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#11
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Uranium Committee wrote:
This is without doubt the most incomprehensible post this year. It's very comprehensible. Well thought out question, well explored, and thanks for posting it. "UC" is, er, has a reputation. Expect it to morph into another before absolutely everyone but me has killfiled it. -- John McWilliams |
#12
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David Virgil Hobbs wrote:
SNIPPED Anybody have any ideas re the pros and cons of reflectors versus diffusers? First off, regarding the amount of light, the difuser seems to be more efficient than a reflector in my experience and with the materials I use. Regarding color, whether refelcted or difused, the light will take on the color of the material. Difuser (softboxes) use a color neutral material, but a color filter insert can change this subtely or dramatically. Reflectors can also be color neutral or whatever fits the day. The larger the reflecting surface the more difficult it is to illuminate it, and the more light is lost. I've used thin cotton sheets as a difused source with the strobes set about 6 feet behind them ... this provided about 50 square feet of surface. The photographer can stand right in front of this and hardly affect the amount of light on the subject. Regarding popularity, softboxes have been around for about 20 years, umbrellas since ... well a long time. And umbrellas HAVE been used as difused sources (shining light through an umbrella made of thin silk or cotton) for ... a long time. Umbrellas are a lot cheaper than softboxes. But with umbrellas used as a difuser there is a lot of spilled light that needs to be controlled or accepted. Umbrellas and other refelectors generally take less time to set up than large softboxes. Other difusion sources can include large frames with a thin white material stretched over them (difuse all sorts of light, including sunlight). When using a reflector, if the source light is distant from the reflector, then both paths have to be managed. If it is refected in an umbrella, then it is little different than a softbox. IMO, the qualities ("softness") of the light off of a reflector like an umbrella and those out of a softbox are little different, except in catchlights. Catchlights in glasses and eyes are more pleasing when the shape is round. Most softboxes are rectangular, so this needs to be carefully controlled. In both cases, the larger the surface and the closer to the subject, then the softest light is achieved. MO Cheers, Alan -- -- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm -- [SI] gallery: http://www.pbase.com/shootin -- [SI] rulz: http://www.aliasimages.com/si/rulz.html -- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch. |
#13
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David Virgil Hobbs wrote:
SNIPPED Anybody have any ideas re the pros and cons of reflectors versus diffusers? First off, regarding the amount of light, the difuser seems to be more efficient than a reflector in my experience and with the materials I use. Regarding color, whether refelcted or difused, the light will take on the color of the material. Difuser (softboxes) use a color neutral material, but a color filter insert can change this subtely or dramatically. Reflectors can also be color neutral or whatever fits the day. The larger the reflecting surface the more difficult it is to illuminate it, and the more light is lost. I've used thin cotton sheets as a difused source with the strobes set about 6 feet behind them ... this provided about 50 square feet of surface. The photographer can stand right in front of this and hardly affect the amount of light on the subject. Regarding popularity, softboxes have been around for about 20 years, umbrellas since ... well a long time. And umbrellas HAVE been used as difused sources (shining light through an umbrella made of thin silk or cotton) for ... a long time. Umbrellas are a lot cheaper than softboxes. But with umbrellas used as a difuser there is a lot of spilled light that needs to be controlled or accepted. Umbrellas and other refelectors generally take less time to set up than large softboxes. Other difusion sources can include large frames with a thin white material stretched over them (difuse all sorts of light, including sunlight). When using a reflector, if the source light is distant from the reflector, then both paths have to be managed. If it is refected in an umbrella, then it is little different than a softbox. IMO, the qualities ("softness") of the light off of a reflector like an umbrella and those out of a softbox are little different, except in catchlights. Catchlights in glasses and eyes are more pleasing when the shape is round. Most softboxes are rectangular, so this needs to be carefully controlled. In both cases, the larger the surface and the closer to the subject, then the softest light is achieved. MO Cheers, Alan -- -- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm -- [SI] gallery: http://www.pbase.com/shootin -- [SI] rulz: http://www.aliasimages.com/si/rulz.html -- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch. |
#14
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Take a look at the product catalog available at http://www.photoflex.com.
This is not an endorsement of Photoflex products. I have found, however, that they do a good job of demonstrating the use of their products and showing the result of their line of softboxes and reflectors, etc. This will help you to visualize the results of using the different types of lighting techniques and help you determine what you need to get the results that you're looking for--irrespective of the equipment manufacturer that you choose. Thanks, Bruce "David Virgil Hobbs" wrote in message om... In this post by reflector I mean an object that reflects light and by diffuser I mean an object through which light is shone similarly to a filter. I have been spending some time researching reflectors versus diffusers in portrait photography. I was irritated but not surprised to find very little discussion on the net regarding choosing between the two. All I could find was that reflectors are more well known amongst the general population than diffusers; that some people find from their practical experience that diffusers do not work well; that some people think diffusers do not work because they do not increase the area of the source of the light significantly; that european photographers are supposed to be into diffusers as opposed to reflectors; that diffusers take alot of the brightness out of the light that hits the subject; and that people seem to think of reflectors as more of an outdoors type of thing and diffusers as more of an indoors type of thing. Coming out of my own mind as opposed to internet research, my thinking has been that since a problem is the color temperature of reflected light is different than the color temperature of direct light, therefore reflected light should be used instead of direct light, because use of direct light unavoidably leads to conflicts between indirect and direct light; and, so, therefore, the reflector is a better solution than the diffuser because the reflector will produce light that does not clash with direct light whereas the diffuser will give rise to the direct diffused light and then also the reflected version of the diffused light. I have also been thinking that reflectors might do a better job of mimicking reflected light such as shade light and light bouncing off of walls whereas diffusers would do a better job of mimicking soft light sources such as overhead fluorescent all over a big ceiling or a shaded ceiling light. I think I realize a truth in that I understand that since the result in photography is an exaggeration of contrast, partially due to the fact that the camera sees color differences based on color temp differences that the eye does not see, therefore the mimicking lights should be softer than the lights they mimick. Anybody have any ideas re the pros and cons of reflectors versus diffusers? David Virgil Hobbs http://www.angelfire.com/ma/vincemoon |
#15
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Uranium Committee wrote:
This is without doubt the most incomprehensible post this year. It's okay Mikey, any post with more than 25 words is certainly beyond your attention span. |
#16
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"John McWilliams" wrote in message
news:sdIpd.465371$D%.123277@attbi_s51... Uranium Committee wrote: This is without doubt the most incomprehensible post this year. It's very comprehensible. Well thought out question, well explored, and thanks for posting it. "UC" is, er, has a reputation. Expect it to morph into another before absolutely everyone but me has killfiled it. -- John McWilliams I, for one, have no plans to kill file UC. I find him very valuable for entertainment on slow evenings. -- Skip Middleton http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com |
#17
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"John McWilliams" wrote in message
news:sdIpd.465371$D%.123277@attbi_s51... Uranium Committee wrote: This is without doubt the most incomprehensible post this year. It's very comprehensible. Well thought out question, well explored, and thanks for posting it. "UC" is, er, has a reputation. Expect it to morph into another before absolutely everyone but me has killfiled it. -- John McWilliams I, for one, have no plans to kill file UC. I find him very valuable for entertainment on slow evenings. -- Skip Middleton http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com |
#18
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In message ,
McLeod wrote: So putting a small diffuser like a piece of tracing paper over an on camera flash unit does nothing but cut the power of the flash and possibly smooth out any effects caused by the internal parabolic reflector and lens of the flash unit. Unless it is large and far from the flash; then the light hits the subject from a greater range of angles. -- John P Sheehy |
#19
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In message ,
McLeod wrote: So putting a small diffuser like a piece of tracing paper over an on camera flash unit does nothing but cut the power of the flash and possibly smooth out any effects caused by the internal parabolic reflector and lens of the flash unit. Unless it is large and far from the flash; then the light hits the subject from a greater range of angles. -- John P Sheehy |
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