Friday, December 11, 2009

Brando Accessories Kit

For sometime now, I've been using an accessory kit for my speedlights made by Brando.com. This kit comes with a variety of modifiers to help you shape your light. The kit comes with a snoot, grids for snoots, large grid, 360* globe, barndoors, softbox and a reflector.

There are several pieces of this kit I like and other I could do without. I've been using the large grid quite-a-bit as well as the snoot with it's grids. You may remember the photo below from an earlier post, this photo was created using the larger grid from the Brando kit.
In this photo, you can see the flash and grid fastened to the ceiling.


Here is another photo taken last week in San Diego where students used the grid to light their subject.

I've used the 360* globe successfully to light a background that I wanted to knock out pure white.

The system is build around a fitted device which holds all of the modifiers in the kit. This collar fits snugly on the flash head, collars are made for all sorts of flash manufactures and you need to specify which flash you own when ordering.

Here is a photo showing all the modifiers shipped in the kit. I've found the softbox a bit hard to assemble with the small wands provide. The softbox also comes with several color front panels, blue, orange, red, green, and of course white.



The barndoors are a bit small and lame, I just use the one I have listed on my wish list at B&H. As a matter of fact, I have a complete list of items I like using listed HERE.

I haven't worked with the reflector yet, I'll let you know my thoughts about that later. Update: I went to JoAnn's and bought some fabric to put over the reflector and it seems to improve the quality of light. This complete kit costs about $85 bucks. If your looking for some cleaver light modifiers, you just might want to check this out. DT

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Great article!

I live in Brazil, and here we have a supplier that sells this modifiers, but on a per item basis. As for I could understand, they repack it and remove any brands, to make it difficult to identify the source. And they do this because the sell each piece by about half of the entire kit's price provided on the link you posted.

Regarding the reflector, or beauty dish, I have bought it and can't say I really like the results. Without a sock (not provided) over the dish the quality of the light spot is very irregular. With a nylon sock I did myself attached the light becomes more homogeneous, but you loss about 3 stops.

Anyway, I think I'm ordering the entire kit from the supplier you mentioned. I want to trt those grids.

Thanks again!

calanan said...

David, is this the Brando set ($88) that you're referencing? Thanks,

- mike

Charles Verghese said...

Hey David,

Thanks for the link. Was about to order the Interfit version on B&H. I think your guy seems to be a better deal. Will let you know how it goes once I get it.

By the way, when are the photos from Dubai gonna be up...waiting eagerly for them. How about some videos?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Charles (your assistant in Dubai)

David Tejada said...

Yes Mike. DT

Unknown said...

David, Great find! I love this kit. Looking at it with an Engineer's eye, it's well-made though the fit on my SB-900 leaves something to be desired. And, I can't believe the price! A tip for anyone ordering, be sure to specify your flash model since the adapters are model specific.