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Rogue Photographic Design has come out with three types of bendable reflectors to help you get the most from your camera’s flash. The first is a bendable bounce card, the second is a small positional reflector, and the third is a large positional reflector.
Essentially these three are the same type of tool of differing sizes. What these are, along with bending the light, they also diffuse the light that comes from your flash. They allow you to direct and position your light onto your subject in many different ways. They are made out of a durable fabric that contains flexible metal inserts that allow you to position the fabric to direct the light.
Using the reflectors is very easy. You just attach them to the head of your flash and put them into position by bending them and use your flash as you normally would. They attach with an elastic piece of strap that has Velcro attached at the end. It is forms a pretty secure attachment as far as holding it on. When you try to reposition it you can get some slippage, but nothing too detracting.
The units each fold to a flat position so it makes it easy to store in your backpack and they take up very little space. They are made very well. The fiber seems to be very durable and looks like they will last a long time. The metal inserts are very firm to the point that you have to be deliberate when you are bending them but that also means that they stay in position when you place them.
The smallest of the three is the bounce card. It can be used as a reflector to bounce light or as a flag to shield light away from the flash – this is useful when you want to direct light, but don’t want to see it coming off the flash. This one has a sheet of black fabric that can be used to flag the flash along with directing it as well.
The other two – the large and small positionable reflectors come with three and two metal inserts respectively. This gives them a lot of ability to bend and curve the light exactly where you want to see it.
What is also really nice is that you can combine them on a single flash. In the photo below I took the large reflector and set it up to wash the light behind the girls head with as scoop like form. Then I took the bounce card and positioned it in front of the large to both block the flash and direct the light into the scoop. This gave me a lot of control over the hair/rim light and let me set it up to where the light was there but it only defined the back without being distracting.
If you are looking for an easy way to bend the light – especially when working in close with people and/or objects, the Rogue Flash Benders are easy to use and work really well, and thus I highly recommend Flash Benders.
