The honeycomb cells of the Honl Photo Speed Grid produced a dramatic circle of light from our SB-900 flash.

I wrote about photojournalist David Honl's assortment of do-it-yourself flash accessories and light shaping tools a couple years ago when he was, more or less, selling them out of the trunk of his car. (Actually, it was over the Internet but you get the point.)

Honl created the tools, which include snoots, gobos, flags and other accessories that you strap to your portable flashes by a simple Velcro system, after years of duct taping pieces of cardboard to his shoe-mounted flash to manipulate the light.

At the recent PMA show in Las Vegas, I was happy to learn that Honl's nifty line of light shapers has expanded and his products are now being distributed by ExpoImaging. Bravo David.

I got a chance to try out Honl's system again recently and remembered why I liked the concept so much in the first place. Two words: simplicity and effectiveness. I review a ton of products and even though my experience has made me more adept at figuring out some ornate piece of photo gear quicker than most people—an occupational hazard, I suppose—it hasn't diminished my frustration when something is designed poorly. C'mon guys, try it out first before you sell it to people!

I experienced no such issues with the accessories in the Honl Photo Speed System I tested out recently, which are so easy to use they almost aren't really products at all, they're more like add-ons. Along with their simplicity, Honl's tools are likely to be some of the cheapest things in your camera bag with most of the stuff selling for $10 to $30 a pop.

With the U.S. economy still sputtering, it's important to note that all of Honl's products are made in this country which is, no doubt, helping another hard-working American stay employed. (Sorry, I got a bit patriotic there for a second. It's passed.)

The centerpiece of the Honl Photo Speed System is the Speed Strap ($9.95) which wraps around your flash head and serves as a Velcro mount for the other accessories. Once that's on your flash—it fits pretty much any unit—it provides a large surface area to quickly attach grids, gobos, snoots or gels.

You can used the Speed Snoots to concentrate light or to open it up as a flash bouncer/reflector.

Once I easily wrapped the strap around a Nikon Speedlight SB-900–one of the larger flashes out there—I added on an 8-inch Regular Speed Snoot ($29.95) which gave me a dramatic, soft-edge circle of light for some cinema-style portraits. You can also open up the snoot—which comes in a 5-inch "shorty" version as well—to use as a bounce or a reflector. When it's unwrapped, the durable speed snoot lays flat so it's easy to stick in your camera bag.

There's a gobo ($14.95) as well which, like the snoot, has black nylon on one side and white reflective polymer on the other, making it easy to reverse for different effects. If you're using your flash as a background light, the gobo will prevent light from hitting the camera lens and causing flare. I attached two gobos to either side of my SB-900 and created a simple "barndoor" effect. There it is again: a simple and effective solution.

I also tried the Photo Gel Kit ($29.95)—red, orange, blue, and green gels—which helped me correct for the tungsten conditions I was shooting in and added some dramatic color to a moody portrait.

My favorite piece in the system is the new Speed Grid ($29.95), which is a plastic piece that fits on the head of my flash and uses a honeycomb of cells to narrow the beam. I generally hate using straight-up on-camera flash—much too harsh most of the time—but the grid really cuts down on the glare and adds some drama. My only gripe, and it's a minor one, is that the Velcro straps are so sticky it took me a couple of tries to position the grid correctly on the front of the flash.


THE BOTTOM LINE

With the spendy price tags of most photo products seemingly out of place in the recession we're living in, it's nice to see David Honl's useful and inexpensive light shaping tools getting some good distribution. While these attachable snoots, gobo, gels and grids are by no means ground-breaking inventions in the world of product development, they are highly functional and cheap and those adjectives carry a lot weight these days.

Honl Photo Speed System

www.expoimaging.net Pros: Simple, effective and inexpensive light-shaping tools created by someone who's actually used them in the field. Cons: They're so slight they're almost not like products at all; a little hard to position the grid tool quickly. Price: $9.95-$29.95