Rogue Flash Benders When Time is Tight!
All quiet on the blog front and social media in general as I'm busy working with off-line clients - i.e. face-to-face work and have been lucky enough to have tickets for Olympic sailing and swimming. But back to reality now!
There are times when you have very little chance to get your shots as time and the English weather are conspiring against you. I recently attended the dedication of the Bomber Command Tribute/Memorial at Beachy Head in Sussex and had a brief opportunity to photograph Joe Williams the ex-bomber command tail gunner who bought the whole project together, along with Mr Peter Field, Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, Her Majesty The Queen's representative for the county and stand-in when Royalty are otherwise engaged.
During the dedication ceremony the weather held off and the sun shone but close to the end of proceedings the weather closed in and started to rain, leaving a small window for photography. I'm not a fan of on-camera hot shoe flash so try whenever possible to use my Canon Speedlite with an eTTL lead. Ideally I wanted a large light source but there was not the opportunity to set-up a softbox on a lighting stand so used a large Rogue Flash Bender which effectively made my teeny Speedlite into a 11" x 10" soft bounce light source.
As time was against me I literally had one or two frames, no more, so had to make sure everything was set and working as there would be no second chance. The camera was set to Manual exposure with a shutter speed to under expose the ambient light/sky by one stop or so. The flash was set to eTTL with one stop over exposure dialed in - better safe than sorry and as I was shooting RAW and problems could be rectified in post. The Speedlite was held at arms length and positioned based on experience!
Joe Williams with the Bomber Command Tribute at Beachy Head in East Sussex
During the dedication ceremony the weather held off and the sun shone but close to the end of proceedings the weather closed in and started to rain, leaving a small window for photography. I'm not a fan of on-camera hot shoe flash so try whenever possible to use my Canon Speedlite with an eTTL lead. Ideally I wanted a large light source but there was not the opportunity to set-up a softbox on a lighting stand so used a large Rogue Flash Bender which effectively made my teeny Speedlite into a 11" x 10" soft bounce light source.
The large Rogue Flasbender attached to a Canon Speedlite
As time was against me I literally had one or two frames, no more, so had to make sure everything was set and working as there would be no second chance. The camera was set to Manual exposure with a shutter speed to under expose the ambient light/sky by one stop or so. The flash was set to eTTL with one stop over exposure dialed in - better safe than sorry and as I was shooting RAW and problems could be rectified in post. The Speedlite was held at arms length and positioned based on experience!
Mr Peter Field, Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex
As you can see the Rogue Flash Bender did a great job of modifying a hard native light source. They are easy to use and compact to transport so there's no excuse for not having one with you. I use mine as a wrap for my Speedlite in transit.
Use it as a Speedlite wrap or store flat, you have no excuse not to have one of these beauties in your bag!
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