Don't know if I can help, I'm not a Sony shooter but I am a wedding shooter.
The examples that Dave has shown was pretty much what I used to get in the past when shooting with metz bounced and the second 'fill' flash light on the front. Not that great which is why I quickly switched to the Lightsphere.
The Lightsphere gives a very nice wrap around light and an almost indiscernible shadow if at all when working in typical 'house' sized rooms where the light can bounce off lots of surfaces. It still gives a softer and more wrapped light even in big halls when used with the 'lid' which I never ever took off. Basically you are both quadrupling the flash surface, putting the light even higher up and also bouncing off any available surface including the guy standing next to you or the curtain behind you, etc.
I stopped using it for a couple of reasons. Firstly the light is a bit too 'nice'. Now that is going to sound strange! I did however want a more moody and more importantly more directional type of flash lighting for a mix between natural and off camera look, but with the fill coming from on camera. What I mean is that I can bounce at a 45 degree angle but still have the fill from on camera, a type of lighting I use a lot for wedding work including outdoors (when I use two lights).
Using the Demb bounce card I get as much light thrown forward as I choose, I can adjust how much exactly from very light fill to all the light going forward (for outdoors), I lose far less light than with the lightsphere, can create directional light, the bounce card is hugely portable rather than the large and not very bendy lightsphere, oh and it doesn't screw up your flash head after a few months like the lightsphere used to. Makes the whole rig much less unwieldy too.
So far so good. But now for the problem I ran into. You cannot rotate the flash head to either the right OR left with fill without also rotating the bounce card. Try it in vertical and you have to rotate the camera! Not the kind of issue you want to deal with mid wedding. Try it and you will see what I mean.
Enter the Demb Bracket. Now I hate brackets. With a passion. However this bracket is different. Firstly you can swivel the flash without having to press any buttons, just push and it slides into place. Secondly you can position the flash at any and every angle you could possibly want until it either hits the camera or your fingers. That means that in a room where I want to choose which surface to bounce the flash off, I can choose, in either horizonal or vertical, any angle I want. I don't know of any other bracket/card combo in existence that can do this and certainly none which are so light, so easy to use and just so useable in the field.
You do lose certain things, you have to cope with flash off camera cords (which I hate), a bracket (I still hate having to use one), losing the vertical shutter release (I miss that a lot, I find it far more steady), it's not nice at all to use on tripod, etc.
However, at least with the canon and nikon flash systems, I can bounce my flash wherever I want and with as little or as much fill as I want, with the minimum amount of hassle using the Demb Bracket and Demb bounce Card for a 'non on camera flash' look to the lighting.
I know that most of this might have gone over the heads of all those not really really good at envisioning what I'm talking about but it really is an interesting and real world way to have direct flash control for directional lighting without being hamstrung in a fast moving and time limited environment without using a two flash system.
Here is a photo from my first wedding using the bracket/bouncecard system, the flash is bounced off the wall/ceiling to the left while the card gives a hint of fill. You can see a bit of shadow but it's far less of a 'flash look', more natural because it's not coming from the on camera axis.
If you don't need directional flash and just want a softer and more pleasing but still pretty controllable flash solution, I can't recommend the Demb Flash Card enough and that goes for the owner too whom I've had long email conversations with and who is more than helpful. The price is very good too.