Happy with GF Lightsphere

Jeff Fillmore

Took the Gary Fong Lightsphere to a wedding I was a guest at last weekend- I kind of liked the results. Here are a few from the reception- All shot w/ D80 + 28-70/2.8 & SB-800.

Scott_Quier

The GFLS does a good job smoothing out the light. I have one of these and have also done good with it, getting results almost as nice as you have here.

These are nice photos. I would check the exposure (1/2 or 2/3 of a stop) and there seems to be a color cast on some of them. But, if you shot RAW, all the above is easlily fixed.

Mitchell

Good use of the GFLS on these. I just can't get past what a dork I look like with this on my flash to actually use it in public!

billgovier

gdad wrote:

Took the Gary Fong Lightsphere to a wedding I was a guest at last weekend- I kind of liked the results. Here are a few from the reception- All shot w/ D80 + 28-70/2.8 & SB-800.

Have you seen "The Better Bounce Card"? http://www.abetterbouncecard.com/
Weighs practically nothing and cost next to nothing. I have my Gary Fong in the junk drawer. Guess i should put it on EBay!:D

pyrtek

billgovier wrote:

Have you seen "The Better Bounce Card"? http://www.abetterbouncecard.com/

I tried reading that site, but I didn't get too far because I was blinded :wow by all
the EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!! and italics and CRAZY ASS HUGE FONTS!!!!

billgovier

Yes, the site needs some work.
But the product rules!

Scott_Quier

Yes, I agree with the over-enthusiastic use of font size and color and the exclaimation marks. But, it's worth the effort - view a couple of the videos. Very interesting idea. I've actually built a couple of these (four actually, gave two away) and have found them to be quite useful.

Cuties02q

I actually just bought a GF but I haven't tried it yet. I also have the better bounce card and I love it

dogwood

Fun foam-- better (and more durable) than the better bounce card, a whole lot cheaper ($2-3) than GF LS and more efficient to boot.

Oh yeah-- it packs flat too. Search "fun foam" over on dpreview on the lighting forum for the amazing facts.

One big problem I have with the GF LS is that it dumps light all around-- 360 degrees. So you end up wasting light and that might account for the slight underexposed look of the wedding pics in the original post-- it also works better with a nice ceiling to help bounce off.

The fun foam idea, on the other hand, directs all the light straight forward. You can un-velcro the top to bounce on a ceiling too, if necessary. I find I don't even need a bracket using the fun foam on a longer lens (50 mm plus) and can still get portrait or landscape shots with the flash head properly rotated. With a wider lens, the bracket does seem to help spread the light more naturally though.

pyrtek

Scott_Quier wrote:

Yes, I agree with the over-enthusiastic use of font size and color and the exclaimation marks. But, it's worth the effort - view a couple of the videos.

Yeah, I did, actually. It really is very clever and the guy seems very nice, even
if he doesn't exactly possess ninja HTML skillz.

muyguapo

dogwood wrote:

Fun foam-- better (and more durable) than the better bounce card, a whole lot cheaper ($2-3) than GF LS and more efficient to boot.

Oh yeah-- it packs flat too. Search "fun foam" over on dpreview on the lighting forum for the amazing facts.

Unfortunately, DP Review requires you to register with an ISP provided e-mail address, which I treat like gold. Yea, yea, they promise not to spam, keep your e-mail address safe, that not one can see your address, etc..., but I've heard that promise before from other websites and they have FAILED to keep that promise.

dogwood

muyguapo wrote:

Unfortunately, DP Review requires you to register with an ISP provided e-mail address, which I treat like gold. Yea, yea, they promise not to spam, keep your e-mail address safe, that not one can see your address, etc..., but I've heard that promise before from other websites and they have FAILED to keep that promise.

Okay, I'll save you the search -- ironically the best details on the fun foam links back to a SM website.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1025&message=18308364

Here's the SM link-- but there's been some evolution in the design so it's worth taking a gander at the dpreview info too:

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1427850

I've had no problems with dpreview spams, but they are owned by Amazon now so I don't blame you for being careful.