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Soft Box Improvisation?



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 23rd 03, 07:01 AM
John
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Default Soft Box Improvisation?

Hi!

I'm starting to experiment with food photography and I would like to
improvise a soft box lighting without actually buying a soft box.

Would a piece a paper covering a flashlight or a spotlight suffice?
Any suggestions?

Thanks.
  #2  
Old November 23rd 03, 07:34 AM
zeitgeist
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Default Soft Box Improvisation?




I'm starting to experiment with food photography and I would like to
improvise a soft box lighting without actually buying a soft box.

Would a piece a paper covering a flashlight or a spotlight suffice?
Any suggestions?



The main point of studio light modifiers isn't to put something between the
flash and subject, it isn't really just something more to sell you, to make
you look cool.

the point is to make a very small light source, the flash tube, seem much
larger. a tube with minimal reflector is a very tiny and harsh light
source. they used metal reflector bowls cause in the very early days of
photography you needed every little bit of light energy to be concentrated
and even focused (fresnel lensed spot lights) cause photofloods were
relatively weak, film and lenses slow. with flash power we can blast
through walls (well I exaggerate) but the thing is, with even a basic
monoflash you can hang a sheet a translucent white fabric from the ceiling
and shoot a light through and get the effect of a very very large softbox.
the back half of a softbox is just a way to make it more efficient, again to
avoid wasting all that light splashing around, to reflect it back to the
subject.

you make scrims by taking that fabric and taping it over some pvc pipe, get
two lengths 10 feet long (standard size) and cut 6.5 feet so you now have a
6.5 x 3.5 rectangle, use 4 90' corners and you have a framed scrim panel.
run a stretch cord through the pipes and you will have enough strength to
hold it together yet be able to pull it apart for packing and keep the loose
pieces tied together.

the cloth can be found in most fabric stores, called sports nylon.

general rule of thumb is that a light source should be twice as big as the
subject. I try and try to convince portrait photogs of this.


  #3  
Old November 23rd 03, 04:46 PM
David Starr
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Default Soft Box Improvisation?

On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 06:34:22 GMT, "zeitgeist"
wrote:


general rule of thumb is that a light source should be twice as big as the
subject. I try and try to convince portrait photogs of this.


A 12 foot umbrella to photograph a 6 foot person?


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  #4  
Old November 23rd 03, 11:23 PM
McLeod
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Default Soft Box Improvisation?


"zeitgeist" wrote in message
news:OxYvb.281198$Tr4.869516@attbi_s03...
general rule of thumb is that a light source should be twice as big as the
subject. I try and try to convince portrait photogs of this.


Depends on the lighting effect you are looking for and the subject you are
photographing.


  #5  
Old November 25th 03, 09:49 AM
zeitgeist
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Default Soft Box Improvisation?




general rule of thumb is that a light source should be twice as big as

the
subject. I try and try to convince portrait photogs of this.


A 12 foot umbrella to photograph a 6 foot person?


yes, well, not an umbrella but a 'softbox' which can be a flash head or two
behind a curtain, white wall behind, heck just bounce your flash off a side
wall.

Btw, umbrellas are basically a large form of parabolic reflector meant to
force the light towards the subject in a wider field than a spot light, but
in typical use are similar in effect to those parabolic reflectors used with
photofloods. IE: an 18in flood light was typically used about 3 feet away
for a head and shoulders, whereas 36in brollies (typical size when they
first came out) were typically used at about 6 feet away.

A 12 foot wall of light emulates light from an overhang like a porch, a big
window like you find in commercial building lobbies, shade at the penumbra
of a large tree and not quite as soft as twilight.

You get a very soft forgiving light that allows you to get great tone and
detail in the face from the brightest spectrals to the shadow. Most people
tend to loose spectrals, and cause their key light is so contrasty they need
to add more spectrals on the shadow side, (you know the fill light) and even
worse they place it well on the other side from the key light. As a bonus
you get fabulous 'depth of light.'

try it, youll like it, besides why go to all the trouble to do a set up just
like every other photographer in the business. Only a handful of photogs
(that I know of) do north light, either flash or an actual north light
window, the light used by portrait artists since the invention of the
portrait with paints, everybody else acts like it is required to use
lighting that is contrasty enough that it needs help with a fill. From the
prom shooter to the kiddie pix guy, the passport shooter (well since
polaroid took over the business its been the cyclops flash right over the
lens) the school picture shooters.

this reply is echoed to the z-prophoto mailing list at yahoogroups.com


 




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