Properly lighting for table side character dinners. Diffuser or soft box?

[NLD]

took these with my Nikon D50, SB-600 flash with the Gary Fong Cloud diffuser. These are from our trip in 2007:

Kyle, thanks. Nice pics and cute kids. I do like the subject separation the flash gives you, particularly in that last one.

Something to try next time...

 

[TerryLP]

Hi everybody, my name is Terry and I just discovered this forum recently. More so, I just noticed this photography section. I have been following some of the threads with great interest. This one in particular. I come from a differant background than most. I am in no way a professional or an expert. I did shoot pictures as part of my job for a few years. Shooting in the field is much like shooting at WDW. Many times you can not set up perfect scenes to shoot and you have to work with what you have. I agree with those of you talking about bounced or indirect lighting. I would prefer to use natural light whenever possible. Direct flash tends to wash things out so much. I would like to add in two other suggestions. One of the best tools that I used to carry with me was a thin white handkerchief and a rubber band. If you want a diffuser wrap it around the end of the flash and secure it with the rubber band. If you leave it loosely billowed in front of the flash lens you will find it almost as good as some of the expensive diffusers. You can also hold it to one side and bounce off of it. The other thing that I have not seen mentioned is an off camera flash cord. You can hold the flash at arms length and add add some depth to your picture. Both are cheap and can be carried in your pocket. Anyway, I hope that you don't mind me putting in my two cents.

 

[Experiment_626]

Hi everybody, my name is Terry and I just discovered this forum recently. More so, I just noticed this photography section. I have been following some of the threads with great interest. This one in particular. I come from a differant background than most. I am in no way a professional or an expert. I did shoot pictures as part of my job for a few years. Shooting in the field is much like shooting at WDW. Many times you can not set up perfect scenes to shoot and you have to work with what you have. I agree with those of you talking about bounced or indirect lighting. I would prefer to use natural light whenever possible. Direct flash tends to wash things out so much. I would like to add in two other suggestions. One of the best tools that I used to carry with me was a thin white handkerchief and a rubber band. If you want a diffuser wrap it around the end of the flash and secure it with the rubber band. If you leave it loosely billowed in front of the flash lens you will find it almost as good as some of the expensive diffusers. You can also hold it to one side and bounce off of it. The other thing that I have not seen mentioned is an off camera flash cord. You can hold the flash at arms length and add add some depth to your picture. Both are cheap and can be carried in your pocket. Anyway, I hope that you don't mind me putting in my two cents.

The handkerchief method is not really any better, in my opinion, than the more expensive options -- but it is practically free, which is a definite advantage. I like the cord suggestion, as long as you're able to hold the flash and the camera at the same time -- or you have someone who can hold it for you. Nikon makes two of these cables, as far as I know -- one is about nine feet long (coiled like an old phone cord, so it is hard to get that full length out of it, but still quite useful) and another that's about 25 feet long. These are not sync cords -- one end attaches to the hot shoe on the camera, and the other end has a hot shoe to which you attach the flash. Any flash that will work directly on your camera can use the cord and retain full functionality. I have the nine-foot cord and have found it very useful.

SSB