Gerard Maas Images

KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. What a great advice. I’ve a mind that likes to make simple stuff complex. It’s hard not to. But from time to time an image like this one reminds me that it only needs to be as complex as it’s required to get get the light where it’s needed to get a great image, not more.
You see? such a complex sentence to say something so easy:
As simple as possible: That is the best choice.

For this beauty portrait of Britt, only a Ezybox 60 with a speedlite 580EXII was used, high on top of her head, pointing at her face. Click. Done.
I think I like simple.

Last weekend I had some time to do work some more with the Ezybox Hotshoe. Here’s a sample of what can be achieved with it.

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Portrait taken with Ezybox

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Natural light

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setup: Ezybox Hotshoe ‘charged’ with a 580EX on a standard Manfrotto light stand

This image illustrates few important points of using the Ezybox Hotshoe:

- Color Temperature - using a flash as main light provides us with a consistent color temperature of about 5500oK, the shadow where the girl is placed is actually much colder, which is visible on comparison image on the right. The portrait is much pleasing with the neutral-warm tones

- Light Control The light of the moment was quite harsh, coming slightly from the back and leaving most of the face in shadow. The Ezybox+580EX were used as main light. This was achieved in this case by decreasing the ambient exposure by 1 stop and using the flash without exposure compensation

- Portability Sorry to state the obvious but it’s really nice to have creative control over the light in the middle of the garden

The flash was used in automatic exposure mode (E-TTL) triggered by the controlled wireless ST-E2 on the camera.

is this info useful to you? Drop me a line with comments or questions. A more detailed review on handling the Ezybox Hotshoe is coming. If you have questions, now is the moment. - Gerard

This is a small test I did while walking in the woods. It was a rainy day and the natural light was very soft but totally unidirectional, revealing little structure in this mushroom. A perfect opportunity to try the Ezybox Hotshoe I was carrying with me during the walk.

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Ezybox Hotshoe on the side

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Direct flash on camera

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Natural diffused light

The enhancing effect of the Ezybox on the image is evident. The light is very soft when compared to the bare flash on the camera, while the directionality reveals structure and creates a more three dimensional image of the mushroom.

I held the flash in position improvising with a stick of wood as ‘flash stand’. The flash was a Canon 580EX controlled wireless from the camera with a ST-E2 Wireless controller. The lateral placement of the Ezybox allows the line of sight between the controller on camera and the slaved flash on the Exzybox hotshoe mount.

Few minutes after the Ezybox was packed down and we could continue with the walk before the rain got us.

812	This is an image of the setup showing the Ezybox hotshoe clamped down with a piece of wood in the stand socket. A little bit of creativity avoid carrying too much equipment around

I’m still trying out the possibilities of this practical flash difusser. I’ll keep reporting my findings…