RayFlash Review

>Question- The lighting on these photos that you took look so 3-Dimensional. How did you do them?

 

    

 

These were done with one of my favorite weapons. They were shot with a portable ring flash that is mounted on my Canon 580EX. It is made by a company from the Czech Republic called RayFlash.  http://www.ray-flash.com/ I saw some outstanding outdoor shots of a model and noticed there was a behind-the-scenes set of photos. I saw then name “RayFlash” on the front of it in one shot. I Googled the name and found it for sale in the USA.

 

 

I would like to give you my first experience with my RayFlash:

I just did my first photo shoot with it in my studio with the RayFlash. Honestly, am not sure why, I had this preconceived notion that I was only going to get a mild ring flash effect and a very limited range. This was clearly not what happened.

 

I was part way through the photo shoot, and the model had just changed into another outfit. I told her that I have a new toy that I would like to try out. So bare with me because I might have to do some adjustments to get these shots to come out right. I quickly put on the new RayFlash and I took some shots with my 580EX set to E-TTL. I was surprised when I saw that by background light fired a couple of times (inconsistently). I had a red gel filter on the background light; that is how I could tell that it had fired. I really liked the look of what I was getting with the background light. I then switched over to manual did a quick shot saw that it was too overexposed. I backed down the power to 1/4 and took a few more shots. That worked and it was triggering the back light consistently.

 

      

I decided not to keep the model waiting, so we continued with the shoot at that setting. The shots looked so good that I caught myself shooting too fast for the flash to keep up. I quickly attached my CP-E2 battery pack to the flash and kept shooting.

 

All I kept saying was, gorgeous, beautiful, outstanding, I love that, wow, etc…  Not just because the model was doing such a great job, but at how I loved the results that I was getting. I decided to do a quick switch over back to the regular studio lighting without the RayFlash. They somehow looked boring in comparison; so I switched back and finished shooting that outfit with the RayFlash set-up.

I found out that in manual mode, for full length shots, I had to up the power to 1/2, and back it down to 1/4 for 3/4 length model shots. I’ll have to see how I can connect my wireless radio trigger for my studio lights off my pc synch, and use the RayFlash off the hot shoe for the next photo shoot. This should be simple to do with a short cable.

 

I always like to give feedback from my websites back to where the credit is due. The model did a fantastic job and so did my new RayFlash. I am very happy with the results. I particularly love how quickly I could pop on the RayFlash for some quick shots.

 

…I posted one photo at a couple of my websites last night. It is UNBELIEVABLE just how many compliments I have already received for just this one shot!!! Many are saying that it is such a great photo, and that the model looks so gorgeous and beautiful.

 

That was over 6 months ago. Back then it was new on the market and I payed around $300 for it. Now it is available for around $100 less. I really like to do some shots on every photo session with it. Since then, I have honed my skills with this setup. I now prefer to set my flash on E-TTL with a battery pack, and camera set on RAW. This gives me the most flexibility.

 

Now that the weather is finally warming up outside; I can’t wait to try it out for outdoor shoots. The quality and construction has proven to be very good, and I’ve never had any problems with it.