Bounce Cards

We are in this quarantine thing now and I get tired of watching television all the time. So, I did a little test today with two bounce cards.

One was the MagMod, Mag Bounce

Mag Bounce $44.00

Mag Grip $25.00

Total cost $69.00

Total weight 1.42 pounds (a little heavy for on camera)

The other was the Demp Saucer Flip-It

Flip-It $37.95

Weight 1.6 oz (much less weight)

For the test I set up a meter (the meter was set for ISO-100, shutter speed 1/160) and flash 72” apart. With a Godox V860-II flash at full power, the Mag Bounce metered at f/6.3-1 and the Flip-It metered at f/6.3-3, slightly higher that the Mag Bounce but not enough to matter. I have been using the Flip-It on camera because of the weight.  

Behind the scenes

Meter

Mag Bounce

Demp Flip-It

Mag Bounce Test

Flip-It Test

Sample pictures with Canon 5D-III camera, Canon 35mm f/1.4 lens, Godox V860-II flash and a  Demp Saucer Flip-It bounce card.

Tabletop photography

I’m struggling through this quarantine for Covid-19. To pass the time I have been trying my hand at tabletop photography. I actually came up with two setups. One setup was with three softboxes and three Godox V860-II speed lights. The other setup was with two umbrellas and two inexpensive Godox TT520-II speed lights. In both cases I used a Canon 5D-III camera and either a 24/105mm or 100mm macro lens. Settings were ISO-200, F/16 aperture and 1/160 shutter speed.

Three light setup with examples.

Two light setup with examples. 

I hope this was helpful to someone. Let me know if you have any questions I will help if I can.

DIY Reflector

20” by 30” white foam core boards make excellent photography reflectors. They are available at stationary stores for three or four dollars each. There are any number of commercially available units to hold these foam core boards. But a quick DIY holder can be made from an old clip board and a spigot.

I drilled a ¼” hole about 3” up and center of the clip board. I mounted a spigot to the clip board with a ¼ - 20 bolt.

Mount the clip board in an umbrella bracket.

The clip board will hold the foam core board in a vertical or horizontal position.

Spring paper clip to the rescue.

This is a trick that a Facebook friend showed to me. Basically, there are two types of umbrella brackets. One type has a set screw that holds the umbrella in place. The other type has a metal spring that holds the umbrella in place. The set screw type will hold the umbrella solidly in place but will sometimes crush the umbrella shaft if it is hollow. The metal spring type will not always hole the umbrella solidly in place.

My Facebook friend applies two spring paper clips to the umbrella shaft before and after the umbrella bracket spring.

It works well on the new Godox S-2 bracket for holding a brolley solidly in place.