Photography 101

A Beginner’s Guide to
Flash PhotographyEssential Accessories for your Flash (Part 38)–

Our last three issues dealt with modifying the light of flash from its original form – hard light to soft light. Soft light is the form of light that provides a more “natural effect” that is desirable for photographing people. But in the process, it wasted a lot of energy due to its nature of scattering lights around while actually, the photographer uses only a very small portion of the lighted space for the picture area.

Benjamin Rivera

Our entry below could also be a form of Light Modifier, but I prefer to call it a flash accessory (Photo 1A). It is interestingly different and it works in opposite function to the flash modifiers that we have discussed, so it is not advisable to use for photographing people. It also proves one thing: “lighting that is good for people is not necessarily good for animals particularly birds.”

Better Beamer Flash Extender

This gadget increases the flash output by about 2 to 3 f/stops and it extends the reach of the flash. It works by concentrating and focusing the light output of the flash into a narrow beam just enough to light the area seen by the lens, thus allowing the photographer to shoot for greater distances with smaller apertures.

The Better Beamer is designed to be used with long telephoto lenses of 300mm and longer.

Features:

•Excellent for wildlife and birding photography, where long-distance fill-flash is often required, especially with a bright sunlight background. The use of fill flash opens up the shadows without the appearance that a flash was used.

•When used with TTL flash metering, exposure is automatically set by the camera and flash, and no special compensation is required.

The ‘Off-Camera Shoe Cord’ 

This coiled cord electrically connects your flash to the camera allowing both gears to communicate;  it also  allows the use of the TTL (Through the Lens) mode on your flash and camera for perfect exposures.

 The flash can be moved as far as 3 feet away from the camera from any angle while still performing  all the automatic functions possible with dedicated flash photography.

It is available from dedicated popular camera brands or from third -party suppliers.

(Image 2B: photo courtesy of http://cgi.ebay.co.uk)