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The Limited Edition
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Written by John
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Monday, 07 February 2011 14:32 |
Lately, I have been pushing myself to carry as little gear as possible and still create great images. My lightweight approach is now down to one DSLR with built-in wink light and one lens. One of the challenges in this arrangement is the wink light - you know - That little 3/4" x 1/2" mini strobe that pops up from the prism housing. From experience we know that the smaller the light source, the harsher the shadows. Except for the LED lights on cell phone cameras, light sources don't come much smaller than the wink-light. It's amazing just how harsh the light is from one of these little buggers.
So when ambient lighting is low, the challenge becomes getting good light without the extra baggage of additional strobes. This is where light modifiers come in. Gary Fong is well known for his line of modifiers. They look cool, they look professional, and for larger strobes, they do a decent job. Typical modifiers for wink lights however, do improve the results a bit, just not by much. While there is a plethora of other third party manufacturers of such gizmos, I want to pack light. This means, not just by weight, but by standards of clutter. The mantra is "Simplify". A few of my co-workers can testify to my obsession to find a usable, free, and available modifier in whatever environment I might be shooting in. Be it the office, urban streets, a gathering or wherever I might be. They have been quite patient with me as I stick my camera with my crazy modifier on it for a quick series of before and afters. I shoot art, not commercial or portrait work, so I don't worry about looking less than professional by having some odd looking modifier attached to my wink light. So you commercial guys and gals might see different mileage here, but in a pinch, maybe some of the tricks in this series might spur some creative insight for you.
Here are my criteria. Sometimes I might break one or two of these - their general guidelines, not hard and fast rules.
Recycle, Re-use and Respect
Found objects ROCK! If it's trash, it's fair game for sure.
Cheap takes a good second place.
Some things, you will just have to ask permission to use. - This will make sense as we discuss certain modifiers.
Neutral objects are predictable, don't be afraid of crazy colors for something different.
If its something I am going to carry with me, it should fit nicely in a pocket and go on and off the camera with ease.
So let's look at our first modifier; The Fong-Solo. In tribute to Gary F who's modifiers look ALOT like this concept, the name stamped on the bottom of this unit, and a bit of a nod to the first movie I ever saw with my parents.
Making and attaching this should be pretty self evident. I used a car key to saw a slit in the bottom of the styro cup a little bit off center, as to not crowd the flash tube against the wall of the cup, and pushed it gently over the wink light. I tried this with a lid on the cup as well. The lid reduced the available bounce dramatically, so lid-less is my preference for now. For close in work, a larger cup would certainly provide a softer light
Here is the first test shots with a few of my patient co-workers:
This one is without the Fong-Solo modifier. Note the highlights on the cheeks and noses, and the self-evident shadow from the lens shade.
Now with the Fong-Solo:
We have a nice fill, a slight increase in hairlight from the bounce and the added bonus of a confused boss in the back ground - probably wondering why I have a styro coffee cup stuck on my camera.
One deficiency here is the wink light just did not have enough candles act as the main light.
Another caveat with wink lights, is they don't rotate to allow for bounce when shooting verticals. My next modifier overcomes this. Check in next issue.
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