Gary Fong AMBDOM AmberDome for LSU and LS2 (Amber)

by Gary Fong Inc

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5 x 5 x 3.5 inches ; 4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000VPOYJC
• Item model number: AMBDOM
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #97 in Camera & Photo > Accessories > Lighting
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

The Amber Dome lid is for the LightSphere CLOUD and the Universal Cloud and it does a great job of balancing and /or warming your light in the following sitiations: Outdoors at dusk or early morning. Outsoors in Open Shade (set camera to auto-white blbance).Interiors with tungsten lighting (set camera WB to "tungsten setting). Shooting sunsets with the sun at your subject's back.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Effective for indoor flash photography, December 28, 2007

By 

B. Bardill (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I use the Amberdome with the Cloud Diffuser Light Sphere for indoor flash portrait photography for one reason: to warm up the cold light from the flash to balance the warmer tungsten (e.g. incandescent) light in the background. The camera must be placed into 'Tungsten' white balance mode. The result is a very natural photo in which the direct light from the flash is subtly blended with the background light. Without the amberdome and your camera set to 'Auto' white balance mode, the subject directly illuminated by the flash will be white-balanced correctly, but the background will be very orange. Some people say to shoot RAW and correct the color in post processing: you cannot easily do so with a single adjustment layer because there are two distinct white temperatures.

To use the Amberdome, I angle my flash upwards at the ceiling and tilted towards my subject slightly. I set my Canon 5D camera to the tungsten white balance (the icon is shaped like an incandescent light bulb). This only works when the ceiling is about 10 feet or lower, as light power diminishes exponentially every foot, and a nearly white ceiling. The bounce light will match the tungsten light in the background, but sometimes I get a green/yellowish tint in the edges of the photo because the ceiling color changes the orange.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Limited use but highly effective, March 9, 2007

By 

T. Veatch (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I've used the Amberdome indoors in low-light situations. Using the Amberdome helps to preserve the natural lighting in low-light, but the best part is that it lights up the space without blinding everyone in the area. For a neat effect, try dragging the shutter with the Amberdome. Any moving subject will have a warm glow about it. The Amberdome works best with a digital, as it's tough to tell how much warmth it's casting upon your subject - hard to control on an SLR. If you're using a digital, make sure that the white balance is set to tungsten lighting, otherwise, your photos will come out way too warm. The Amberdome is pretty much usless in an high- or mid-light situations, but it's totally worth it if you shoot often in low-lighting.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect solution., May 17, 2010

By 

H. Hatje "Photographer" (UT, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gary Fong AMBDOM AmberDome for LSU and LS2 (Amber) (Electronics)

On my last assignment, I was to shoot a wedding outdoors, however a sudden change in weather forced the ceremony to be indoors. The indoor location was good, however, I was faced with tungsten lighting from some spotlights above. This cast harsh shadows down upon the bride, groom and party. To resolve this, I set up two remote flashes on either side of the stage and used two amberdomes on my two lightsphere universals and set my white-balance to tungsten. The photos turned out beautifully and the happy couple were ecstatic with the end results.

Gary Fong's amberdome saved the day and my wedding shoot. It never hurts to be prepared, and Gary Fong's system makes it compact, light and easy to port around.

Using this outdoors, I was also able to shoot in the rain and capture some great portraits. Using the amberdome again I was able warm up the photos, making it look as if the models were looking into a sunset.

I would recommend this to all professional and semi-professionals. For hobbyists who understand how to handle colour, this is also a good item. However, for the novice-photographer, I would suggest studying up on what these dome colours do to an image and how they change the image you capture first, before using it for the first time.

Remember, it's not just about aiming a camera and pressing the trigger, it's how you can use the lighting to create the magic in a photograph and to prevent post-production retouching of your photos.