Andaman Islands, India. Red Snapper (Lutjanus bohar) caught with a stickbait. SB800 through Orbis Ring Flash

Andaman Islands, India. Red Snapper (Lutjanus bohar) caught with a stickbait. SB800 through Orbis Ring Flash, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

The Orbis Ring Flash sure is a great light modifier for my fishing portraits, is just a tad bulky to carry on a suitcase full of lures, reels and all kind of tackle. Fort this reason I not always bring it with me, but when I do I never regret. She is pretty, has a gorgeous smile and can perfectly hold a fish, a great plus for a fishing photo. I love the specular ring on her sunglasses, is a kind of brand signature of the Orbis.

SB800 through Orbis Ring Flash triggered with Nikon CLS

Orbisflash for still life

For this test we found quite an unusual subject for the Orbisflash, a still life. I’m pretty sure that this ring flash was not designed for anything like that, but we had fun for half an hour trying different angles, and finally comparing it with a Lumiquest Softbox III, a Lumiquest Snoot and finally a bare SB800.

In this first image we have the Orbisflash on axis with the lens. That is, the lens goes through the hole :-) . The light gently wraps the whole subject

Now we moved the Orbisflash from the lens to camera left. The light is still nice and wrapping, we have more shadows and probably a more interesting picture

The Orbisflash is on top of the subject. This is the option I like the least, the light is a bit dull and there’s quite a loss of contrast and details.

Here we have the Lumiquest Softbox III right on top of the lens, trying to mimic the direction of light of the Orbisflash. The result is quite similar to that of image one, thus the light is not as wrapping and creates more edges

Lumiquest Softbox III on camera left. Compared to the second image we have more contrast here, darker shadows and stronger highlights. Is more contrasty

Softbox III on top of our garlic. The result is not too different from the one we made with the Orbisflash with the same settings.

Here we go for a very hard and narrow beam of light. The Lumiquest Snoot creates some kind of bad chiaroscuro, with very harsh and unflattering shadows.

Another hard light configuration. The SB800 is now bare, and the light again very unflattering. Lots of unpleasant contrast, same as in the previous example, yet we have a wider beam of light and it spreads more around the subject.

Orbisflash for macro work

I’m slowly getting familiar with the Orbisflash and this time I gave it a try with a macro subject. Working with the 60mm Micro Nikkor stuck at a mere 10cm from the lure, I did some fun testing

For works of this kind there is no other option but to place the camera on a tripod. Otherwise we would have the Orbis on the left hand and the camera in the other with both hands shaking and major focusing problems. Still, a sharp focus with a macro lens so close to the subject is extremely complicated. If you pay attention, even at f16 the depth of field is so limited that the metallic paint is not as focused as the eye, and I think the difference in depth between the two certainly cannot be spotted without a magnifying glass.

The Orbisflash, as many ring flash used in fashion photography, it gets reflected in a very unique way in the subject’s pupil. It is true that in the human eye is quite pleasing, very cool I’d say, I wanted to see if it would work as well on a plastic one, and to be very honest I believe it does. From the first to the second picture you can see we have slightly moved the Orbisflash from the lens axis to an off-camera position, and the reflection moved as well.

The light that provides such peculiar flash will sure have critics and devotee; I personally find it very cool. It wraps the subject in a very uniform shadowless way, yet not flat or dull, and delivers enough contrast to the image.

When I received it from the shop I thought it was a darn bulky monster, but now, after very little use I handle it with the same ease I handle my SB800 alone, and I am finding many and different applications for it.