RyanT
Veteran
Had a little hiccup with the last thread, but it's back! Just going to put a little more info in this one. I've just wanted to test different diffusion materials for quite some time and be able to compare them side by side. That's how this test came about.
What we did...
1 10k Full Flood, 25 feet away from the subject. We then put tape marks down for each distance of the 4x4 diffusion frame and proceeded to place every frame we had at each distance. The light was never moved, however a 4x4 floppy was brought in occasionally to help with a little negative fill.
Some choice examples:
And my personal favorite....
Conclusions and interesting findings.
-First of all I’d like to retest a lot of this. Just need to make sure my findings are correct. It’d be great to do an inanimate object and see the lines that are created. Maybe have some sort of grid so you can see how much the light wraps around the object and quantify it. I think it is important to still see the light on the face though, so this test doesn’t become moot.
-252 and Opal are very similar. 252 however has a little bit better light transmission and the physical gel itself is much more durable. I can’t tell you how many opal 4x frames I’ve accidentally ripped through or how many scraps of opal I’ve thrown away because it never goes nicely into our gel crates. 252 would be a nice solution to these problems.
-Muslin is not as soft as I thought it would be and still has a pretty hard edge to it…Again, I’d like to retest this, but it makes me think a lot differently about using it as a diffusion.
-1000H as I thought is quite nice when you have the light. If you’re shooting a close up and you want it to be soft. 1000H is the way to go.
-Black silk? Still don’t quite understand the use for it. Would love a little enlightenment on this one. It doesn’t kill specular reflections, as you still see the light through the silk. It doesn’t have very good softening affects and it just really cuts the light output. I could maybe see if you really wanted to cut something down and also soften it up. Don’t run into that situation very often, but I guess it is a specialty soft good for a reason.
-As you walk a frame in, you lose light. I was constantly having to shift exposure as we walked the frame closer. Makes sense now that I think about it, but never thought that would be the case before…
-It’s interesting knowing how little a diffusion frame will help you from 20’ away. 14’ and you’re starting to get somewhere.
-Tough spun, while not very soft, has a bit of a breakup pattern that I never knew it had. Can definitely be used as a very soft cookie in a pinch.
Take a look on my website for the rest of the different kinds of diffusion.
http://rtcinematography.tumblr.com/
What do you guys think? It'd be interesting to hear what kind of conclusions other people draw from all this.
Also! Next up is comparing the specular reflections from all of these different kinds of diffusion materials. Fun!
What we did...
1 10k Full Flood, 25 feet away from the subject. We then put tape marks down for each distance of the 4x4 diffusion frame and proceeded to place every frame we had at each distance. The light was never moved, however a 4x4 floppy was brought in occasionally to help with a little negative fill.
Some choice examples:
And my personal favorite....
Conclusions and interesting findings.
-First of all I’d like to retest a lot of this. Just need to make sure my findings are correct. It’d be great to do an inanimate object and see the lines that are created. Maybe have some sort of grid so you can see how much the light wraps around the object and quantify it. I think it is important to still see the light on the face though, so this test doesn’t become moot.
-252 and Opal are very similar. 252 however has a little bit better light transmission and the physical gel itself is much more durable. I can’t tell you how many opal 4x frames I’ve accidentally ripped through or how many scraps of opal I’ve thrown away because it never goes nicely into our gel crates. 252 would be a nice solution to these problems.
-Muslin is not as soft as I thought it would be and still has a pretty hard edge to it…Again, I’d like to retest this, but it makes me think a lot differently about using it as a diffusion.
-1000H as I thought is quite nice when you have the light. If you’re shooting a close up and you want it to be soft. 1000H is the way to go.
-Black silk? Still don’t quite understand the use for it. Would love a little enlightenment on this one. It doesn’t kill specular reflections, as you still see the light through the silk. It doesn’t have very good softening affects and it just really cuts the light output. I could maybe see if you really wanted to cut something down and also soften it up. Don’t run into that situation very often, but I guess it is a specialty soft good for a reason.
-As you walk a frame in, you lose light. I was constantly having to shift exposure as we walked the frame closer. Makes sense now that I think about it, but never thought that would be the case before…
-It’s interesting knowing how little a diffusion frame will help you from 20’ away. 14’ and you’re starting to get somewhere.
-Tough spun, while not very soft, has a bit of a breakup pattern that I never knew it had. Can definitely be used as a very soft cookie in a pinch.
Take a look on my website for the rest of the different kinds of diffusion.
http://rtcinematography.tumblr.com/
What do you guys think? It'd be interesting to hear what kind of conclusions other people draw from all this.
Also! Next up is comparing the specular reflections from all of these different kinds of diffusion materials. Fun!
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