Hey guys,
I got a quick question. I've seen most star photographers attach their flash to the side of their lens instead in the traditional top mount, why is that, what is the benefit?
If I was looking for one, what's a good one to get?

thanks
R

I presume that you are talking about paparazzi. I believe that they use a bracket with a side-mounted flash so that when shooting a celebrity through the windshield or open car door, or similar, the flash will not leave too much shadow. It certainly isn't because it produces more pleasing light, because those images usually look technically bad.

Originally Posted by ziggy53 I presume that you are talking about paparazzi. I believe that they use a bracket with a side-mounted flash so that when shooting a celebrity through the windshield or open car door, or similar, the flash will not leave too much shadow. It certainly isn't because it produces more pleasing light, because those images usually look technically bad.

Yeah I guess they're paparazzi. I've seen them on tv, usually at at a red carpet event were celebrities get their pics taken before walking into the even. All the one's I've seen were not taking pics of people in vehicles or through glass. All of them had their flash mounted to the side with the celebrities just standing there.

I wonder if you're misinterpreting a rotatable flash bracket. The bracket actually mounts to the camera body, but can look like it's mounted to the side of the lens because of the way it's configured so you can still operate the camera controls when the camera is rotated to portrait mode.

Not sure about all that. I just saw the flash on the side not the top like normal

Check out the strobist blog. He just did a post on attaching the flash to the lens. It ends up looking more like a ringlight was used.

Originally Posted by mstens Check out the strobist blog. He just did a post on attaching the flash to the lens. It ends up looking more like a ringlight was used.

If you mean this article:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2012/07...on-budget.html

... be sure to read the part that the on-lens flash was used as fill light, in a 2 - flash setup, and that he rotated the camera and flash upside-down, placing the fill on the bottom in the displayed photo example.

Bare and direct flash may be used as fill, and that technique has been around a very long time. Part of the trick is that the fill light from the direct flash should be 2 stops, or a little more than 2 stops, below the key light.

I disagree with the strobist author's description of "... an onboard flash acts more like a ring light than a DSLR-style on-camera flash." I know what he's talking about but he goes on to say, "(It won't replace a ring, as that has a different look.)", so his 2 comments seem to conflict each other.

The reality is that a ring light at the lens axis has a very specific glamour look to it when it's used as the key light. (Posing can be rather challenging, however.)

When direct flash is used, either close to the lens axis, from the built-in flash, or from an external flash in the hotshoe, if it is the key light it's just plain ugly light.

If you use a single flash and you want that single flash to be the key light, my strong recommendation is to use a bracket that positions the flash fairly far above the lens axis, or at least use a flash diffusion device that allows you to lift the light as well as diffusing and enlarging the effective size of the light.

My strong preference is to use this style of DIY modifier, which you can build for less than $3USD each:

http://www.fototime.com/inv/908195739C4C0D3

The results are consistently pleasing (IMO):

Originally Posted by rickp Hey guys, I got a quick question. I've seen most star photographers attach their flash to the side of their lens instead in the traditional top mount, why is that, what is the benefit? If I was looking for one, what's a good one to get? thanks R

Just curiously, why would you be looking for one if you don't know what the benefit is?

Originally Posted by Dreadnote Just curiously, why would you be looking for one if you don't know what the benefit is?

I'm awfully glad that he did ask, rather than just assume that people photographing celebrities must know something that we (mere mortals) don't know. These brackets have a place, but only if you use the paparazzi-bracket mounted flash as a fill light component.

There used to be a "Siegelite Stratos Paparazzi Style Straight Flash Bracket", but it's no longer available. I would bet that lots of people complained from the poor results of using a flash on that bracket as a key light.

Look, if anyone really wants to test their flashes in different positions about the camera, just purchase an off-camera cord for your particular brand of camera and flash, which you'll need for any bracket anyway, and test different positions of the flash just by hand-holding the flash at different positions around the camera. The off-camera flash cord allows that sort of freedom of movement. (Alternately, you could use either an optical or radio master/slave system to trigger the flash off-camera.) It won't take long to learn what positions are flattering and worthwhile. When you know what positions work, you'll also know better what brackets to consider.

By all means I encourage experimentation and testing, just don't wait until an important event to test. Practice under more controlled circumstances first, learn what works and what doesn't work, practice until you get consistent results, then apply what you learned and when you are comfortable with the process.

To educate myself. Ziggy53 said it best in his first sentence, actually everything ziggy said is good advice. Especially about the practice and learn before the big event.

If the benefits of having this setup was that great and I decided to try it out, I would like to do it with good stuff, not junk.

thanks guys.

I've seen during fashion week, all the canon guys use this one, maybe someone can tell us why?
http://www.custombrackets.com/produc...b-mini-rc.html

Originally Posted by time2smile I've seen during fashion week, all the canon guys use this one, maybe someone can tell us why? http://www.custombrackets.com/produc...b-mini-rc.html

I can only (once again) say that if you use that bracket as the key light, you will predictably produce images that are very flat, lacking shadows that give depth and dimension. You don't need to use the bracket to position a flash to that position, so just try it and see for yourself. It is very ugly if it's used as primary light.

Used as a fill light it works much better, as long as you color balance to ambient.