Umbrellas, reflectors etc - flash questions...

Viking

Anyone who can point me to a direction where I can learn myself how to use bouncers, reflectors and Unbrellas in my photography? I need to get myself equipment to get softer light on my portraits.


Thinking of getting myself a Sb800 flash, a stand and a Umbrella to bounce the flash in, while I am "on location". I need it to be light. Im not a strong man. :-)

Please help me out.

Have a nice day

Bodwick

Viking wrote:

Anyone who can point me to a direction where I can learn myself how to use bouncers, reflectors and Unbrellas in my photography? I need to get myself equipment to get softer light on my portraits.


Thinking of getting myself a Sb800 flash, a stand and a Umbrella to bounce the flash in, while I am "on location". I need it to be light. Im not a strong man. :-)

Please help me out.

Have a nice day

Here is a 4 part article you may find useful.

Try searching google or yahoo and see what you come up with. There must be loads of articles.

Stormdancing

Viking wrote:

Anyone who can point me to a direction where I can learn myself how to use bouncers, reflectors and Unbrellas in my photography? I need to get myself equipment to get softer light on my portraits.


Thinking of getting myself a Sb800 flash, a stand and a Umbrella to bounce the flash in, while I am "on location". I need it to be light. Im not a strong man. :-)

Please help me out.

Have a nice day

See this very good tutorial written by Shay Stephens HERE

Viking

How do I know how mutch power to use in the flash?

Shay Stephens

Viking wrote:

How do I know how mutch power to use in the flash?

That depends on how much light you need to expose your image. At the very least, you can take a picture and review how it looks and check the histogram, then make the flash brighter or darker as needed.

A better, faster, and more reliable method is to meter the flash output directly with a flash meter. You can read a bit about them and their usage here:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/meters.shtml
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1025&message=8206126

Mitchell

Viking wrote:

How do I know how mutch power to use in the flash?

What camera are you using? I assume you have one of the newer Nikon DSLRs if you are contemplating an SB800 purchase. If so, you can use the great Nikon CLS to wirelessly control your off camera flash for both trigger and exposure.
I've had some luck using an off camera SB 800 fired into an umbrella for some home portraits of my daughter. Just ask!

Viking

how do i know where to place the flash w umbrella?

Bodwick

Viking wrote:

how do i know where to place the flash w umbrella?

Did you read the articles 1 through 4 I mentioned above?

Viking

How near the person does the flash w stand and umbrella if I use this setup with a Sb800?

Shay Stephens

That's like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. Just try it! So many things depend on your scene, settings, desired outcome, etc.

The closer the light is to the subject, the lower the power output needs to be. And if using an umbrella, the closer you get, the softer the light becomes (i.e. the shadow transitions are more gradual).

Now, no more talk, start shooting

Viking wrote:

How near the person does the flash w stand and umbrella if I use this setup with a Sb800?

Mitchell

Shay Stephens wrote:

That's like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. Just try it! So many things depend on your scene, settings, desired outcome, etc.

The closer the light is to the subject, the lower the power output needs to be. And if using an umbrella, the closer you get, the softer the light becomes (i.e. the shadow transitions are more gradual).

Now, no more talk, start shooting

I agree with Shay (although I'm more subtle). Let's see some pics already! Then we can critique and make some suggestions about lighting placement, flash settins, etc...

USAIR

So how many licks does it take

Fred