Light modifiers

They do exactly what they are called, modify or change characteristic of light. You’ll see some of these terms used frequently in this blog since photographers use these a lot to get the effect they want, kind of sculpting light. They can be used for both strobe-based (flash) or continuous light. I’ll explain the ones I use a lot in studio and on location, and in my opinion the most basic if you want to start getting into studio lighting.

Light directly from the source is harsh and unless you want that effect, it may not be suitable for many purposes. Think bright sunlight vs cloudy day. So to reproduce the effect you want, you need to have these following accessories.

Softbox

A softbox is fitted onto the light, providing a sort of screen to ‘soften’ the light. Hard light produces edgy, distinct shadows while soft light produces the opposite. The size of softbox to use depends on the size of the subject. I use a 120X80cm softbox to light a full body portrait and in some cases, this may not be large enough. The problem of using a softbox too small is light fallout in areas outside coverage. You could move the light back but you also sacrifice power output and space. In Mark and baby Sol’s portrait, a large 120cmX80cm softbox was used on camera right.

Umbrella

The umbrella has two modes, reflective and shoot-through. That makes it very versatile especially on location. In the shoot-through mode, the umbrella acts like a softbox whereas in the reflective mode, the light bounces of the internal reflective surface of the umbrella. I use both softboxes and umbrellas equally as much, many times choosing one over the other out of convenience. I also mix the two, often using the softbox as key light (main light) and the umbrella to fill the shadows, or even to provide highlight for hair.

For products I prefer to use softboxes as it’s more directional and I can move it easily to control the light on the product.

Barndoors

Attached to the lights directly, they are used to limit the spill of the light. I use it to control spillage onto the backdrop, while getting the harsh light from the direct source. Very useful if I don’t need to soften light, and shooting directly onto the subject.

Snoot

A conical attachment to the light, it serves to focus light to a spot. Very useful in shooting products if I want to highlight a certain area, to give it a specular highlight, without affecting the lighting on other parts. Because of its construction, a lot of light is lost in it so it’s not too useful for lighting something far away.

Honeycomb

A sort of grated attachment to the light to direct light. It’s not as focused as a snoot and it’s useful to provide a circular gradient to a backdrop. I don’t usually use this to light a product but I use it sometimes to provide backlighting for a portrait. They usually come in fine, medium or large grating to provide varying sizes.

Coloured Gels or Filters

Changes the light colour. Strobe-based lights are daylight-balanced so in order to change the colour temperature eg, eg to warm lighting or even change the colour, these are placed just in front of the bare bulb. With a combination of coloured backdrop and coloured filters, you can get interesting backdrop colours. For Mark and Sol’s portrait, the magazine wanted an orange backdrop. The closest colour I had was red but it wasn’t suitable. So I fitted a yellow gel onto the light behind and the combination gave us the colour we wanted.

Reflectors

I use this to fill the shadows. The standard ones you can buy are white, silver and gold reflectors. Gold gives a nice warm fill and I would use it to match the ambient. I have also used a white styrofoam board, mirror (for products), or even the aluminum foil for wrapping food. You can almost use anything as a reflector..

Beauty Dish

Produces harsher light than a softbox and makes a more contrasty image, but not as contrasty as a bare bulb. What I like best is the light fallout at the edge of the subject. This is used a lot in fashion and glamour portraits.

These are the modifiers I usually use. There are others like gobo (to project a pattern, think batman), etc which I hardly use on a shoot but hope to one day.