Shot by Scott

 A very simple bayonet system used by the flashes I have

System Accessories

Once you have a bare bulb flash you will eventually want to use some light modifiers: umbrellas, soft boxes etc. There are several light modifiers, cables, triggers, colour gels and other accessories on the market to get you started, but you can also use a lot of existing “Strobist” style kit that you may already have. As I’m use one of the re-banded Godox Witstro systems called Genesis Reporter there will be a natural bias in the information I have as its all based on my experiences.

Some of the other names Godox Witstro are distributed under are

• Cheetahlight
• Neewer
• Lencarta
• Tronic
• Dorama
• Flashpoint
• Genesis
  
• Bolt

For the sake of not complicating things I will refer to them a Godox, most of the accessories listed blow are purpose designed for these systems and my not be 100% compatible with other systems. If I do know of anny issues I will try to list them. I have seen accessory kits for converting some types of portable soft-boxes to the mount system pictured above. But the mount isn’t designed to take a lot of weight, it is designed for portability and ease of use but keeping with in a budget. So please don’t go expecting to be able to mount a 180cm octo-box on the flash with this small mount, that said there are ways of doing it but first off I want to cover of the modifiers I have seen around for the Godox system.

Wide angel reflector with an umbrella mount

Wide angel reflector with an umbrella mount from Godox, designed to have the flash as close to the centre line of your umbrella as possible. I wouldn’t want to hang a large umbrella on that mount but for anything up to about 1m it will work great. This is purpose designed for  Godox lashes (this won’t work properly with the  Triopo/polaroid system I mentioned last time, as the screw mount for the umbrella holder is missing but you can mount the wide angel reflector with them). It is a very cheap accessory and is probably one of the first things you should add to your system.

Main features:

• Locks quickly into position and carries easily
• Throws clean and diffused light over longer distance
• Works perfect with the combination of the fold-up umbrella
• Provided umbrella-input hole mounts  to facilitate the umbrella use

Specifications:

• Size: Diameter 13.8cm
• Weight: 60g

Packaging Includes:

• 1 x Umbrella-style reflector
• 1 x Umbrella-input support

wide angel reflector and umbrella holder

180ws flash with a wide angel reflector , and an umbrella holder so the weight of the 180cm umbrella isn’t supported by the flash head.

3 in 1 Soft Box Diffuser Reflector

If you are only going to get 1 modifier then look very seriously at “Godox ADS7 3 in 1 Soft Box Diffuser Reflector”. Its is basically a small parabolic umbrella that you can set up how you need with a variety of accessories. They call it a 3 in 1 set but as you can use it as a beauty dish or Soft-box or gridded soft-box. But that said you can also grid the beauty dish or add the reflector dish to the soft box, so there are several other options available. With only 48cm circumference it isn’t a large octo-box but works great in close for portraits.

 3 in 1 Soft Box Diffuser Reflector in the background being used as a hair light

Main Features:

• Umbrella-shaped soft box produces even and soft illumination
• Can be used as white soft box or as a beauty dish,  both with or with out a grid
• Durable and flexible steel frame, it can be easily folded into small size

Specifications:

• Dimensions: 70cm x 41cm x 38cm
• Circumference: ø48cm
• Weight: 280g

Package Includes:

• 1 x Soft Box
• 1 x Honeycomb
• 1 x Diffusion Cover
• 1x Silver Disc with 3/8″ Thread

  by mixing and matching you can create the light modifier you want

Beauty Dish with Grid

One thing I don’t have yet is Godox AD-S3 Beauty Dish with Grid as I have the “Godox ADS7 3 in 1 Soft Box Diffuser Reflector” I haven really seen the need to get it. The beauty dish is a parabolic reflector with a diameter of 30 cm.

Specifications of the Dish:

• Diameter: 305mm
• Depth: 95mm
• Weight: 310g

Specification of the honeycomb:

• Diameter: 295mm
• Thickness: 12mm
• Weight: 126g

Set includes:

• 1 x Beauty Dish
• 1 x Honeycomb
• 1 x diffuser transparent

Wide Angle Diffuser

The wide angle diffuser  is a Domed diffuser offers 180 degrees of coverage. It soften the direct light to create diffused light with a spread over 180°. I haven’t used one of these yet but its on my to buy list and i plan to use it for fill flash.

Main Features:

• It can soften the direct light from your strobe.
• Eliminating the flare in portraits and other objects obtains to create a more natural light
  

Specification of the Domed Diffuser:

• Diameter: 12cm
• Weight: 90g
• Effective Area: 180°

Snoot

The conical snoot is great for those cool product shots where the light cascades in to pinpoint the product. The Snoot allows you to control a column of light placing where you want.  The snoot is designed to create a spotlight effect with your Speedlight creating special effects on your background or as an accent light.

Specification of the snoot:

• Dimensions: 72cm x 44cm x 57cm
• Weight: 204g

Package Includes:

• 1 x Snoot
• 1 x Honeycomb

I used the snoot to light a small area behind the model. 

Colour Gels & Reflector Grid

Four colours (red, yellow, blue, green)set come with a honeycombed grid and are all designed to fit the  standard reflector that comes with the 180 and 360. The reflector dish from my Triopo/Polaroid  flash as it has a smaller diameter, but like I can use the larger standard reflector on my Triopo/Polaroid  flash  no problem.

Package Includes:

• 4 Colour Gels: diameter 12cm, weight 20g
• Reflector Grid: diameter 11.6cm, weight 20g

So far other then the umbrella mount all these modifiers from Godox work with my other flash from Triopo/Polaroid as the mounting system is basically the same. And as this blog has become a lot longer then I planed I’m going to continue it in part 3 it cables and 3rd party modifiers.