Large Light Modifiers for Model Shots

[xpatUSA]

An interesting article on photo.net from a gent who believes in very large modifiers, such as a 6x6' back-lit diffuser, for model photography.

http://photo.net/learn/lighting/going-big/



I posted this because it was new to me and it happens to agree with some of my more recent mumblings in this very forum. If it's old stuff to anyone, I apologize for wasting your time.

Cheers,

[GrahamS]

Large diffusers or "scrims" are not uncommon. I used to use a 20ft x 30ft scrim hung horizontally above the studio floor under two banks of 10, 2kW floodlights, for photographing motor vehicles.

[xpatUSA]

Interesting, Graham. What was your experience regarding relative distances, e.g. lights to scrim and scrim to vehicle? Did you vary them?

For watch photography that can make quite a difference in specular reflection vs. softness.

I guess by "model" the gent was talking about wimmin, though.

[jcuknz]

Sounds like people are reverting to the 'old time studio' where of neccessity the whole roof was glass as I experienced on one occasion auditioning for a job and using a 10x8 camera. Fortuneately my future employer told me what aperture and shutter speed to use ... I guess he wanted to see how I would handle the camera and him as my subject.

It was at this studio I learnt how to use POP [printing out paper] to make proofs.

[Colin Southern]

An interesting article on photo.net from a gent who believes in very large modifiers, such as a 6x6' back-lit diffuser, for model photography.

http://photo.net/learn/lighting/going-big/



I posted this because it was new to me and it happens to agree with some of my more recent mumblings in this very forum. If it's old stuff to anyone, I apologize for wasting your time.

Cheers,

They produce a very nice "wrap-around" light, although in the studio we can generally run pretty big light sources anyway. For me, things like this are of more use outside to turn harsh mid-day sun into something more flattering; biggest problem is that when they get to that size they act like sails if there's any wind.

A quick and dirty alternative can be to use the actual softbox as a backdrop -- it can produce incredibly soft but still contrasty light, and varying the model position makes a huge difference.

eg

[GrahamS]

Interesting, Graham. What was your experience regarding relative distances, e.g. lights to scrim and scrim to vehicle? Did you vary them?

Ted, the lights were 2kW Blondes about 4ft from the scrim and the whole scrim/lighting rig was suspended on pulleys. I usually had it about ten feet off the floor. Film was 4x5 Ektachrome 64T and exposures were around 45secs to 60 secs at f32 using a 180mm lens. There were supplementary key and fill lights used as well, especially at low level to lift the detail.

Something like thisbut with lights rigged above the scrim

[xpatUSA]

Thanks Graham,

Car looks like a model (car, that is).

I'm reminded of Crocodile Dundee "Scrim? Call that a scrim, mate? . . etc etc".

[GrahamS]

Thanks Graham,

Car looks like a model (car, that is).

I'm reminded of Crocodile Dundee "Scrim? Call that a scrim, mate? . . etc etc".

Different countries use different terminologies for different applications.

[xpatUSA]

Different countries use different terminologies for different applications.

Eek! "divided by a common language" . .

I know what a 'scrim' is and wasn't referring to it or it's usage. I was talking about a well-known scene in a Crocodile Dundee film where he is threatened in New York by a punk waving a knife at him. He pulls out this huge Bowie knife from the back of his pants and says: "Knife? Call that a knife, mate? Now this (pulls it out) is a knife". I was simply comparing sizes, as it were, yours v. the OP.

Please tell me you have heard of the movie

Meanwhile, I guess the biggest softbox/diffuser/scrim on the planet is a cloud-covered sky?