Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Peter Gregg, noted affable photographic speaker and writer, has evidently developed a new bounce flash diffuser marketed under the name ColorRight FlashRight, distributed by ColorRight (the maker of the ColorRight line of white balance tools).
The object of the FlashRight (not clearly disclosed by the literature - it doesn't even really say that the unit is intended for bounce work) is evidently to provide a wide beam from the flash unit so as to illuminate a substantial area of the ceiling or lateral walls so as to get (via bounce) a very wide source of illumination on the scene. (Note that these devices are rarely described that way. Instead, they are said to give a "diffuse" source of the light, usually emphasizing its "softness", not a notion that really means much when working in the bounce mode.)
The output organ of the FlashRight device is a translucent dome, having an oblique collar around it where it is fastened to its mount. The dome assembly apparently rotates around its axis, so that the centerline of the non-blanked part of the dome can be made to nutate, thus being pointed in different directions around a cone.
This is said to allow "directional control" of the light (presumably to emphasize its illumination of different parts of the ceiling/sidewall complex), and is also said to allow control of the color of the light. Exactly how the latter happens is not yet revealed. Perhaps there is some clever rotating sector filter thingy inside, or maybe the presumption is that different parts of the ceiling are of different colors.
There is said to be an internal "kicker" to direct some light toward to subject to produce "eye catchlights". In Peter's extended video discussion of how to mount the unit, he mentions this, calling the feature a diffuser, and points out that we need not be concerned about which way to point it - it will automatically point the right way.
That might mean that it is in the "turret", and that we will normally aim that so its axis leans toward the subject (although that somewhat flies in the face of the statement about "directional control").
Or perhaps it means that the kicker is fixed within the "chassis" of the unit. That's a little hard to feature, though. It is expected that the rig will work with the camera in either landscape or portrait orientation (the flash head always being tipped up to somewhere around 90° for the portrait mode, and tipped to 90° and then the head swiveled by 90° for the landscape mode).
Now, the face of the "chassis" that faces toward the subject will not be the same for those two setups.
So, perhaps, as we have come to expect with products from ColorRight, there is some potent magic inside, far beyond the ken of a poor engineer such as moi, limited as I am to visualize things working in accordance with laws of physics and so forth.
How does this compare with such units as the Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce?
• Costs over 6 times as much.
• Cannot be cannibalized to make a low-cost "speed ring" for a small softbox.
I do not mean by this that there are no performance or functionality advantages. But we may have to wait for the technical white paper on the product to learn what those are.
Best regards,
Doug
The object of the FlashRight (not clearly disclosed by the literature - it doesn't even really say that the unit is intended for bounce work) is evidently to provide a wide beam from the flash unit so as to illuminate a substantial area of the ceiling or lateral walls so as to get (via bounce) a very wide source of illumination on the scene. (Note that these devices are rarely described that way. Instead, they are said to give a "diffuse" source of the light, usually emphasizing its "softness", not a notion that really means much when working in the bounce mode.)
The output organ of the FlashRight device is a translucent dome, having an oblique collar around it where it is fastened to its mount. The dome assembly apparently rotates around its axis, so that the centerline of the non-blanked part of the dome can be made to nutate, thus being pointed in different directions around a cone.
This is said to allow "directional control" of the light (presumably to emphasize its illumination of different parts of the ceiling/sidewall complex), and is also said to allow control of the color of the light. Exactly how the latter happens is not yet revealed. Perhaps there is some clever rotating sector filter thingy inside, or maybe the presumption is that different parts of the ceiling are of different colors.
There is said to be an internal "kicker" to direct some light toward to subject to produce "eye catchlights". In Peter's extended video discussion of how to mount the unit, he mentions this, calling the feature a diffuser, and points out that we need not be concerned about which way to point it - it will automatically point the right way.
That might mean that it is in the "turret", and that we will normally aim that so its axis leans toward the subject (although that somewhat flies in the face of the statement about "directional control").
Or perhaps it means that the kicker is fixed within the "chassis" of the unit. That's a little hard to feature, though. It is expected that the rig will work with the camera in either landscape or portrait orientation (the flash head always being tipped up to somewhere around 90° for the portrait mode, and tipped to 90° and then the head swiveled by 90° for the landscape mode).
Now, the face of the "chassis" that faces toward the subject will not be the same for those two setups.
So, perhaps, as we have come to expect with products from ColorRight, there is some potent magic inside, far beyond the ken of a poor engineer such as moi, limited as I am to visualize things working in accordance with laws of physics and so forth.
How does this compare with such units as the Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce?
• Costs over 6 times as much.
• Cannot be cannibalized to make a low-cost "speed ring" for a small softbox.
I do not mean by this that there are no performance or functionality advantages. But we may have to wait for the technical white paper on the product to learn what those are.
Best regards,
Doug
