Lighting with a Brolley

[Don Hoey]

I thought I would start this thread dedicated to using a brolley for flash, and welcome contributions.

Ok boring subject but deliberately chosen as it has shiny bits and is large enough at 12 inches long and 4 1/2 inches high, to create hard shadows.

The object here is to look at two different ways of viewing use of the brolley.

In the first composit image, a brolley has been used as the primary and ONLY light source and a reflector added just to give it a bit of lift.

The second image takes a different slant on things. Brolley and reflector positioned as in image one but here there is a build up of light by adding a second flash to lift the base.

No 1 of the set, exposure shown is brolley only. Overall this is underexposed but is so to account for the additional light from step 2.

No 2 of the set shows the exposure from the added flash only. This flash ( undiffused ) was fired horizontally from the front but directed just over the subject so is it is only spill light that is recorded on the shiny bits.

No 3 shows the exposure from both flash guns.

No 4 shows the effect of adding a reflector to the right hand side.

Don

[yelvertoft]

Hi Don,

Thanks for the tips, the differences can be quite subtle at times and it's nice to get this kind of knowledge to help make the learning curve not quite so steep.

I've swapped the 46" brolly for a much more manageable 36" item. Whilst it's a lot more practical, I'm now suffering from light spill around the top edge of the brolly. As you can see in the attached, the head of the gun mounted on its bracket is quite a bit offset from the centre line of the brolly. With the bigger 46" brolly, this didn't really matter so much as there was more than enough area to capture all the light output. With the smaller item, I'm finding I'm getting a less even light distribution and a noticeable dead patch in the pool of light as the gun head casts its own shadow.

Following your earlier suggestion (via email), I've been experimenting with the zoom setting on the head. With the 46" I found the 18mm setting on the flash to be ideal, on the 36" I find this is too big a spread and I'm losing a lot of light spilling over the top. If I retract the wide angle diffuser and set the zoom to 24mm it's about as good as I can get it. Going to a narrower beam than 36mm results in very uneven illumination but a lot of power in a particular pool - which could be useful.

Sassan commented on my pocket watch shot
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...=500&ppuser=34
that a touch more DoF would be better, I agree, but I'm rapidly running out of light at f/14 as I lose the light over the top of the brolly.

Any suggestions as to how this could be overcome? Without spending £500 on a studio head that is

Duncan

[Canis Vulpes]

I don't get hung up on whether light is even throughout the whole brolley, consentrate where is goes in the scene. I do however try to get even coverage by using the widest setting on flash and placing the flash further inside the brolley. Another tip is to place the brolley shaft approx 3/4 onto your bracket which may make the brolley rim approx 20 deg from flash. The Nikon flashes I use have a diffuser panel which scatters light at 14mm I always use this panel.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by yelvertoft

Sassan commented on my pocket watch shot
that a touch more DoF would be better, I agree, but I'm rapidly running out of light at f/14 as I lose the light over the top of the brolly.

Any suggestions as to how this could be overcome? Without spending £500 on a studio head that is

Put your camer on bulb. Make the room dark and go for multiple flases.

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

Put your camer on bulb. Make the room dark and go for multiple flases.

Excellent idea Rudra, that would work, thought it would also be accompanied by a series of crashes and bangs as I fell over the assorted tripods and stands.

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by Canis Vulpes

Another tip is to place the brolley shaft approx 3/4 onto your bracket which may make the brolley rim approx 20 deg from flash.

Doh! Thanks Stephen, just shows it sometimes helps if someone states the blinking obvious! Why didn't I think of that?

[Canis Vulpes]

Originally Posted by yelvertoft

Doh! Thanks Stephen, just shows it sometimes helps if someone states the blinking obvious! Why didn't I think of that?

Another blinking obvious one is to raise the ISO of your camera. I just did a photo at ISO500! Usually I keep with base ISO but this one needed lots of light. Three flashes at full power was quite enough!

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...hp?photo=27349

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by yelvertoft

Sassan commented on my pocket watch shot
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...=500&ppuser=34
that a touch more DoF would be better, I agree, but I'm rapidly running out of light at f/14 as I lose the light over the top of the brolly.

Any suggestions as to how this could be overcome? Without spending £500 on a studio head that is

Duncan

Rudra gave a clue but if you have multiple exposure facility then you can use that to build up the light. So for example if exposure is good at f16 but you need f22 then by setting double exposure you will get there. f32 would require three exposures on the same frame.

Foxy's trick also works as it concentrates the flash beam.

Don

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by Don Hoey

Rudra gave a clue but if you have multiple exposure facility then you can use that to build up the light. So for example if exposure is good at f16 but you need f22 then by setting double exposure you will get there. f32 would require three exposures on the same frame.

Don, I would rather go for bulb setting for this. I definitely don’t want to touch the camera after I release the shutter. It’s a perfect recipe for overlapped multiple images. At the same time I will not allow any camera to do it’s own bracketing or any multiple exposure. One cannot rule out the slightest camera vibration.

Duncan, once your frame is ready, move out and stand right behind the flash for manual triggering. From that spot if you cannot reach out for shutter button, ask somebody (in your case that’s not a problem I suppose) to release the shutter. After the shutter is open, give a few seconds time for camera to settle. Start firing according to your need.

For an intricate object shot with such small aperture, utmost care needs to be taken.

Viewing a shake/blur shot on computer monitor is not really a great experience.

[yelvertoft]

A bit of lateral thinking with the flash head/brolly mounting clamp has got around the issue of the offset centres and subsequent light spill/power loss. I turned the clamp upside down, which has allowed me to mount the flash head directly along the line of the brolly shaft.