You have
a small external flash (at least small when compared to sizable studio
flashlights) and a problem with realizing your creative lighting ideas
outside your studio with such a wee light. The answer is simple: use
HonlPhoto accessories.
David
Honl, a professional photographer thought in a moment of boredom about
creating smaller versions of light-shaping accessories used on large
studio flashes. The aim of the plan was mobility which requires a
small size and mass; plus simplicity and ease of use. This is how
the HonlPhoto product line was born.
In our
previous article, we discussed the mounting Speed Strap and two honeycomb
grids. Today, we examine a bounce card and two reflectors/snoots.
Of course
you'll need the velcro speed strap, sold separately, to mount these
products as well.
HonlPhoto
Speed Gobo / Bounce Card
This solution
is a replacement for the good old "rubber ring + white paper"
combo, being for a long time the primary cheap light redirecting tool
for tiltable external flash heads. Its main purpose is to provide
a reflected, indirect light, which results in softer shadows and a
more natural illumination when compared to the "flash-in-your-face"
model.
HonlPhoto's
white sheet is a plastic card with a slightly uneven surface, encased
in the usual glass-pearl fabric. At its bottom, there are velcro mounting
strips on both sides for attaching to the speed strap. The reflective
area is about 8.5x14.5 cm in size, larger than that of the average
bounce card. It is extremely easy to use with the flash head tilted
upwards: you can stick it on or remove it with a single gesture.
We tried the card, using the very same settings all the time. First,
we flashed the theme directly, and as you can see, the foreground
got less light as the background and the theme. Unfortunately, the
theme got too much, so a few details were bleached out. Shadows are
also too hard, it is obvious that we used a straight, direct flashlight.
The simplest way of using an indirect lighting is to flash on the
ceiling or a wall. The reflected light this technique produces is
much softer and more natural. All you need to do so is a tiltable
flash head. In the second example, we used this method and indeed
got softer lights, with less harsh shadows. The drawback with this
way is that you can only very rarely work in a perfectly white room.
It did not matter that the ceiling was white, the colored walls and
the furniture colored the picture. In addition, light reflected from
exactly upwards can be a disadvantage when taking portraits as it
produces deep-set eyes.
For the third trial, we applied the HonlPhoto card, which enabled
us to use a flash tilted in 45 degrees upward to achieve a reflected
lighting from up and front. Shadows are softer compared to direct
lighting, lights are more balanced in the whole field, and there are
no bleachings on the main theme. In addition, white balance is right.
The other feature of this accessory is "Speed Gobo", but
what does that mean? Well, this is a light shaper of sorts. You can
use it to mask out the unwanted rays of your light source. The HonlPhoto
card has velcro strips on both sides, which means you can also fit
the black backside in front of the flash. This is less effective as
a reflector surface, but doubly so as a mask. If, for instance, you
use a separate flashlight to illuminate the background or to make
your model's hair shine, but the flash would affect the picture too
much, you can mask it out with this black side. The package contains
a single card, but if you buy two of them, you can use them as a "Barn
Door" tool as well.
HonlPhoto
Speed Snoot / Reflector (5" and 8")
This is
yet another pair of products serving the same purpose in two sizes.
They are also multifunctional.
Similar to the previous bounce card, they are also rectangular light
reflector surfaces, but not stiff: textile pieces covered by a glass-pearl
fabric with a silvery surface.
The sizes are 5" and 8", meaning the shorter sides are about
13 and 20 cm, respectively. The latter, of course, means a larger
reflector surface in practice. These accessories have multiple velcro
strips on their borders, so they can be fitted on the flash in various
ways. With a little practice, you can form a shell-like reflector
shape out of them. This is how the 5" piece looks like:
And this is the 20-cm version:
Let's
see how they work! You already know the picture taken with a direct
flash:
The image taken with the 5" reflector and the same settings:
By such a small theme, the result looks similar to the picture taken
with the bounce card. The advantage of these reflectors is more visible
when photographing larger spaces. As the reflecting surface is larger,
the light is scattered more.
The other way to use these devices is to form a Snoot—the spot-like
light redirector used on studio flashes. This is basically a tube
that directs the diverging light rays to a small area.
As both
redirectors have a velcro strip on the side as well, so they can also
be fitted on the flash head in a tube shape. The shorter snoot gives
a somewhat larger light circle, so it is not very effective on smaller
themes. It requires a wider angle of view to be visible:
The larger redirector forms a longer tube and therefore produces a
smaller light circle.
It gives a nice spotlight effect in close-up photos as well.
Given the textile material which bends in every direction, it can
be a bit tiresome to fold these accessories into a tube-like shape,
but the velcro solution offers additional advantages when compared
to a fixed bayonet. For example, since the snoot is fitted somewhat
flexibly on the flash, you can dab at it to slightly adjust the direction
of light. This way, if the theme requires, you can direct the light
a bit upwards or downwards.
Both versions
have velcro strips on the backside as well, so that you can also shape
the tube with the black side inwards.
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