Okay so for the past few months I have been using a Stofen flash diffuser on my 580EX. I've not used it for all my shots but for quite a bit of my indoor wedding shots. At sometime over christmas this has gone walkabout...(why couldn't it have gone before then I could have added it to my pressie list?). Anyhow i've now got to replace it, but I have been checking out Gary Fong's lightshere. I'm not sure which to go for, replace the Stofen or go for Gary!

Which would you recommend and why?

Carl

never used the stofen. but I love my Lightsphere. I have the CLOUD. You can look at my site if you want. All of the photos there were shot with the LS. I love it for outside shots when you need a little fill.

Have you tired the new chrome one?

Michelle, no I haven't used it. I did however purchase 2 of the amber domes that are supposed to create an ambient-light feel.... Uhmmmm.... they make everything orange. They suck, lol. So I am hesitant to get another special LS.

I think I should share a personal mantra of mine to help you make your decision:

"When in doubt, choose Fong."

Really.

Say no to tupperware! Fong dong may work, but boy does it look stupid! Just ask my friend Erwin! I am actually just kidding. I use a stofen only when I am using really wide angle. For the most part I bounce off walls and ceiling. A second flash unit with an assistant or on a lightstand is fun, too. I try to avoid the direct or modified direct flash when I can.
Cory

Thanks for that Jessica, checked the website, you've got some beautiful images on there.

Carl

I have both. However, when the rubber version of the Fong Dong came out, I never went back to my stofen. So, I say fong dong.

Why? Because of the SIZE of the light source. The stofen doesn't really add any size to the light source, it just diffuses it and sends *some* backwards. The fong dong creates a more rounded and diffused lighting because of its shape and size. It also has an advantage over portrait aligned images, since the dome stays in relatively the same position.

Actually, technically that is incorrect.

Both devices rely on bounceback from surrounding surfaces to create the softness in the light. The lack of shadows comes from the light being reflected back from walls and ceiling and hitting the subject from many different angles making it an unfocused, non-directional source. In a reflective environment the physical size of the diffuser itself has very little effect on the softening of the light. The only benefit a larger source will have will be seen in shots of subjects very close to the camera where the physical size of the source in relation to the size of the subject could make a difference. Remove the walls and ceiling and compare. Shoot a subject outdoors with both devices; shoot one at 4-5 ft. and one at 7-10 ft and you will see very little visible difference in the light on the subject.

Personally, I use either the Stofen OmniBounce or my favorite; the FlipIt Pro from Joe Demb.

Rick

I ilke the one that came with my nikon 800dx
works great and is nice and compact...especially when i'm using 2 or three cameras at once which I do often

LOL. It is quite the conversation piece! A groomsman asked me why a lampshade was on my flash. Cracked me up. Then it became a running joke all night...but we had fun! I have the old lightsphere for my 550EX, but it does fall off all the time. I think they addressed that in the newer ones. WHile it's good to have in my bag of tricks for those outside nighttime shots & endless ceiling or dark ceilins, I don't find it as useful or versatile as my sto-fen.

Hope this helps!

Geneve

I use the Stofen, a Lightsphere, a FlipIt, direct flash, and bounce depending on the situation.

I modified my Lightsphere PJ by cutting the dome in half - that makes it much more efficient - less light is wasted backwards.

Stofen because it's super easy to carry around, it's unobtrusive, it doesn't look silly sitting on the flash, it's cheaper, and for the same amount of money, you can have the amber and green tinted stofen as well. I do have the lighsphere, but I mainly use the dome because it fits perfectly on a little handheld spot for diffusion.

But, I try really hard to incorporate BOUNCE and/or BALANCED and/or DIRECT and/or OFF CAMERA lighting as much as possible. I'm also going back to haveing a small newton bracket on one of my bodies. The off camera lighting I'm just starting to play around with, but it's exciting.

A lot of folks suggest the lightsphere is great for storing lunches, but I find that my bread dries out so it really isn't good for that either.

Sweet...maybe you could patent the change and market it. I have a Stofen, Fong and a velcro thingy with colors inside of it.....called. I'm looking in my bag......Lumiquest. I think I stole it from my newspaper job (sorry Brian, if you are out there.) The Fong is the most expensive and apparently I don't get it, 'cause it is a light hog. The Lumiquest, I'm just not seeing it. I just got the Stofen and I am stoked by my test shots. It seems easier, lighter, less of a...how to say it, nuisance. Sorry Gary and Mellissa, I think I am converting to the Stofen, or whatever Zach teaches me at the One Light Workshop on Thursday. See ya in Denver!

Just to add one more how about

http://www.abetterbouncecard.com

I heard good things about FLip it, might try that myself!

Hard to recommend one over the other when neither attachment works in all situations. If I were to recommend anything it would be to learn your flash at a more intimate level. Bounce off ceilings, bounce off walls, bounce off people, learn how your light performs in outdoor situations, learn its shortcomings....THEN you can decide how you want to modify the output for given situations.

Happy flashing!

I love that movie, especially the echo in the microphone. I made one for a friend in a hurry out of cardstock. It works great!

i have sold as many lightsphere's for gary as he has for himself.
lightsphere rocks. i use the clear and cloud.
it also double as a tip cup.

Jessica M - Did you use the amber dome with Tungsten white balance? That really worked for me in an outdoor setting with harsh light. It softened it. - Matt

Matt- I can't remember what WB mode I was in, probably the overcast mode. Everything looked normal except the couple themselves, which looked like they'd been dipped in orange kool aid....it was bad, BUT I will try your way tomorrow.

thanks

Let us know how you like it. On his web site, there's a demo video on how to set up for the amber dome. Cheers! (How's the healing throat going?) - Matt

Becker sold me of the better bounce card. It is great light that is not as obtrusive as the fong dong..

I go about 50% with the stoffen and then use the BBC if i really need good light w/o much bounce source.


here is the tutorial for it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNCmuExlHvM&eurl

Holy long video! Sounds pretty cool and easy to make. Thanks.

A Better Bounce Card (ABBC) looks pretty interesting and I think I'll head out to Michael's tomorrow to pick up some of that foam card stuff. I'm really working on getting the flash OFF CAMERA though. But until then...

I have the Stofen, Flash light box of sorts velcros to my flash (light modifer, name skips my memory) and just bought the Demb Flip-IT plus I use the built in 580EX white card and wide angle diffuser, they really do work! I have test the small white card on some pics and I can see the difference.

I dont have a Stofen for my 580EX but use if for my 420EX -

I think the FlipIT will work well, it's priced well as there is a lot of quaility in the hinge and products used, YES it is a play on the old school index card and rubber band and / or a "Better bounce card"....

It's really interesting to see some great words here on Gary Fongs solution, as over at http://www.Photography-On-The.net (Forum) there is quite a few photogs that kinda have strong opinions on the fong solution.

Take care all ...

Dave

Hey Jessica

If you are shooting with the amber, try setting your W/B to tungsten. The amber dome balances with the indor ambient and your flash to give you a more accurate white balance. Try it...it's neat.
Andy

Cool! Thanks for the betterbouncecard post! I just made myself a $0.99 fong dong looking thing and saved the $49.

I have been laboring over which modifier to buy, unable to make a decision. You just made it for me.

BTW, I do have the Lumiquest system and have always liked the results, but they have been unable to resolve a sticky glue-y mess that happens wherever there is velcro on it! I got tired of having them ship me a new one every 3 months. There is nothing worse than sticky glue-y fingers while handling lenses and camera equipment.

This is much simpler.

Here's one of the few examples I have of what an image looks like with and without a Lightsphere.

These images have not been adjusted for contrast or color, they are straight from the camera. They have had slight sharpening for web (amt=60, rad=1, thrshld=0), and my copyright was added. Both were taken at 800 ISO, 1/60th, f/2.8. Focal length was 24mm.

The first image was taken with the available light and is underexposed by 2 stops in order to tell the E-TTL flash to pump more light out to reach the front of the room.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/annemarlow/360537658/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/158/360537658_685ae50186_o.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="Wedding Guest Photo w/o Flash" /></a>

This image was created with on-camera flash and the Lightsphere (soft rubbery clear one), no dome. Auto whitebalance, E-TTL flash.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/annemarlow/360537660/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/360537660_3d1f2382e0_o.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="Wedding Guest Photo w/ Flash + Lightsphere" /></a>

Honestly, I think it all depends on what your shooting. I have both the clear and clouded LS but almost never use them.
I actually like the look of a bounce (or Foofing as Denis would say) than the LS.
Now if your in a place or outside where there is nothing to foof off of, (thats alot of o's and f's), then the LS could be pretty handy to diffuse the light.
As for the difference between the stoffen and the LS, I would probably go for the LS since if would have a more constant diffusion based on the round shape.

Mark - I agree - it's another tool in the kit. I'm just learning and seeing what the Strobist.com folks are doing with off camera flash is adding to my kit as well. I do love the LS tho.

Anne - Amazing differential shots. Thanks for posting them!

I use the Joe Demb FlipIt. Easy to adjust how soft or how much light to throw forwards.

I use either the built-in bounce card on my SB-800 or the dome that came with it, depending on the ceiling and how much light I want to escape (if it's a low, white ceiling, I use the dome because I don't want that bright of overhead light)

I use the clear lightsphere and really like it. I still have the stofen somewhere in the camera bag but have not used it for a year and half.
A drunken grooms man asked me once why I carried a blender on top of the flash, then he attempted to put some choc covered strawberries in the fong dong. Nice.........

There is more going on here besides the lighsphere

Has anyone got the Demb Flash Diffuser Jumbo? I had a Flip-it but lost it in the house move... Really liked it for the simple reason it was easy to use it or not without having to take the whole thing of the flash head like the fong one.

The new diffuser looks quite nice...

I used it and it is by far the best diffuser of the bunch. What I particularly like about it is that you can adjust the amount of diffusion and the direction of the light. It's a great tool and a real bargain.

Rick

I use the Demb Diffuser Pro (non-Jumbo) whenever I have my 580ex on and I love it. I've used the omni-bounce and lightsphere, but I just love being able to adjust the bounce card and the diffuser for so many different situations on the Demb Pro. I may try the Jumbo soon.

Thanks for the replies... I think the jumbo looks great... the bigger the better I always say.

I own a fong lightsphere and I've used it like once... it was such a pain in the neck taking it off and on all the time - big design flaw if you ask me.

Having said that, I think Gary Fong is inspirational.

hey, did you set the light to tungston in your camera to stop everything becoming orange.. I watched the video and supposedly this is what you are supposed to do.. I have not used it yet so am no expert.. just thought I would shoot this to you in case.. deb

This is one where I was using the Fong LSPJII with the Amber dome on, facing forward, with tungsten set in wb. There was harsh sun from behind the scene. I thought the skin tones came out nicely. Works for me! - Matt

Anne, did you underexposed by 2 stop for the LS version too?

I have the Stofen, GF's LSPJ2 Cloud with top, and have made myself some of the better bounce cards with the foamy paper from Michaels.

First shot is the Better Bounce Card
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Second shot is the Stofen
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Third shot is the LSPJ2
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Edit...Added the newly patented by Huy "Sto-Fong"
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I'm THOROUGHLY pleased with the BetterBounceCard for this very unscientific test.
Pardon the really ugly model and hair. I haven't made it to the shower yet today, haha.

Personally, I think you can't go wrong with the Better Bounce Card. You can buy a sheet of the foam paper at Michaels for $0.99, and I made 6 of the bounce cards from that sheet.

Buy both and see which one you like better.

They should merge and have a StoFong.

(did someone say that already?)

Huy

Kinda like this Huy? hehe. How can you tell I'm very bored today.

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Anne,

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on lighting but I am having a hard time following the logic of your technique as explained above. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

If you set the camera's meter to underexpose by 2 stops, the E-TTL meter will follow that exposure and compute a fill flash by underexposing approximately 1 stop less than the set ambient exposure. UNLESS you manually adjust the flash output to +1, +2, -1 etc. the E-TTL reads the flash and sets the flash output to 1 stop less (for normal flash fill) than the ambient exposure.

The way I see it, the first shot is underexposed (by around two stops) and the E-TTL set the flash at an additional 1 stop less to fill. The LS shot, OTOH is properly exposed. I presume that you did not set the LS shot for -2 stops as well but rather set it for a 0 correction.

BTW, I did notice that Fong grabbed your two images and is using them as proof for how great the LS performs. I presume that you are aware of that.

Rick

that..just..doesn't make sense, care to explain?

I'm bored too Chris

Just wondering if you could help me out with this Better Bounce Card thing. I'm not seeing much improvement over the Stofen, but it may be because my BBC is just made of photo paper like the website suggested. In what situations do you use your bounce card the most?

Thanks,
Jamie

Hey Jamie,

I picked up the sheet of "foamie" paper from Michael's for $0.99, and made 6 of the BBC's. The "improvement" over the Stofen?...Hmmm....It didn't cost me $55 for the BBC, as it did for the stofen I have and use regularly, I guess.

I see no discernable difference between any of these photos realistically over any other diffuser out there.

I'm just figuring that if the BBC does the job that I need it to, (which it does), then why pay a buttload of $$$ out for things like the FongDong or Stofen.

Becker is using the BBC last I read on his blog, and I can definitely see why. I've found it gives a nice "wrapping" light when there is no wall present. I'll see if I can find a photo to show what I mean.