{"id":919,"date":"2012-10-24T23:11:07","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T23:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffreypalmerphoto.com\/photoblog\/?p=919"},"modified":"2014-02-08T14:12:36","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T20:12:36","slug":"the-best-light-modifier-1-can-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffreypalmerphoto.com\/?p=919","title":{"rendered":"The Best Light Modifier $1 Can Buy"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s one thing I hate about photography… it’s ridiculously expensive.\u00a0 No matter what the item or how cheap it should be, one thing is for sure,\u00a0it won’t be.\u00a0 That’s why I get so excited by simple everyday items that can be used to create drastic results.\u00a0 My favorite among them is the “black foamie thing”.\u00a0 While it may not look like much, it has made a\u00a0BIG impact on my photographs.\u00a0 I first learned of its usefullness on a wonderful\u00a0blog by\u00a0Neil van Niekerk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The “black foamie thing” works off\u00a0the photography fundamental of diffused light.\u00a0 Direct light is inherently harsh especially\u00a0from a small source like a flash.\u00a0 To increase the size of the light source most photographers bounce their flash off a nearby wall, ceiling, etc. to\u00a0give\u00a0the light a more diffused look.\u00a0 However, a signicant amount of light is still able to travel directly from the flash head to the subject.\u00a0\u00a0This causes harsh shadows and can wash out the subject.\u00a0 The idea behind the black foam is to prevent this light from spilling.\u00a0 It works wonderfully.\u00a0 To see it’s effect, lets\u00a0first\u00a0look at a few examples using the usual bounce flash technique.<\/p>\n

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As you can see the shadows are abundant.\u00a0 The pictures don’t look awful but the use of the on camera flash is obvious.\u00a0 While it looks much better than direct flash would have, it’s still far from ideal.\u00a0 To be fair, not all the photographs using this method created\u00a0such harsh lighting but a fair amount did\u00a0while\u00a0none did using the foam.\u00a0 Now, lets compare these result with the pictures using the black foam.<\/p>\n

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I believe these\u00a0photographs present\u00a0much more natural and flattering lighting.\u00a0 The shadows are muted if not non-existent.\u00a0 The hightlights wrap around the subject without washing them out and the use of flash\u00a0is less noticeable.\u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately, there is one\u00a0downside of using the black foam.\u00a0 Less light gets to your subject.\u00a0 This means that to maintain the same shutter speed you’ll have to raise your ISO.\u00a0 With any recent DSLR the high ISO performance has become so good, it shouldn’t be an issue.\u00a0 However, even this downside has an upside.\u00a0 Without this additional light the camera will\u00a0be forced\u00a0to drag the shutter (keep the shutter open longer) to obtain the proper exposure.\u00a0 This allows more\u00a0ambient light to be captured by the sensor and creates a\u00a0smoother blend\u00a0between the\u00a0ambient light\u00a0and light added using the flash.<\/p>\n

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If you’re convinced it makes $1 worth of difference, you’ll only need two items.\u00a0 You can pick up a sheet of black foam from any craft store.\u00a0 Cut a piece of foam to fit over the flash head and wrap around three of the four sides.\u00a0 The foam should extend a few inches beyond the end of the flash.\u00a0 Use a rubber hair band to wrap around the flash and hold the foam in place.\u00a0 Rotate the foam as needed\u00a0to block any direct flash light from reaching the subject.\u00a0 While it may look a little silly hanging off the end of your flash, the results don’t lie.\u00a0 I hope this technique\u00a0can help to take\u00a0your flash photography to the next level.