Ceiling bounce
- Thread starter Nasser
- Start date
bruce southerland
Active member
Lighting someone by bouncing off the ceiling is an option, but not the most flattering. Normally, a bounce off a WHITE ceiling is used as a fill light.
If you must use a "bounce" as a key source, keep the light out in front of the subject as much as possible to avoid dark eye sockets.
If you must use a "bounce" as a key source, keep the light out in front of the subject as much as possible to avoid dark eye sockets.
Tommy K
Well-known member
A better option is to diffuse the light source.. it produces even, softer and more flattering light.
The best and cheapest way... Get a sheet of 'Rip Torn' nylon from a fabric store and rig it up in front of the lights. Normally it's sold by the yard like any fabric. It's cheap and durable. If you are using hot lights, keep it far enough away from the lights so it doesn't burn the fabric. If you have barn doors on the lights.. use them to direct the light so you don't get a lot of spill from the sides. I have used 'Rip Torn' nylon myself as diffusers and it works very well. Soft boxes are generally used to light an interview because they give that even, soft and shadowless light. This is what I use.
You can also use a "whiite photo umbrella" to shoot through. I have done this in a pinch also, and it works well.
The best and cheapest way... Get a sheet of 'Rip Torn' nylon from a fabric store and rig it up in front of the lights. Normally it's sold by the yard like any fabric. It's cheap and durable. If you are using hot lights, keep it far enough away from the lights so it doesn't burn the fabric. If you have barn doors on the lights.. use them to direct the light so you don't get a lot of spill from the sides. I have used 'Rip Torn' nylon myself as diffusers and it works very well. Soft boxes are generally used to light an interview because they give that even, soft and shadowless light. This is what I use.
You can also use a "whiite photo umbrella" to shoot through. I have done this in a pinch also, and it works well.
Paul Hudson
Vacuum Tube Member
Bouncing a light off is very dirty but doable. I prefer not to use the fire hose method of lighting. You put the candles out but everything gets soaked.
"Rip Torn nylon"?? Did Rip Torn go into the fashion or fabric business? Was Geraldine Page dressed in his fabric when she accepted her (well-deserved) Academy Award for her performance in The Trip to Bountiful?
I've heard of "ripstop nylon", but a web search for the phrase "rip torn nylon" brought up only two hits--one of which was this thread.
Yes, good stuff. This is called ripstop nylon fabric which in the film world is referred to as grid cloth. I only use it to diffuse a light fixture if it is skinned on an open frame or a rag on a butterfly frame but I keep some large pieces to place across the outside of a window for when we're inside and don't want to see anything but uniform white light such as in night-for-day. Clamp it smooth, hit it with a fresnel and you're good to go.
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Tommy K
Well-known member
Very funny lol.. maybe you are into the wrong busness... People used to call it ripstop or rip torn nylon.... where it came from I don't know... but it was called torn in some circles... maybe just a goofy slang somebody invented and some people used it... torn was how it was introduced to me many years ago... I do know that it is called rip stop in fabric shops... because I have bought a lot of it over the years to make and replace my own soft box diffusers.
I have attached a couple of pictures of this "translucent nylon" fabric in action
This is a soft light box for interviews that I built myself. The front is nylon.
