# Portraits with only one speedlight help.



## ecphoto (May 14, 2012)

I have been shooting with only one flash on my portraits.

I mostly bounce my flash off of the ceiling. I've been using a "lite scoop" with some pretty nice results, it bounces most of the light and gives me some nice forward catch lights.

Sometimes I do portraits outdoors where I can't do ceiling bounce. 

My real question is if a on flash softbox would work better in a no bounce situation?


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## Village Idiot (May 14, 2012)

ecphoto said:


> I have been shooting with only one flash on my portraits.
> 
> I mostly bounce my flash off of the ceiling. I've been using a "lite scoop" with some pretty nice results, it bounces most of the light and gives me some nice forward catch lights.
> 
> ...



Yes.

This was shot with a foldable soft box on a 580EX II. IIRC, it's the lumopro brand? I could be wrong since it was a friend of mine who brought it for that shoot. It was shot about noonish under the shade of an overhang.


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## ecphoto (May 14, 2012)

Village Idiot said:


> ecphoto said:
> 
> 
> > I have been shooting with only one flash on my portraits.
> ...


 
About how far away were you from the model?

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2


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## Dao (May 14, 2012)

ecphoto said:


> Sometimes I do portraits outdoors where I can't do ceiling bounce.
> 
> My real question is if a on flash softbox would work better in a no bounce situation?




Are you using or planning to use the flash off the camera?


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## 2WheelPhoto (May 14, 2012)

good infor here, check the tutorials section Strobist


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## Buckster (May 14, 2012)

ecphoto said:


> I have been shooting with only one flash on my portraits.
> 
> I mostly bounce my flash off of the ceiling. I've been using a "lite scoop" with some pretty nice results, it bounces most of the light and gives me some nice forward catch lights.
> 
> ...


Better than a bare flash: Yes.

Better than bouncing it off an even larger modifier, like a 42" reflector to simulate your ceiling bounce: No.

All other things being equal (light power and distance to subject), the larger panel will do a better job to wrap light around your subject in a more pleasing way.  If you get a 5-in-1 reflector, you also have the advantage of using white, gold, soft gold or silver to modify that light, as well as a diffuser to deal with direct sunlight on your subject.

Of course, that means you need either an assistant (the model's significant other or a friend works great for this), or a stand, arm and weights for it.


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## Village Idiot (May 14, 2012)

ecphoto said:


> Village Idiot said:
> 
> 
> > ecphoto said:
> ...



Forgot to mention the flash was off camera. It was being held about 4' +/- from the model.


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## ecphoto (May 14, 2012)

Dao said:


> ecphoto said:
> 
> 
> > Sometimes I do portraits outdoors where I can't do ceiling bounce.
> ...


 


I don't at the moment, but I'm not opposed to it.


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## Mike_E (May 14, 2012)

OK, here's a DIY for your 42" 5-1:

Materials:  (stainless steel) 1- 1/4" by 20  1" coupling nut, 2- 1/4" by 20  1 1/4" carriage bolt, 1- 1/4" by 20 1" carriage bolt, 3- 1/4" washers.  1- 10' by 3/4" schedule 40 (the heavy duty) PVC, 1- 3/4" "T" fitting, 3 3/4" "90 degree" elbows, 3- 3/4" caps, 1 tripod to hot shoe adapter, 1 can krylon plastic spray paint- black, cleaner and glue for PVC, to hand clamps large enough to clamp your 5-1 to the PVC and a bit of masking tape

Tools:  Electric drill, 1/4" drill bit, triangular file (small enough to go inside a 1/4" hole, pliers, tape measure.

Cut a 20" piece of the tubing and glue a "T" to one end and place ( don't glue it yet, wait until you've made sure that the flash is close enough)a 90 perpendicular to the "T" at the other. Cut 2- 20" pieces and glue them into the "T".  Glue on the other 2 90s parallel to the one on the back of the 20" tube so that the open ends are all pointing in the same direction.  Cut 2 more 20" pieces and glue a cap on each.

Drill a 1/4 inch hole in the middle of the remaining cap and from the inside run the 1" carriage bolt with washer through the hole so that the threads are on the outside and then put on another washer and screw down one of the 1" coupling nuts so that it's good and tight and then glue it to the remaining piece of PVC.  Now place the tripod adapter into the coupling nut and attach the flash and measure from the flashtube down until you reach 20"s and make your cut there.

Do not glue the pieces of PVC with the caps into the elbows, you'll need to be able to take this apart for storage.

Assemble all of the pieces with the flash attached to the end with the elbow not the "T" (you might need to lube the elbows with white petroleum jelly or sand the parts with caps down just a little- you don't want the thing to fall apart but you do want to be able to take it apart.  Clamp the 5-1 to the arms of the device and find the balance point.  Mark that and drill a 1/4" hole from the top straight down.  File the hole square so that the carriage bolt doesn't twist and put the 1 1/4 carriage bolt through the PVC from the top down then put on the last washer and coupling bolt and tighten snugly.


Now you have a holder for your 5-1 that can be mounted onto a tripod or light stand or even hand held.  The flash is far enough back that (if set to 28 degrees) it should fill the whole 5-1 to be bounced _Straight_ back onto your subject.

If you have an umbrella mount for your light stand then you can tilt the holder up and down as well as the 1/4" coupling bolt is big enough to be mounted to it as well.

As a bonus, if your 5-1 has a diffuser panel in the middle then you can shoot through the diffuser and get great results up close and since you should have the flash far enough back you won't get any hot spots.  This is where you make sure that the flash is close enough to fall within the boundaries of the 5-1 as you don't want raw flash hitting your subject, after you're happy with it remove the flash/5-1 and paint.

Enjoy it,

mike

Oh, by the way; If you already have an umbrella set up and are wanting the flash tube to be centered you can go to the hardware store and get a pair of 3" or 4" angle brackets and a couple of nuts and bolts and a 1/4" by 20 by 1/2"bolt with the coupling nut and washers as needed.

Bolt the coupling bolt to one of the brackets so that it's pointing in the same direction as the bend for a "U" shape and the strap to the downward side then bolt the other angle bracket to the strap and then the strap to the other angle bracket so that the other side of that is pointing away to make a ledge.  Mount your flash to the ledge using a tripod adapter and a 1/4" by 20 nut and then drill a hole above the flash head to put the umbrella's shaft through and into the holder.  Put the coupling bolt in the top of the umbrella holder and tighten, the umbrella through the bracket and into the holder and you're good to go.  Adjust as needed.


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## Buckster (May 14, 2012)

Mike_E said:


> OK, here's a DIY for your 42" 5-1:
> 
> Materials:  (stainless steel) 1- 1/4" by 20  1" coupling nut, 2- 1/4" by 20  1 1/4" carriage bolt, 1- 1/4" by 20 1" carriage bolt, 3- 1/4" washers.  1- 10' by 3/4" schedule 40 (the heavy duty) PVC, 1- 3/4" "T" fitting, 3 3/4" "90 degree" elbows, 3- 3/4" caps, 1 tripod to hot shoe adapter, 1 can krylon plastic spray paint- black, cleaner and glue for PVC, to hand clamps large enough to clamp your 5-1 to the PVC and a bit of masking tape
> 
> ...


Bold assumption: You've already built/done this.  Please post a photo or two, because I can't really picture it in my mind from the text description alone.

Simple guy like myself, I just use a regular old illuminator arm and have about 17 different, simple ways to place a speedlight relative to it, wherever I need it.


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## Mike_E (May 14, 2012)

Buckster said:


> Mike_E said:
> 
> 
> > OK, here's a DIY for your 42" 5-1:
> ...



Sorry Buck, I left out that I decided to go ahead and spend the money to buy a speedlight to Bowens adapter and a reflector instead while I was editing this beast of a post.

It's not bold at all though, it's really simple.  Picture one end of a 4x5 monorail camera- that would be the end with the two arms sticking up- you just clamp your 5-1 to each arm.

At the other end of the rail is a single post with the flash sitting on top at the right height to point directly and squarely at the 5-1.  The distance from the flash to the reflector (right around 20 inches) is just about right for the flash (at 28 degrees) to fill the reflector and since the flash is perpendicular to the reflector/diffuser aiming is simply a matter of pointing it straight at whatever you want to light.

I posted this because not everyone wants to spend $70 on the adapter and reflector to go with the attachments that I already had.

$10-15 should do it.  It should be fine for lite use though if you wanted to take it out in the field you might want to brace the rail which is easily doable too.


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## ecphoto (May 15, 2012)

Buckster said:


> Mike_E said:
> 
> 
> > OK, here's a DIY for your 42" 5-1:
> ...


 
I would love to see what it looks like completed.

My "lite scoop" is actually a home made knock off of the one made by lite genius LOL. It cost me about 5 bucks worth of craft foam, glue and Velcro.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2


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