Hi everybody,
Welcome to another episode
of Exploring Photography right here on
AdoramaTV, brought to you by Adorama.
It's the camera store that has everything for
photographers like you and me.
Well the question is? Do light modifiers matter?
And if they do, why?
Well to explore that question, I have a
fantastic model.
Her name is Anabel, come on out, and she's
got in her hand, this one of my favorite
light modifiers, the magnum reflector.
Which I'm sure you've seen me use many,
many times, in this very studio. So what
we're going to be doing is, Anabel is
going to be sitting on a stool.
We're going to be shooting a portrait.
Pretty much the exact same portrait, but we're
going to be using different light
modifiers, and comparing how they affect
that portrait. So I'm going to start with
an umbrella. We'll move on to some hard
light with this magnum reflector. Do some
different things, and we'll compare all
those different images to see what
exactly these different light modifiers
do, and why you would want to use one
instead of another. So without further
ado Anabel, let's get started.
Well to start everything off, what we're going to
do is make sure that we keep everything
consistent. So we have Anabel on a
stool, she's going to stay right there
for the entire video and we'll be
changing different light modifiers out,
to show you their effect. So the other
thing I want to do is, make sure that
everything's metering pretty much the
same. So I want things to be dialed in
around f/8.
So the first thing I need to do is grab my
handy dandy meter. Zip back
here, and meter everything so that meters
at f/8, because I set this up in advance,
and so that's what we're gonna do.
Shoot everything at f/8, we're gonna try to
keep our light modifiers, in
relatively the same position. But we
might need to move things for dramatic
effect. We're gonna start with just this
umbrella. In this first lighting setup
we're using a medium sized umbrella, just
a white umbrella to the side of
Annabelle, and because this is such a
large source of light. It's giving a soft
light. So notice that the shadows on
Annabelle's face just sort of fade away,
you can't really see where they start
and stop on the left side of her face.
Also notice because we have our umbrella
to the side, we have more light on this side of
Annabel's face than this one. So if she
turns her face this way... we're going to
get nice shadowless light, and if she
turns her face this way we're gonna get
more contrast. That's going to be true of
all the different light modifiers, but we
can see that with the soft light as well
as a hard light, so let's take some
pictures and show you how it looks.
Our second lighting setup is simply a D1
Profoto. D1 head it has no light modifier
on it, but actually they're created with
light modifiers built in. There's this
tiny diffusion disc on the front, and so
it's created to be used just like that,
right out of the box. That will give us
really hard light. Now the thing with
hard light is that it creates very, very,
hard shadows. Well let's take a closer
look at this Profoto D1 head. You can see
on the very front of this, there is this
diffusion right here. So that gives us
hard light, but it is diffused. It sort of
comes out and it comes out in a nice
diffused way. It sort of scatters that
light, so I'm going to do here is I'm
going to turn on the modeling light, and
let it give us an idea of what's
happening on the background.
So notice over here we have a hard shadow.
That's something that we didn't have with our
soft light, because the soft light is
wrapped all around the model.
The hard light goes straight in, and creates this shadow.
These other shadows over here are
from our video light, so you can sort of
ignore those. The other thing we can see
here, you can see that this very, very
hard shadow on her chin, that is totally
different than this soft shadow we had
with our umbrella. Well now that we've
seen things close up, let me really
dive in to the concept of on axis and
off axis light, because with soft light
with a big soft modifier like an
umbrella or a large softbox, you can make
a lot of mistakes, and move around and
things aren't going to change too much.
But that is not true of hard light, with
hard light, you have to pay attention to
where you're standing and the
relationship between your camera and the
light, because if your camera's this way
and the light is off axis, you're going
to get very pronounced shadows, but if
you just move your camera in alignment
with your light, those shadows aren't
going to go away, they're just going to
be hidden, and less noticeable, and so you
can use that to your advantage. If you
want more contrast, you can move away
from the light, less contrast you can
move closer to the light.
So let me show you an actual example of
this in real life.
So what we're going to do here is
Anabel look straight forward, so aquí...
Por favor aqui,
And I will take this photo of her...
Okay now, when we look at this we can
see very
contrasting shadows on her chin.
So all I'm gonna do..
Annabelle, is gonna stay
right where she is, the light's not going
to change.
I'm just gonna change the position of my camera,
in relationship to my light and so perfecto
and so Anabel aqui por favor.
Aqui, awesome, perfect, yeah, and now look
at this, when I do that. So your chin, yes
perfecto. We are going to get a much
better portrait now. You might have
noticed that I had Annabelle move her
chin as well. Because that can also cause
shadows. So hard light you really have to
pay attention to what you're doing,
but the great thing about hard light is,
that it is perfect for black-and-white
photos. So we'll take a few of these,
don't move... on to our next modifier,
All right.. well let's move on to another
hardlight, but this is a softer hard
light, that sounds weird, so this is a
magnum reflector. So it's just a very
very large parabolic reflector.
So what's the difference between this and just the
little diffusion that we had before, well
this has a few things going on for it,
that will help control the light and
diffuse it in a special way.
It's a very, very small, difference to the naked eye
at first, but after you use this for a
little while you can really see a huge
difference. So let me just show you a
couple things about this modifier.
Specifically, it's going to make sure
that the light comes out of this in a
very specific degree. So this comes out
at about oh... I think this says 50 degrees
something like that. So it's going to
refine where the light is spilling.
The other thing is, if we look really close
on the inside of this, see these little
like basketball bumps. Those don't just
hang out there for good looks, what
happens is when the light hits this, that
will scatter the light, and so that
diffuses the light a little bit more
than if you just had a flat surface.
So with this, you can move it around and
feather the light, and get some really
interesting effects, with just one
modifier. Well let's take a closer look.
Now we've turned off all of the video lights.
So you can really see on the
background, how this light modifier is
shaping that light, and is keeping it
from spilling everywhere. So if we go a
little bit closer here, we'll look at the
shadows on annabelle. So we still have
these hard shadows under her chin, like
we did with the no modifier, but notice
there are a nice soft transition,
comparatively speaking, to what we had
before, so this light modifier is a
little bit larger light modifier, but it
still gives us hard light, we still get
this hard shadow on the background, but
it's a softer hard light, and because of
the way that it's projecting light we
can move this around, we can feather the
light on our subject. So let me take a
few pictures, and I'll show you the results.
Well you can see that this modifier does
some really distinctive things, not only
did our background become darker, our
shadows were just a little bit softer.
Our light was much more directional, but
there's another benefit to using this
type of modifier that you can't see in
the photos, and that is what this does to
the output of our light.
So right now I have metered alight at f/8,
so why should happen. So I'll zip over here, we have
this all set up, and I'm going to click,
and that meters perfectly at f/8.
Watch what happens when I put this on.
So I'm just gonna put this on my head here,
and now without doing anything at all
I'm going to click the test button that
meters at f/16. That is a huge amount of
light that's coming out. That wasn't
before, and so one of the things about
parabolic reflectors, reflectors like
this. It's not only that they change the shape
of the light. Make it a little bit more
directional and softer, but it takes all
that light that's just scattering all
over, and channels it forward. So more
light is getting to your subject from
the same source, so you get a much more
powerful,
effectively more powerful light. So more
directional, a little bit softer, but more punch.
Alright, well let's move on to another
light modifier, well for this lighting
setup we're moving on to softboxes, and
so we're gonna begin with a square small softbox.
Now you might have noticed that we've
turned off almost all of the video
lights, because I really want you to be
able to see exactly how the light is
coming off of this softbox. So let me
show you that a little bit closer.
This is a small Elinchrom softbox, and it's
square. So notice the shape, a square
softbox, and it has a big diffusion panel,
so that scatters the light and wraps it
around our subject. So what we're getting
here is nice soft light. You still see a
hint of a shadow opposite Anabel, and
if we go closer you can see we have
really nice soft shadows on
this side of her neck.
So this.. just like our magnum reflector, is
giving us directional light unlike the
umbrella, which sort of just scattered light
all over the place.
This is diffused, but directional.
The other thing to note is, because this is
square, the specular highlights, in other
words those reflections of the light
source, are also going to be square, and
in a portrait that shows up in the eyes.
Notice we have square highlights.
Well now that we know about the square
shape and the reflection and the eyes,
let me take a few photos and show you
exactly what I'm talking about.
Well now that we've seen a square small
softbox, let's move it up to a three-foot
Octa box, and that is round, and I'll give
you a closer look right now.
Once again we've turned off all our video
lights, so you can see exactly the light
that's coming from our light source.
This is a 3ft Profoto Octabox, and so it is
roundish, it's an octagon.
You can also see that it has diffusion
material on the front,
so we have a really nice soft
diffused light. Now because this is a
little bit larger than our square
softbox the light is going to wrap
around Anabel, so we're gonna get softer
shadows behind her.
We're gonna get this really nice soft
shadows on her neck, and
on the opposite side of the light.
Also, you notice this is very directional
light. So we have light over here
darkness over here, so it's moving in a
direction which is very, very nice.
The other thing about a round softbox is,
because it's round those specular
highlights are also going to be around.
So if we zoom in really close to
Annabelle's eyes, you can see that those
specular highlights are round.
So if you want light to look a little bit more
natural, like it's coming from the Sun
use a round softbox. There's one other
thing I want to mention, because this is
a little bit larger.
You can see over here on the wall, we have
even a larger Octa box, and because of
that, these allow us to have soft light with
our light modifier.. farther and farther
away from our subject which is great
if you're shooting groups or something,
where you need a soft light, that's not so
close to your subject.
Well there you have it, a bear head, a
magnum reflector, an umbrella, a square
small softbox, and a large octabox.
You can see the differences between
these light modifiers, and the best way to
learn about different modifiers, and what
they do and exactly.
All the little particulars is to get in a studio
maybe a rental studio, that houses all this stuff
and then try stuff out.
It can take you a little bit of time to really
dial in exactly which modifier is best for what.
So don't get discouraged, if you don't
see a difference right away when you're
working with stuff, and it's really good
if you've got either a rental studio,
even better, a bunch of friends with
different light modifiers.
So you can share those between yourselves
and get some practice.
You can really start to
see exactly which tool is right for
which job.
Now I want to say thank you, to
a fantastic model.
It's Anabel...
you can find her on Instagram @anabelladb
Perfecto, and we put
that right here...
so you can see all of
her great portfolio.
Make sure you check that out,
also check me out on Instagram @JMark Wallace.
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Thanks again, and we will see you
again next time!
Adios!