In this video I'll show you how and why
I use soft boxes with grids in my small
home studio.
Hello I'm Gavin Hoey,
and you're watching Adorama TV.
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Now when it comes to choosing softboxes
for use in my small home studio, the first thing
I tend to check is does my new softbox
have the option of a grid, because using
grids in a small home studio is a really
good idea if you want to control and
direct the light.
Now sometimes the grids are optional
extras, but if you choose something like
this Glow Softbox.
This is the EZ Lock 12" x 56" for example,
this one comes with the
grid in the box which is fantastic and
makes it a really good choice.
So why would you want to use a grid on a
softbox?
What does it do?
For the answers to those questions the
best thing to do is get a light set, let's get
a model in, let's get shooting,
so to help me out today,
I've got the amazing Chloe.
Chloe is gonna be the model for this
shoot, and before we get to grids, let me
show you how a shot would look without a grid.
So I've got a really basic setup,
we've got Chloe right up against my
studio wall, I've got an explorer 400.
I've got a soft box,
but no grid, let me just take a shot
like this and show you how the light
spreads around my small home studio.
So Chloe, if you want to come back into
the center, I'm gonna come up against the
wall here, and if you just look towards
the edge of the softbox, perfect, here we
go, so in this picture you can see that
Chloe is correctly lit.
The wall looks good, but directly behind
Chloe is the white wall of my studio,
and although it's not actually showing
white, there's definitely some detail there.
Which means at least, some of the light
is reaching my far wall.
So this time I've added a
grid, it's the same softbox, the same
Explorer 400, just with a grid added, so
I'm going to put this in the same place,
we'll spin it around like that, now
adding a grid will reduce the output of
the light, usually by about a stop, but
let's find out for sure, so I'm gonna get my
light meter, Chloe I'm going to pop this
under your chin, and I'm getting f/4
where we were shooting at f/5.6, so that
is exactly a stop, adjust it and I'm
getting back to f5.6 six.
So that's great.
Let's take the same shot and see how the
grid has changed the picture, here we go
so Chloe is still correctly lit, the
background is still lit, but the far
background, that white wall, has now
become a black wall, and that's because
the grid has restricted the spread of
the light.
No light reaches the wall, it's
going to come out black, perhaps the
easiest way to see what's going on is
actually to photograph Chloe from the
other side.
So without the grid, the light spreads
far and wide in my studio, but the second
I put the grid on, and take the same
picture, you can see how much more
restricted the spread of light has
become, so grids are great for directing
light, but they're not there just to
stop light reaching things, you can use
the direction of a grid to put light
just where you want it, so maybe you
actually want to light the wall a little
bit, I mean not that wall, it's really
horrible, but that wall over there looks great.
So I can do that with a grid, now
at the moment my softbox and grid are
facing directly at Chloe, let's just take
this picture see how it looks.
I've metered this out already,
so it should be good, right, and sure
enough the wall behind Chloe is black,
but all I need to do is,
just turn this a little bit, so now
I've turned my beam of light, so that
will add a little bit of light to the
background, but also take away light from
the right-hand side of this shot, so the
grid directs and channels the light, so
in theory, a grid is going to give me a
more dramatic portrait, but it's not
quite that simple.
So here I've got my standard softbox,
no grid in a fairly standard lighting
position, let's just take a picture of
Chloe and see how it looks, okay Chloe
here we go, and that looks absolutely
fine, background is fairly evenly lit,
Chloe looks great, so with the grid on
the softbox
this is going to give a more dramatic
look possibly, let's take this shot,
here we go Chloe, well at first glance
the answer is probably well no, not
really, as it hardly made any difference,
it's not till you go for a wider view,
that you can see what the grid has done.
It's effectively vignette at the edges, by
channeling that light into a much
smaller area, so I've moved the softbox
around, that in itself should make the
light more dramatic, let's see what
happens in this lighting situation, okay
Chloe here we go, what I've got is great
lighting on Chloe once again, but the
background is basically gone, it's black,
and Chloe is drifting off into the
shadows on the right hand side, so to
separate Chloe from the background, I've
added a second light, it also has a grid
on it, so once again I'm gonna get the
benefit of this gridded light direction
and control, let's see if this works,
here we go, yes it does.
I now have light on both sides of Chloe,
that looks great, but here's the thing
about grids, that's how they work, but
that's not necessarily how you have to
use them, it can be a bit more creative.
For example, if I take the grid on the
strip box, and I peel half of the grid
away, I've got a gridded side that's
going to reach Chloe, and then I've got a
brighter by about one stop side, that's
going to put some light on the
background, let's see if this works, and
it does, grids are great, they give
direction to the light, but remember you
can be creative on how you use them,
so with that in mind, let's do a little
shoot like this, so Chloe are you ready.
Okay, let's get some pictures, here we go,
so to sum up, I use grids to control the
spread of light, I'll use them to place
light just where I want it to go, and I
can even create effects like vignettes
with them.
For me, soft boxes with grids
are an essential item in my small home studio.
Now if you've enjoyed this video and
you've got any questions, leave me a
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I'm Gavin Hoey, thanks for watching.