Omnibounce... really that useful?

[HelmetBox]

Helmetbox:Straight-up, you can adjust the angle of the bouncecard to control the amt of light thrown.

Prismatic:Tell that to the lumiquest users.

thanks thanks! i'll try it out!

 

[victor]

Helmetbox:Straight-up, you can adjust the angle of the bouncecard to control the amt of light thrown.

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Hi Zerstorer

how about when it's dark and there is insufficient light ? still straight up ?

 

[Zerstorer]

The angle of the flashhead doesn't matter that much when you do not have a ceiling. It's the angle of the bouncecard that controls the throw of the light. If you can't vary the angle of the card then you can tilt the flash head. For subjects that are really close, you might want to tilt it a bit lower.

 

[kiwi2]

My personal take : Omnibounce is useless. The same applies for the "real" thing as well as Nikon SB80DX version. A cheap piece of bounce card works far better as some here have found out as well. (Well at least the SB80DX one is "free", but $30+ for that white dome is a lot to pay for when a < $1 card gives better results....)

With the Omnibounce, the size of your light source stays the same (i.e. it's still the size of your flash head). This means it's still a point source and pics will still be harsh. With bounce cards, soft boxes, etc, the area of the light source is increased, thereby giving softer light.

A particular photo magazine (I forgot which, it's one of the prominent ones) rate the Omnibounce as the "most useless piece of accessory" and I tend to agree. :rbounce:

Regards
CK

Interesting... Quite true. :thumbsup:

 

[victor]

The angle of the flashhead doesn't matter that much when you do not have a ceiling. It's the angle of the bouncecard that controls the throw of the light. If you can't vary the angle of the card then you can tilt the flash head. For subjects that are really close, you might want to tilt it a bit lower.

hi
what I mean is that when there's insufficient light, shouldn't we just shoot straight w/o bounce card becos the light reflected from the card may not be enuff to lit the subject ?

 

[Zerstorer]

hi
what I mean is that when there's insufficient light, shouldn't we just shoot straight w/o bounce card becos the light reflected from the card may not be enuff to lit the subject ?

It depends on your setup. With a fast(f2.8) lens and powerful(44m GN) flash, you can still bounce off the card even in pitch darkness and have enough light to illuminate subjects up to 10m using ISO200.

Given: GN44m flash, lens set at f2.8, ISO200, bouncecard(2stop loss)

Guide number 44m, using ISO200 you modify by 1.4 =61.6M for ISO200.

When you bounce you lose between 1-2stops of light, assume 2 stop loss.
f2.8 becomes f5.6

Hence 61.6M/f5.6=11m effective range.

That is all assuming flash manufacturers are truthful, in practice it's always a little less.

Anyway, if your flash is weak it might be advisible to just fire straight.

 

[TME]

The angle of the flashhead doesn't matter that much when you do not have a ceiling. It's the angle of the bouncecard that controls the throw of the light. If you can't vary the angle of the card then you can tilt the flash head. For subjects that are really close, you might want to tilt it a bit lower.

What do u mean vary the angle of the bounce card? My bounce card is stuck to the back of the flash head. So I can only vary the angle of the flash. What angles to use for what kind of distances/focal lengths?

Anyway what is a good size for a bounce card for a large flash like 5600HS(D) (GN55 at ISO100 50mm). I think the equivalent for Canon is the 500EX... I have seen someone use a card like 1/2 the size of A4 paper (square shape)... how does that vary from the usual ones that we see others using - the ones that are just slightly larger than the flash head? Is bigger better?