Lens Bling - I kid you not. Thats the name of the product and you won't forget it as it will be staring you in the face every time you open your camera bag.

If you've got  bunch of lenses for your DSLR that sit face-down in the bag, all you see when you open it up is a line of similar back caps - you can be hard pressed to know which lens is which and you end up pulling each one out and staring at it before you find the right one. By then the HINDENBURG has settled to the ground and they are toasting marshmallows on the remains....

Lens Bling rear caps are indelibly lettered for whatever lens you have and are readily visible at a distance. Available in either Canon or Nikon fitting, they are a great dress-up idea as well as a practical step to organisation.

Come in and Bling.

2. Honl filter packs - these are not new but I just discovered a new use for them that solves a problem for pro shooters.

A lot of us use diffusers on the end of our speed lights - different ones depending upon the shoot circumstances. I have recently started to use the Gary Fong Collapsible Lightsphere and am very happy with it for weddings. Soft, even lighting and it helps to take into account the lighting in the backdrop as well.

Imagine my annoyance at being faced with a light environment markedly different from what i proposed to shoot out of my speed light - it was a dear old church with massive stained-glass windows that illuminated the participants well but did so with a wildly yellow tint. I cast about to find some way to meld the flash and the daylight. Fortunately I had a packet of the Honl light correction gels in the bag. In this case instead of velcro-ing them onto the front of the light, I put on the Fong and crammed ( technical term...) the gel in over the tube. A couple of test shots to see which strength was best and away we went.

The good thing is it is easy to cram or hoik ( another technical term) these gels in and out as you move outside or into other mixed lighting. For ghoul weddings you use strong green and for goth weddings a solid black does it...

3. Father's Day - I have been a father for 34 years and have the ties to prove it; some have even been worn. This year I have scored a Wacom Bamboo tablet for the laptop and a ticket to a musical show.

You might do as well, if you get cracking and start to guilt the kiddies and the wife right now about the coming day. Toss out the Big W flyers as they hit the door or you will be facing more socks and jocks. Likewise the adverts from places that sell tin bar signs and cheap pewter flasks. Go to our online shop and pick out what you REALLY want and let them know. It is wise to give them alternatives, so if you are hoping for a lens, list a couple of big ones, and a new DSLR body as well as the one you really expect to get - then it does not look like such a difficult task. For heaven's sake tell them clearly which camera system you use - write it clearly for them; on their little foreheads with a texta if necessary.

Try to act surprised when you get the box. If it is heavy and does not rattle you are into paydirt. If it is filled with plain dirt, you might consider how things are going at home.

4. Zacuto - just a heads-up. We've got a new batch of Zacuto Z-Pro finders in.

Move Over Sliced Bread

Actually, this is better than sliced bread - I mean the Gary Fong Collapsible Lightsphere. I've been selling them and their predecessors for years to the customers and I finally worked up the courage and curiosity to sell one to me. For real money. Did I get value?

You bet your aperture I did. I've just completed the experiment of setting up a do-it-yourself photo booth at a dinner I attended this weekend. I placed the Lightsphere on top of a Nikon SB 700, on top of a Stroboframe Press T bracket, on top of a Nikon D300. A dear old 20mm lens sat on front and a radio trigger hooked into the command port of the camera. I set it on a sturdy tripod in front of a green screen and invited the punters to take their own picture - any way they liked.

Of course as the evening wore on the poses became a little looser, but the joyous thing was the fact that right from the start the Lightsphere did as good a job of even illumination - with a little top modelling - as anything I have seen. As good as a big umbrella or beauty dish.

I know - I cheated beforehand and tried out all the above combinations in my studio. All I really needed was the Lightsphere with the top open up above the lens axis. The fact that this also meant the whole arrangement sat on only one pair of legs was a bonus - if people are going to be moving around in semi-darkness you need to obstruct them as little as possible.

The real eye-opener of the evening was the big group shot at the end. We just swivelled the camera out from the stage to see the party revellers and dialled in +1 stop extra power on the flash. The result was a hall fully illuminated without blowing out the front subjects and all in one shot. As I had the radio remote in my own hands at this point, guess who got to be the center of the picture? You be the judge...

And, yes, it is a wig...