{"id":2618,"date":"2013-03-03T16:09:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T16:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2618"},"modified":"2023-07-02T13:53:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T13:53:31","slug":"strobist-flash-bender-accessory-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/strobist-flash-bender-accessory-test","title":{"rendered":"Flash Accessory Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flash Bender Accessories – New Toys!<\/h1>\n

Always on the look out for new “light modifiers” of “flash accessories” to advance my off camera flash photography – I’d seen these flash benders around before, so thought I’d take the plunge and get a couple.<\/p>\n

I took them up to Temple Newsham with trombonist Chris Colbran and had a look at what they can do.<\/p>\n

What are they?<\/h2>\n

First off, here’s\u00a0Chris\u00a0altering one – you can see that they strap on to the front of the flash with velcro and have a pretty large white area off which to bend your light. Inside the plastic are 3 metal rods which easily deform into any shape you like – including a “snoot”, or tube, which creates a spot light.<\/p>\n

They’re really light compared to metal snoots, so no worries about breaking the flash with the extra weight.<\/p>\n

The one in the shot is fitted side on, so you can use it as a “gobo” – a light blocker, a bit like one part of a Barn Door flash accessory… handy for stopping light spills on rim lights.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1561\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On this next shot we can see the flash in action – the front one is camera<\/a> right lighting Chris’ face – the rear creating a rim. I’ve for the flash pointing vertically and the bender curved towards Chris.<\/p>\n

The surface is a bit rippled, so you get more spread of light than bouncing of a flash reflector would do.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1529\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A bit closer in with this shot, you can see the bent reflector<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1526\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They’re not that big and don’t seem to catch the wind in the same way a brolly would do – or a softbox for that matter. Was on a hiding to nothing with this particular setup – but you get another shot of the bender in action… impaling a passing mother!<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1497\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So to some completed shots. Here’s my favourite from the shoot – used a 3-stop ND grad to kill the sky, ISO50 and 1\/250th sec also helped. The front flash was incredibly close to Chris to light his face through the ND grad.<\/p>\n

The back light\u00a0subtly adds some sheen to the back of his jacket – the Bender was acting like a snoot at this point – needed the power of direct flash on this one.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1530\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This had 2 snooted flashes pointing directly at Chris – with Chris standing exactly 1\/2 way between them Note how small the lit area is – the snoots really do create a small pool of light so you need to direct them accurately and make sure your model dosn’t move far!<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1575\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another with cross lighting – this time with chris playing almost straight into the light source. The bender softens the light quite a lot.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1535\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back light probably a little too powerful on this one, nice on his jacket, but causing a bright patch on his neck. The front light is really smooth, creating a shadowless effect.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1514\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pretty cool effect here too – lights in the same position as the last shot, just a better angle for the back light to do its thing<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1504\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And finally, that epic sky look…<\/p>\n

\"_MG_1509\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Would I recommend them???<\/h1>\n

So they cost about \u00a315 each from China… money well spent as they do seem to create a decent light, they are very convenient to carry around and double up as back-light gobos.<\/p>\n

Well worth the money – will be showing them off at workshops in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flash Bender Accessories – New Toys! Always on the look out for new “light modifiers” of “flash accessories” to advance my off camera flash photography – I’d seen these flash benders around before, so thought I’d take the plunge and get a couple. I took them up to Temple Newsham with trombonist Chris Colbran and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_22977785_22977785":"","facebook_10157410341118549_123005067715685":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18,14,30],"tags":[224,406,220,227,403,226,225],"class_list":["post-2618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photography","category-strobist","category-tips","category-training","tag-chris-2","tag-flash","tag-leeds-3","tag-stately-home","tag-strobist","tag-temple-newsham","tag-trombone"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MG_1530.jpg",687,1000,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MG_1530-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MG_1530-206x300.jpg",206,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MG_1530.jpg",687,1000,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MG_1530.jpg",687,1000,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MG_1530.jpg",687,1000,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MG_1530.jpg",687,1000,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"McFade","author_link":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Flash Bender Accessories – New Toys! Always on the look out for new “light modifiers” of “flash accessories” to advance my off camera flash photography – I’d seen these flash benders around before, so thought I’d take the plunge and get a couple. I took them up to Temple Newsham with trombonist Chris Colbran and…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2618"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128324,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions\/128324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}