The Scoop from Professor Kobré

Family Photojournalist: Tips 3 - Portraits

2008-12-03T12:34:42Z

Quick portrait tips for today, if you want real memories instead of mug shots:

Don't ask your loved ones to tidy up and sit straight. Tense postures like this look uncomfortable and don’t say a thing about your normally kinetic kid or gregarious grandfather. A little leaning or slouching can reveal attitude and personality. And you may find that NOT smiling for the camera puts some folks at ease — which will allow you to capture a more meaningful, reflective moment.

Do provide time for people to be themselves. Whether they are alone or, the case of more than one person in a portrait, interacting with one another, give your subjects a bit of time to feel comfortable in their own skin. As you snap a few pictures, even if they are goofing around, they will start to loosen up. Keep shooting as they release their own stereotypes of what a portrait "pose" should be. I predict you will find a lovely moment worth preserving.

Do include a telling item in your portraits. Here’s another strategy for "posing" portraits: Ask a child to pick out a favorite toy or an adult to choose an item related to a hobby or business to include in the picture. Once they are situated where you want to take the picture, watch them as they interact with the object… you may very well capture a lovely candid moment in your carefully composed portrait.

Do watch the light! Lighting is crucial. Look at light streaming through a window. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? As long as you’re setting up a pose, look for nice window light. If that’s not possible, and you have an external flash that tilts up, or a camera with a pop-up flash and a Lightscoop, try bouncing your flash off a nearby wall to create soft, natural-looking light from the side. The light will look as if it is coming through a window... and there you have one of the secrets of portrait photographers.

Below is a VERY unplanned portrait I took of visiting friends when we caught up at a favorite Chinese restaurant... not an ideal place for portraits, I know. I was really just showing them how the Lightscoop works. I shot the first picture to show how UGLY direct flash is... even on attractive people! But bouncing the light off the wall, and the moment when Kathy leaned over to kiss Laurence produced a pretty nice portrait.

Check out KobreGuide to the web's best videojournalism!

2008-12-02T17:14:58Z

Have had my hands more than full with teaching and launching the KobreGuide to the web's best videojournalism, so I'm not having much time to blog here these days! Hope you will visit the KobreGuide and sign up for my blog there. We're locating terrific stories told in video and multimedia... which will save you tons of time searching for them yourselves.

In our first month (October) we had around 100,000 page views, with people wandering through an average of 20 pages on each visit... I think that's a good sign that visitors are finding the stories compelling. The stories tend to be 4-10 minutes long... let me know what you think.

I'm also on Facebook now, so let's be 'friends' if we're not already!

The Family Photojournalist: Tips 2

2008-12-02T18:07:36Z

As you know, scrapbooking friends and family, Family Photojournalists, have caught my attention. I've been sharing a lot of advice in recent months, and have decided to start passing along some of it in an attempt at more regularity on this blog!

I'm glad to say that many of these Family Photojournalists are saying good-bye to point-and-shoots and compacts and buying increasingly affordable 35mm DSLRs. This immediately makes my role as adviser a bit simpler. Due to the reasonable cost and super results by these cameras, most with pop-up flashes, even many professional photographers are using these kinds of SLRs.

Most professionals, though, avoid using the pop-up flash and buy an expensive external flash. Of course, they understand how to use the sophisticated electronics and can afford the expense.

Take a hint from the pros, though, and do avoid using that pop-up flash direct! Light direct from any flash – including those expensive external flashes -- looks unnatural. The bright direct light washes out colors and facial features. You know the look! Light direct from the flash also comes from the unnatural direction directly in line with your forehead. As I've said here before, unless you're a miner, a dentist, or a surgeon wearing a headlamp, you never see ANYTHING in this kind of light!

If a room is too dark to take pictures without flash and you do have an external flash, bounce the flash toward a ceiling or wall. Professionals know that bounced light evenly illuminates a scene and so creates natural-looking light. Bouncing off a wall produces a beautiful window-type light.

If you don’t have an external flash, you can bounce the pop-up flash in your 35mm SLR camera, using -- surprise -- the Lightscoop®, which I invented to solve the ugly pop-up flash problem for amateurs and casual shooters. A mirror in the Lightscoop sends the light from the pop-up flash to a ceiling or wall and so lets family photojournalists create pro-like lighting without having to buy and learn to use expensive electronic equipment.

There are lots of other tricks you can learn from professional photojournalists. Even if you haven’t graduated to a 35mm SLR with a pop-up flash, you can try these methods of getting better candid pictures.

CANDID CAMERA
Patience is the family photojournalist’s reward. Hang out with your camera and visit for a while before starting to shoot. When people start to forget the camera is there, your pictures will be natural and lively.

Let people be themselves. Don’t ask your kids (or parents, grandparents, friends, etc.) to pose—or allow them to strike a pose every time they see the camera. Instead, ask them to continue their painting project, rolling out the cookie dough, or whatever else they are doing. These are the kinds of candid moments that bring memories alive for future generations.

Indoors, using flash ensures you can stop the action in candid photos. Remember to bounce the flash to avoid that awful harsh look and deep shadows that make typical flashed photos so ugly.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
Finally, visit KobreGuide.com to the web's best multimedia and video journalism, which officially launched this month. We're still working out some kinks, but we think you will find the stories we are finding well worth the visit. I'm also blogging there, which has put a serious dent into blogging HERE!

Family Photojournalist: Tips for Better Pictures

2008-12-02T18:09:11Z

My career has been spent preparing students to become professional photojournalists, and I love seeing what they do with pictures of their families on holiday cards, websites, and scrapbooks. So, I always feel bad when I meet amateurs who lament lost memories when their pictures don’t turn out… especially scrapbookers, who do so much more with their images than leave them in a shoebox. It's been amazing to me to learn how many people I know are into scrapbooking... and you can imagine that I always get lots requests for advice on how to take better pictures.

I encourage scrapbookers to think and to see like photojournalists — because scrapbookers tell stories with pictures, as do photojournalists.

Anticipation is one strategy of the photojournalist. Watch for moments that are part of an event or story -- not just static poses. If you see one of your kids eyeing another eating an ice cream cone, for example, anticipate.

Raise your camera, frame the picture… the two may next be sharing the cone or fighting over it, but you are likely to capture a moment worth preserving in any case… particularly if you keep shooting. We used to be limited to 36 shots, maximum, to a roll of film. Digital cameras provide unlimited opportunities to record wonderful stories, even as they unfold.

Light is often the crucial difference between a memorable image and a missed opportunity. Without enough light, photos are blurry or dark.

If the ice cream confrontation occurs in dim light, your pictures may be blurry. Flash can stop action, but when used direct, it causes awful shadows, the cave effect… and red-eye. (At least those old flashed black-and-white family shots didn’t give us all demonic eyes! Thanks to color photos, I bet you’ve got a few demons in your family…)

Think about it. The pop-up flash sends light straight out from a spot aligned with your forehead! Do you know of any other light that comes from this direction? If your photos look nothing like the moments you thought you had recorded, that is why.

Natural light comes from above (the sky or a ceiling light) or from the side (a window or a lamp). Professional photographers use expensive external flashes instead of the pop-up flash so that they can redirect the light to a ceiling or wall to create soft, natural light. You can buy an external flash, too, and learn to create natural light — or you can use the Lightscoop® -- which redirects the light from the pop-up flash on digital SLRs to a ceiling to create soft overhead light (which eliminates red-eye and that awful cave effect) -- or to a wall to create beautiful, window-like light when the camera is turned vertically.

Remember… think and shoot like a photojournalist. Anticipate action before it occurs. Make sure there is enough light to record it crisply. Control the flash indoors so that all the people in your family story are well lit. And keep shooting until you are sure you have caught the perfect moment in every small story that unfolds in your family and among your friends.

Olympus E410 and E510 Update

2008-07-28T00:09:37Z

Tests with the E420, 520, and the E3 were spot on, but I currently am working with a customer who has not gotten satisfactory results from the Lightscoop on the older model Olympus cameras. If you or anyone you know is considering buying a Lightscoop for an Olympus 410 or 510, best to wait...

Will post here when I sleuth the problem...

Video: Setting up your Canon Rebel to use Professor Kobre's Lightscoop

2008-07-13T10:27:04Z

And... here's a step-by-step guide to setting up most any Canon Rebel for use with Professor Kobre's Lightscoop.

Professor Kobre's Lightscoop is an American Photo Editor's Choice!!

2008-07-11T11:43:49Z

Look what happened while we weren't looking! American Photo Magazine tagged the Lightscoop as an Editor's Choice in its June 2008 issue...

"Among the many cool lighting tools we've seen in the last 12 months, one of the most clever comes from photographer Kenneth Kobre, author of a bestselling textbook on photojournalism. The Kobre Lightscoop (about $30, at lightscoop.com) does something that was difficult if not impossible before: It provides the lighting benefits of a ceiling- or wall-bounced shoe-mount strobe from the pop-up flash built into the pentaprism of most SLRs.

Basically an angled-up mirror in a plastic housing, the Lightscoop slides over the camera's hotshoe and deflects the flash output upward toward a ceiling or sideways toward a wall (when the camera is held vertically). In addition to providing a much softer, more flattering on-the-spot light, that technique eliminates redeye and shadows cast by long lenses, as well as opening up the backgrounds of interior portraits."

We're actually selling the Lightscoop for $34.95 on our site these days in order to give the price advantage to our exclusive online reseller, Adorama.com, where it sells for $29.95.

Video: Setting up your Nikon to use Professor Kobre's Lightscoop

2008-07-11T11:25:42Z

Have been working on some videos to show new users how to set up their cameras for best results with the Lightscoop. Here's one for the Nikon cameras. The demo features a Nikon D80, but the menus, etc., will be very similar for other compatible Nikons.

Lightscoop + Olympus... YES!

2008-07-10T06:34:35Z

Am in Arles, France, this week for the Recontres Internationales de la Photographie. Olympus is this year's major sponsor... which is great news for the Recontres and also for Olympus owners who have been asking about Lightscoop compatibility. I spent yesterday morning testing the universal-foot Lightscoop with the Olympus E420, E520, and the E3. Got great results with all three cameras. I am told that users of the E410 and E510 can expect the same performance. (Anything wider than a 11mm lens (22mm film-equivalent) does result in some spill at the top, but the intersection of shooting that wide while using the pop-up flash should be a rare occurrence. The Olympus lenses that operate at that width are in the very top professional line.)

Video: Setting up your Canon 40D to use Professor Kobre's Lightscoop

2008-07-13T10:28:22Z

Here's a step-by-step guide to setting up a Canon 40D (should also work with the 10D, 20D, etc.) to use with Professor Kobre's Lightscoop.

Proud Prof: Mary Calvert wins Robert F. Kennedy Award

2008-05-18T08:06:38Z

Former student Mary Calvert of the Washington Times has just learned that she is the winner of this year's Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for her project "Lost Daughters," about sex selection in India. This Award is particularly poignant for me, given that Mary was on the team that won the student division of this award back in the 1980s for the project "Helpers in the War on AIDS," carried out in the photo story class at San Francisco State. Congratulations, Mary.

The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award honors the outstanding reporting of the lives and strife of disadvantaged people throughout the world. Known as the "Poor People's Pulitzers" within the press arena, these award recipients have brought to light issues spanning from child abuse and juvenile crime to discriminatory banking practices and prejudice against AIDS victims.

Established in December of 1968 by a group of reporters covering Robert Kennedy's presidential election, the award program has far exceeded the expectations of its founders, according to its site. Led by a committee of six independent journalists, the Awards are judged by more than fifty journalists each year. It has become the largest program of its kind and one of few in which the winners are determined solely by their peers.

The Web's Most Moving Stories...

2008-05-14T16:33:36Z

I've got an exciting announcement to make, about a project that you’ll love and will want to participate in. But first a little background.

A curious thing is happening in the world of online news photography, precipitated by three converging trends:

1) More Web users have access to high-speed broadband;

2) Digital technology and easy-to-use software is enabling more people to shoot and edit slideshows (with audio!), and upload them to Websites;

3) Similarly, more people can now shoot and edit videos — quickly and inexpensively — and upload them to Websites.
Popular user-generated sites such as Flickr and YouTube are proving how fast, cheap and simple it is to create moving pictures that dance and sing.

But as we’ve seen with most blogs, just because someone can write does not mean they can write well. And now we’re finding, no surprise, that just because someone can create a video and show it to the entire world doesn’t mean it’s going to be any good.

So where are the true professionals when you need them?

Excellent question.

The first place you’d think to look would be on the Websites of daily newspapers, where seasoned photojournalists ply their trade.

However, most newspapers dived into the deep end of the pool of Web videojournalism without filling it properly, and ended up hurting themselves pretty badly. Specifically, in an effort to save money in these budget-crunching times, instead of hiring trained video crews and editors, newspapers handed digital videocameras to their reporters and told them to shoot their stories as they were reporting them – and then edit and upload the resulting video themselves. Heck, any teenager can use YouTube, they reasoned; how hard could this be?

For starters, not many of those writers possessed any sense of visual aesthetics – why should they? And even among those lucky few that did, not many were up to the task of processing, editing, and producing multimedia packages. After all, they had a daily print deadline to meet, and there are only so many hours in a day!

Reporters became frustrated that their editors were essentially asking them to take on these monumentally time-consuming extra tasks, which required an entire different set of skills and talents. Consequently, their resulting slideshows and videos were less than stellar.

Photojournalists to the rescue! Well, almost. Again, just because someone has a good eye for taking pictures, and capturing newsmaking moments, doesn’t necessarily translate to being able to shoot, edit and produce a digital movie (or even audio slideshow) that meets the dual high standards of powerful journalism and compelling storytelling.

Traditionally, print reporters conduct interviews and photographers accompany them to visually document events. By arming photographers with videocameras, they were being asked to do everything themselves – reporting, writing, shooting, editing.

So the first round of Web videojournalism was basically a moving version of still photographs. Accompanying a text story about a garbage collector you’d find a short video of him dragging and lifting cans. Not exactly riveting – and no wonder that viewers didn’t want to invest the time watching these boring vignettes. Media outlets were desperately counting on big viewership so they could sell video ads to precede these stories, but because the product was so inferior, nobody was watching! The future of Web multimedia did not seem bright.

But little by little, a few newspapers started figuring it out. They paired up print journalists with photographers, and invested in hiring (and training) talented videojournalists. Some still photographers took it upon themselves to learn new techniques and technology, so that they could be in the vanguard of a whole new medium. Slowly the cream started rising. Gradually we started to see the emergence of high quality multimedia journalism.

Well, not all of us. In fact, most people will tell you that they hardly ever see multimedia journalism of any quality! It wasn't until I began revising my photojournalism textbook last year and started searching — REALLY searching — for the good stuff, that I started to see the high quality, exciting stuff that so few people know about.

There are two inter-related reasons for this. One, most people don’t realize it’s out there; two, the stories are well hidden. It’s a Catch-22.

The publishers can’t sell ads on or around multimedia until a lot of people see it, but at the same time they don’t want to invest a lot of money promoting it (or take up a lot of valuable Web real estate with it) because they aren’t making money on it – because nobody’s watching it.

Consequently, most people can’t even find it to look at it, even if they wanted to. (And, let’s face it, when you’re cruising the Web for news and information, you’re unlikely to spend a lot of time exploring or taking a chance on watching a 5-minute video, especially if there’s nothing explaining what it’s about or why you might enjoy it.) So it’s a vicious circle.

That’s where we come in. I decided to create a TV Guide, if you will, to the best video and multimedia journalism on the Web, so that you can find the good stuff fast. We’ll find it for you, we’ll show you where it’s hiding, we’ll explain why you’ll want to see it, and we’ll lead you there with one click.

When you go to KobreGuide in a few weeks, you’ll be able to see, at a glance, the best the medium has to offer. Unlike YouTube and its ilk, KobreGuide is professionally curated, meaning that our seasoned editors and photographers are actively searching for and hand-selecting what we think you’ll most appreciate.

There are plenty of sites that will offer you everything out there – go to Blinkx, for example, if you want to wade through a swamp of “18 million hours of video.” But if your time is precious, then let us point you to one or two truly prize-worthy video stories that will inform, entertain, and possibly even alter your perceptions. Stories you’ll love so much, you’ll want to tell your friends about them.

Here’s an example of an L.A. Times project that got a lot of attention in its print editions – and the story was even picked up by Rolling Stone magazine – but the original audio slideshow was buried so deep on latimes.com that hardly anybody saw or heard it. Titled “Marlboro Marine,” it’s a tale told by L.A. Times photographer Luis Sanco, whose closeup image of Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, cigarette dangling from his lips, became an emblem of the Iraq war.

In a series of emotionally charged audio-slideshows, we learn the dramatic story of what happened AFTER that famous photo was published. When Sanco found out that, after returning stateside, Miller was suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder, the photographer himself set out to help the soldier – and documented their tandem “rescue” mission, not only with photos but also with accompanying audio narration by both men.

That’s the kind of powerful multimedia journalism you’ll have a hard time finding on your own, but you’ll see prominently spotlighted on KobreGuide. (And here’s the link to the story, if you can’t wait for our official debut: www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-marlboro11nov11,0,4380908.story)

So. We’re just a few weeks away from launch. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve got. Meanwhile, if you’ve personally created or encountered multimedia journalism you’d like to share, please let us know. We welcome your savvy eyes and ears.

For our mission statement, and more details on our criteria of exactly what we’re looking for, please go to our placeholder blog at KobreGuide.com. And give us your feedback: kenkobre (at) gmail (dot) com.

We always enjoy hearing from you.

Picture YOUR photo on the cover of "America at Home"

2008-05-15T14:33:01Z

If you don't know Rick Smolan, you surely know the book projects he has created, starting with the Day in the Life Series, going all the way back to "A Day in the Life of Australia" in 1981. Rick's wife, Jennifer Erwitt, was project director for those books, and the two also collaborated on "A Passage to Vietnam" and other books through their company, Against All Odds Productions. They are a real dynamic duo when it comes to organizing and producing wonderful photography projects.

Rick and Jennifer's latest book project is called "America at Home: A Close-Up Look at How We Live." Whereas other projects dispatched 100 or more professional photographers to capture moments in time... in the US, the USSR, and even "in" Cyberspace, this time Rick and Jennifer invited not just pros but tens of thousands of amateurs to submit snapshots showing what their homes mean to them.

The editing job gives me a headache to think about it... 250 final images selected from—are you ready?—250,000 submissions! The resulting $40 full-color coffee table book is a fascinating collection of photos representing different cultures, rituals, and events that, as Rick says, make a house a HOME.

What makes this book particularly fun for photographers like you is that you can upload a picture of your own family, pets, etc., "at home" to create a custom book jacket. What a great way to personalize a gift... one for parents, another for aunts and uncles, etc.

Not only that, but by buying the book direct on the "America at Home" site, the $8 custom cover is FREE. (While it's true that I think you would be well-served to use a Lightscoop to light your images, you are welcome to upload anything from scanned old family photos to shots right out of your cell phone.)

Another cool feature of the site itself, by the way, is that it allows you to browse the book digitally. Enjoy the adventure... and put YOUR photo on the cover...

Proud Prof: SFSU student takes tops in latest Hearst Awards Competition

2008-04-16T13:13:17Z

Congrats to Jessica Pons, who is the top finalist in the Picture Story/Series Competition of the Hearst Photojournalism Awards Program this year and is one of four who will compete for a semi-final round of judging in May. This was the third and final photojournalism competition of this academic year, entered by 43 students nationwide. Hats off also to SFSU student Jeff Enlow, who placed among the top 20 finalists.

            Jessica and the other three top finalists in the Picture Story/Series Competition, along with the top four finalists in the previous two competitions, will submit additional photos for the semi-final round of judging this May. Of those, six photojournalists will be chosen to compete in the program's national photojournalism Championships in San Francisco, along with winners in the writing and broadcast news competitions.

            The photojournalism judges are: Janet Reeves, Director of Photography, The Rocky Mountain News, Denver, CO; Mary Shanahan, Creative Director, Town & Country Magazine, New York, NY; and Pim Van Hemmen, Assistant Managing Editor/Photography, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ.

Look for the Lightscoop at Adorama.com!

2008-04-16T12:22:46Z

We're excited around here... As I wrote not long ago, we've signed an exclusive agreement with Adorama.com to be our sole online/mail order retailer partner. We're in the catalog! One of the purchasers there saw the New York Times' David Pogue's review on CNBC last December, and after months of discussions and preparations for the retail market, Professor Kobré's Lightscoop is OUT THERE! Both the CNBC piece and Pogue's end-of year column in the New York Times caught the eye of some major retailers, but after interviewing other small manufacturers like us, we were impressed by how much they respected and liked working with Adorama. We hope eventually to be in retail storefronts, but we're selling online only through our own site and Adorama. Adorama has a huge line of still and video photography equipment. We're very excited to be working with them and hope you will patronize them for your other photography needs!

Proud Prof: White House News Photographers Association Names Michael Mullady Student Photographer of the Year

2008-03-24T21:48:06Z

SFSU photojournalist Michael Mullady took top honors in the WHNPA student division this year. His smashing portfolio featured two photo stories: “Children of Lead,” which studied a town in Peru where 99%
of the children have lead poisoning, and “Delicate Strength,” which followed a young woman struggling
to overcome stereotypes of people with disabilities.

Justin Maxxon, another SFSU student, earned an Honorable Mention.

Congrats, guys. You are doing amazing work.

Review: Lightscoop compares favorably to external flash diffusers!

2008-03-13T17:57:14Z

Here's a review we would never have anticipated -- from Digital Camera Review: "Light Modifiers: An Analysis and Field Guide."

Site administrator David Rasnake and NotebookReview.com editor Jerry Jackson ran the Lightscoop through its paces right alongside external flash units and diffusers made for them.

Direct from the article: "The Lightscoop is the one modifier in our group designed for use not with an external flash, but with the camera's built-in unit... The biggest surprise of the group, in our minds, is just how much this unit did to provide a natural, uniform exposure when compared to direct pop-up flash. Though it requires (per manufacturer's instructions) a flash power boost to light things up sufficiently, results are really quite good when price is factored in, as there's no need to buy an external flash unit."

About that Flash Exposure Compensation boost... per my research with the camera manufacturers, that +1 or +2, when available, is forcing more light from the flash... that's it. Using flash compensation simply exploits the cameras' potential. It's NOT the same as + or - Exposure Compensation, which over- or under-exposes an image.

Lightscoop & remote firing with Nikon flash in Commander Mode

2008-03-13T17:59:50Z

Got this question via the Lightscoop web site:
--------
"The Lightscoop appears like it would also be beneficial when the Nikon's pop-up flash is used as a controller for external CLS lighting. The problem with the usual way of doing this is that the direct preflash from the pop-up flash in Commander mode makes many subjects blink during the actual exposure, even when the pop-up is set to "--". It's my understanding that the Nikon SG-31R IR Panel will work to eliminate eye-blinking from the preflash when used this way, even if the front of the panel is covered with black tape. Have you done any testing to see if the Lightscoop works well for this purpose?"
------

Ran a couple of tests, and, YEP... the Lightscoop does work for this purpose. Didn't have a subject likely to blink, unfortunately... but here's a quick shot with the SB600 held off camera, fired by the pop-up flash with a Lightscoop in place. It ain't art, but no cables, additional slave units, etc.

Universal fit coming soon... promotion on first models

2008-03-11T18:07:58Z

As many of you know, one of my great frustrations has been fitting the Lightscoop into the different manufacturers' hot shoes. Product designer Michael McParland and I have been at work on this for months, and have developed a solution that will serve all the current models we support... 35mm SLR Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Fuji FinePix Pro models with interchangeable lenses. We've still got work to do for Olympus and Sony... In any case, we're closing out the existing line, with $5 mark-downs across the board -- until we run out of the specific-fit units. We expect delivery by the end of April for the universal models.

The additional tooling costs for the new, universal Lightscoop are translating into a price increase... $34.95 on our web site. We'll be taking orders for those once we get them in.

However, we also will be moving into the retail chain soon, where the "street" price is likely to be lower than on our own site. As our exclusive online reseller, for example, Adorama.com will sell the universal-fit Lightscoop for its original retail price of $29.95 when it is available. Volume purchasers can do that!

There's a nice story behind the Adorama deal... A sharp-eyed fellow at Adorama first learned about the Lightscoop when David Pogue included it as one of his cool, cheap gadgets on CNBC in December... "neat product," he said... and conversations continued over the past few months as we continued to work on the universal foot. We're excited by the opportunity!

Pop-up flash diffusers versus bounced pop-up with Lightscoop

2008-03-12T21:14:17Z

Have written in the past why bouncing the flash is more effective than putting a diffuser in front of it. A particularly insistent skeptic finally motivated me to do a side-by-side comparison. As you will know from reading my past entries, I never really saw diffusers as 'competition' because they don't accomplish the same thing as redirecting light. In any case, I took up the challenge, and you can see the results for yourself. Now that I have these other products, I'll eventually do some other comparisons in other settings...