Strobist - SYD-SA7.5 and the Ray Flash

Today saw me attending the 7th and a halfth (latest, whatever) installment of the Sydney Strobist meet, SYD-SA7.5.


Every chance I got - mostly while the other guys in my group were setting up lights (sorry guys) - I'd take out the Ray flash and snap off a few shots... giving the models something to do rather than just stand around while photographers talked softboxes and lighting ratios.

With the gorgeous models we had, I loved the ease of getting a nice looking shot, with an absolute minimum of thought/effort on the lighting, throwing the flash in either ETTL or manual mode, and sticking the Ray flash on.

Adding a voice activated wind machine (a.k.a. a group member waving a reflector around) to the mix, just added that extra something, and worked wonders with the Rayflash.

Of course, headshots against a wall get pretty boring pretty quickly, so I tried something different when I could...


It seems that this kind of on-axis fill is where the Ray flash seems to really excel - just get your directional key light set up, then dial the Ray flash up or down to fill the shadows to taste. Easy!

Rayflash Ring flash adapter review...

So the other day I had to drive past the infmaous DD on the way to a studio to play around with some lighting. I'd heard the day before that DD had some cheap Rayflash ring flash adapters, so I just couldn't resist stopping in and getting one to play with.

I'd heard rumour that it only lost one stop of light compared to bare flash, but I wasn't sure what that actually meant, so I did some testing to see what kind of light I could get, and this is what I found...

There's plenty enough light belting out of the Rayflash for a head-shot @ 50mm on a crop sensor (ISO100, f/5)

... or even 70mm (ISO100, f/2.8)

For more idea on the power, I set a 580EXII to 1/128th power, camera on manual. For about the same crop as the mannequin shot (a little tighter) I could shoot at f/2.8, ISO100 and still be in the top section on the histogram (f/1.8 was probably a better exposure).

1/128th power, ISO800 @ about 2m at f/1.8 was blowing out foreground white paper, maybe slightly overexposed in the mid-ground (model), which gives you about another 7 stops to play with (without touching the ISO!). Much higher than my expectations.

The only thing(s) that bug me about it so far are that the actual ring is a little small - it'll fit over a 77mm sized lens, but, maybe not if its got a lenshood, and the actual ring of light (the thickness of the ring) itself is fairly small.

From what I've seen the 'pro' alternatives have both a larger and a thicker ring, so you get a bigger apparent light source, which (though I haven't done a comparison) probably gives you a softer light as well as the ringlight effect!

Click here for David Hobby's full review, with usage suggestions