{"id":4836,"date":"2009-08-16T00:30:33","date_gmt":"2009-08-15T16:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=4836"},"modified":"2010-01-14T08:59:55","modified_gmt":"2010-01-14T00:59:55","slug":"son-of-a-flash-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/08\/16\/son-of-a-flash-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"Son of a (flash) gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" The two most significant contributing factors that account for the large image quality difference between a compact camera and a DSLR is in the size of the sensor relative to the number of pixels the camera is rated at, and the lens.<\/p>\n

Put in other words, I\u2019ve actually found that my old Nikon Coolpix 2200 at its \u2018measly\u2019 2 megapixels produced better pictures at low ISO than some of the new 12+ megapixels compact cameras that come out from camera manufacturers these days. If there\u2019s one thing you learn quickly about photography, it\u2019s that larger megapixel counts isn\u2019t always a good thing \u2013 no matter what the sales guy tells you.<\/p>\n

That said, there\u2019s another limitation of compact cameras that\u2019s typically overlooked \u2013 and it\u2019s the use of direct head-on flash output. Skin tones just don\u2019t look very good under direct flash output.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pretty easy to visualize the difference: just imagine yourself standing in a room where a fluorescent light is mounted on the ceiling, versus the same light source mounted right in front of you with the light rays illuminating the entire front of your body.Your skin will look overexposed, and your body will cast a harsh shadow right behind you.<\/p>\n

\"blog2009photographyP1000823lambencydiffuser\"One of those basic principles in flash photography is to try making use of indirect light sources instead. There\u2019s bouncing of the light output from your flash gun against surfaces, and there\u2019s also light diffusion. Most flash guns have little built-in plastic screens that does the latter, but typically only the most expensive flash guns will have built-in bounce reflectors.<\/p>\n

So, the solution for photographers is to typically carry around flash head attachments that\u2019ll bounce and\/or diffuse the light source that\u2019s produced from the flash gun. You have the DIY bounce cards that you make with white sheets and velcro, the popular Stofen-inspired omni-diffusers, and diffusers that look like whaletails LOL.<\/p>\n

I was pretty happy with the Demb Jumbo Flip-it<\/a> bounce reflector I acquired last year (first picture), but unfortunately it was left behind in my hotel room during the San Francisco trip. I thought I checked the room thoroughly \u2013 but apparently not.<\/p>\n

I went about looking for a replacement and picked up the Lambency diffuser (second picture) for cheap. The new diffuser is a knock-off from the Gary Fong lightsphere, but is at least easier to deploy than the Demb Flip-it. And the Lambency dome spreads light in a 360 degree arc. I have to dial up the flash gun output a little though to compensate for all that light that\u2019s getting wasted<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the damn thing is heavy and I can almost hear my poor SB600 flashgun groaning under its weight LOL. More seriously too is that its weight unbalances the flash head at any setting other than 90 degrees i.e. straight up. And the thing is so huge and obvious when mounted onto a flash gun that it can potentially kill any kind of spontaneity you want in a picture involving human subjects, as someone in Clubsnap rightly pointed out.<\/p>\n

So, mixed feelings. The Lambency diffuser is fine when I\u2019m at home and taking pictures of Hannah \u2013 who fortunately at 2 Months 2 Weeks has no clue she\u2019s my model to begin with. But I\u2019ve resolved to DIY my own bounce reflector. I\u2019ve got the velcro. Now I just need to find the right reflector material.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two most significant contributing factors that account for the large image quality difference between a compact camera and a DSLR is in the size of the sensor relative to the number of pixels the camera is rated at, and<\/p>\n

Read More Son of a (flash) gun<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13,16],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-4836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-photography-cameras","category-toys-technology","tag-d300","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-13-id","wpcat-16-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}