Personal Magnetism For the Speedlight Shooter - Mag Mod

Dang. Someone invented the better lighting mousetrap - and now presumably are having to resurface the pathway up to their door in anticipation of increased traffic.

Mag Mod have finally made a set of speed light modifiers that are worth using. The secret of their appeal is no secret - they have unique shapes and they attach to the speed light flash guns easily.

Note: easily. Also firmly. Firmly, as in use them in the rough and tumble of professional shooting and not have them fall off. And no more velcro bands or sticky tape panels.

The basic unit is a rubber adapter housing that stretches over the head of your speedlight. I used a Fujifilm EF-42 but I daresay the ban would go on any Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Olympus, Leica, or Nissan flashes just as easily. It's a darned sight tighter than any velcro band ever was.

On the outer edges of this band are imbedded small but powerful magnets. All the accessories that stick to the front of the adapter do so by means of their own magnets - so the things stick together fiercely. I tried to wobble the assembly apart by thrashing the speed light around in my hand and did not succeed in dislodging it one bit.

Okay, what can you stick on the front?

a. Basic 40º grid. Add another on and it becomes 20º. Add a third and it goes to 20º. Add a third...

b. A gel holder. They make sets of polycarbonate gels that last far better than the thin things on velcro. Colour correction or wild creatives in different sets.

c. A dome - looking like a soft goldfish bowl, and lighter than competing said bowls, it makes an instant bare-bulb look for diffusion. It's got a holder slot for those gels we mentioned so you don't necessarily need to stack the gel holder on too.

d. A big white rubber scoop. You swivel the flash head up and clap on the scoop. Some of the light goes out the back and fills the shot - most of the light goes out the front and illuminates the subject.

Coolest feature is the fact that Mag Mod have included two sets of magnets on the scoop - you can rotate the flash head of your speed light 90º to the right, attach the scoop looking forward, and then just swivel that head up and down as you move from landscape to portrait orientation. This looks like wedding and event shot heaven.

Here it is in operation out on the road:

e. The attachment that looks like the shift lever boot from a 1965 Pontiac or an Art Deco plumber's plunger is really an adjustable snoot. Fold the sections in and the area of illumination grows larger - pop them out and it becomes smaller. Be prepared for silly comments from the crowd.

Now there is more coming, and we'll detail it as soon as it arrives. Think Tele-Vorsatz and wide-angle panel and gobos to start with.

The strobists amongst you really owe it to yourselves to come in and see the Mag Mod.

See the Mag Mod range online on the Camera Electronic website here

Ooh - Look At All The Coloured Lights!

1960's and 1970's - heyday of the coloured gel in the studio. With the new flash systems you could put a piece of extremely expensive cellophane in front of the and fire them off and get funky effects. We knew they were funky because we saw them in advertisements in German magazines. A lot of us weren't exactly sure what funky meant, but...

Reel forward ( Reel? I will explain reels to you later children, once the arthritis medicine kicks in.) to now and the necessity of applying delicate touches of colour to studio work. See the heading illustration. All major flash makers produce some form of gel holder for their light shapers - generally it will clip onto the front of a standard reflector:

You can enclose the gel in a cardboard frame or you can slip it in there palin. What you cannot do is slip in a piece of cheap newsagency cellophane over a modelling light (I'll explain cellophane children, as soon as the gout medicine ramps up.) as it will melt, catch fire, or start twerking. You have to use real gels designed to withstand heat.

Enter the Rosco Gels. Here are a variety of them in convenient packets. You can get colour correction, violent tints, diffusion sheets, or theatre colours. Better still, I see the Rosco people can also supply the stuff in rolls - 48 inches wide and 100 square feet on he roll. This means you could gel a soft box as easily as you could do it on a standard reflector. The big rolls are a special order through us but the small packets are in-store now.

One thing to remember with gels. Too much is rarely enough.