Got “some” questions after Venice about shaping light. Also funny remarks of comparing the Canon-Nikon to the PC-Mac switch. Mostly by Nikonians not by Canonians. Some Canonians were not amused. Fact is that a lot of people switch nowadays, sorry C’s but facts are friendly.

Understanding light is a task you’ll never finalize in a lifetime. If you’re serious about really improving your understanding and becoming more able to predict light read this. It’s an excellent book, 124 reviewers giving 5 stars tells you something. Once you’ve started to grasp light, it’s time to buy some light shaping tools. The nice thing is that compared to camera’s and lenses light shaping tools are quite inexpensive. The bad thing is that compared to a bed sheet these things are ridiculously expensive. Bed sheets do work, I’ll get back to that in a minute.

Firstly the Ezybox, it’s all personal but I like it. Why ? It’s mobile, it’s fast and it works with your Nikon CLS. It produces a nice softbox type of light. It’s a bit more expensive than other similar solutions but I like it. I use the 24″ you can find specifications here. You can find an example here (one SB900 in one Ezybox, so quite easy). The tutorials on the Lastolite site suck mainly by the way they shot it but also by the way it’s presented by the photographer they use. My wife thinks he lacks inspiration. She can be quite British in the way she expresses things.

Secondly Lastolite tri-grips, very versatile. I use the silver/white and the diffuser -1 stop most, both medium size. Why? Very mobile, very fast and versatile. You can use the first as a reflector to fill with ambient or flash. The diffuser is great as a shoot through, the ballerina is shot with one SB900 through that panel. The more difficult thing is the direction of light, especially when the flash is zoomed. Folding these thing can be tiresome the first time. I screwed up with a large golden reflector the first time. My son saved me, he’s much more tech than I am. Study the YouTube tutorial first before folding yourself. Ignore the non inspirational bit.

Thirdly the Sunbounce Micro Mini. You can see it at work in the YouTube video above from Bert Stephani. Bert’s blog (a Belgian photographer) is also quite nice btw and you can see the results here, but see the video first. Impressive and fun to watch. (really liked the way the older man is lit in the beginning p r e t t y impressive). The whole video is a nice example of guerilla shooting btw.

Oh, the bed sheet, yes. Well plenty of those items in hotel rooms and they can be free of charge. Put one before a window outside, place an SB800/900 on a tripod at 30 feet or so and just shoot through the bed sheet and window. Your model inside will be lit quite natural, havin’ daylight in your pocket.

There are differences if you compare the quality of light of course comparing the tools above so,

Keep following lights, find out and let me know. I’m happy to post results.