Haydon

There will be times where I will want to use a speed-light outdoors instead of a mono-light. I'm a little apprehensive in my two choices. From what I've read, anything much over 25" with a single speedlight will have it's limitations in an outdoor environment. I don't believe either one of these beauty dishes/octabox can support more than one light. I'm using a Canon 600 EX-RT as a light source.

Here are my two choices

http://www.cheetahstand.com/product-p/qsb-34.htm

Pros:

Cheetah 34" Quick SoupBowl

Can be used with a speed-ring for my Einstein as well as a speed-light.
16 sided producing near perfect round catch lights.
34" producing relatively soft light fall off comparatively to a smaller modifier.

Cons: Please contribute here and your choice

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1356685-REG/photoflex_870203_rapidome_kit_with_free.html

Pros:

Photoflex RapiDome with Grid Kit

Better size for a single speedlight?
Smaller more compact kit
Less vulnerable to wind that the larger modifier listed above.

Cons: Please contribute here and your choice

Any direction here would be appreciated. Thanks everyone in advance.

Angmo

I like the Cheetahstand Modifiers. I have several. 48” quick, 38” rice bowl, and a 24” quick (the square one). They come with grids and your choice of mount so price is excellent. They work very well. If you can get the round Beauty dish accessory, it’s worth it depending on what you shoot.

I’ve got Creative light mods too. They’re now in the Profoto line.

The 34” size will need a lot of power from the speedlight to fill up.

Anyway these Cheetahstand mods feather real nice. I often shoot them 90 degrees from the model a foot or two in front of her. The light traveling straight left to right in front of her.

CO

I also tried out different light modifiers like these for my Nikon SB-700 flash. I ended up purchasing a Kupo swivel umbrella bracket and fire the flash into a silver lined umbrella and a translucent umbrella. I use a PocketWizard Mini-TT1 and Flex-TT5 with the set up because they support TTL metering. I would go with the smaller Photoflex RapiDome for the flash.

I was taking some test shots in my living room and noticed that it's better to use the wide angle panel that pulls out of the flash head. I could see the difference in the reflections in the window when doing the test shots. In the upper photo I zoomed the flash head to it widest setting. In the lower photo I pulled out the wide angle panel. It helps to spread the light out to the edges of the umbrella. I was just looking at your Canon 600 EX-RT online. It has the wide angle panel. They call it a diffusion panel but it's the same thing.

Flash head zoomed to widest setting

(Download)

Wide angle panel in place

(Download)

Haydon

CO, thanks with the images. I've been using the speedlight at 20 mm but your illustrations speak loudly. Thank you so much. I am looking at an octabox instead of umbrellas just to fight the wind when shooting outdoors. I have a couple of different sizes in umbrellas. You've convinced me to buy the smaller Rapidome. Respect sir!

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

The smaller unit would be my choice simply because it comes with a grid. Very handy when you want to reduce the spread. In practice, it would be very difficult to look at an image and tell which one was used.

Haydon

Thanks CaptainC, much appreciated, you do fine work sir!