How Soft Is Soft Light?

[Slapdragon]

Re: How Soft Is Soft Light?

[quote author=Rogue Crew link=board=lighting;num=1087238418;start=15#19 date=07/05/04 at 14:10:04]

So logically, you should be able to use gel/diffusion on the face of the fresnel, add more diffusion on a frame in front, but apart from fresnel and then focus to taste.  Does that make sense?

So far, no-one has answered my question, how soft is soft?  How do you measure it?  How do you know when you've achieved it? As Tony's post suggests, there must be more than one way to achieve it.

[/quote]

Nope, to "focus" light you need directional light. A diffusion gel diffuses, making the light random. You would need a bounce box and a new series of lenses to recollect the diffused light and to refocus it.

You can double defuse in order to play with how diffuse the light is, as each layer of diffusion reduces the specular nature of light and scatters it more. Two layers would, in addition to killing light transmission, provide an even more diffused light than before.

 

[skippyfetus]

Re: How Soft Is Soft Light?

[quote author=Rogue Crew link=board=lighting;num=1087238418;start=15#19 date=07/05/04 at 14:10:04]

So logically, you should be able to use gel/diffusion on the face of the fresnel, add more diffusion on a frame in front, but apart from fresnel and then focus to taste.  Does that make sense?

So far, no-one has answered my question, how soft is soft?  How do you measure it?  How do you know when you've achieved it? As Tony's post suggests, there must be more than one way to achieve it.

[/quote]I don't think you can measure the softness of light... at least I've never heard of anyone doing that. Lighting, I think, is one of those things that you have to get a "feel" for and rely upon your eye and not any measurments other than a light meter.

 

[Mike_Donis]

Re: How Soft Is Soft Light?

Exactly...soft light simply *looks* soft. The intensity of the light can change depening on many factors, ie how intense all your other lights in the scene are, being one. Basically, if it looks good, it looks good: play with difussion papers in front of your sources and use lots of bounce and eventually you'll get the look you want.

 

[Barry_Green]

Re: How Soft Is Soft Light?

[quote author=Rogue Crew link=board=lighting;num=1087238418;start=15#19 date=07/05/04 at 14:10:04]
So far, no-one has answered my question, how soft is soft?  How do you measure it?  How do you know when you've achieved it?
[/quote]
I know you want an answer, but there isn't one. It's like asking "how big is big?"

The only definitive thing you can know is, whether you've made it softer than it was. Like the other posters are saying, you'll know you've achieved it when you like how the shot looks.

 

[taubkin]

Re: How Soft Is Soft Light?

Cinematography can be pretty scientific, but in the end it is still an art...

 

[gossamer]

Re: How Soft Is Soft Light?

[quote author=Rogue Crew link=board=lighting;num=1087238418;start=15#19 date=07/05/04 at 14:10:04]

So far, no-one has answered my question, how soft is soft?  How do you measure it?  How do you know when you've achieved it? As Tony's post suggests, there must be more than one way to achieve it.

[/quote]

To me, it sounds like a painter asking "how blue is blue." There are various ways to get various shades of "blue" (ie a greenblue, or a brownblue, or a grayblue) but (aside from a Pantone ref.) no way to determine the amount of "blueness." (and the Pantone ref. is just a sketchily-agreed-upon method of saying "more greenishblue" etc..)

A person who's ONLY worked with chimeras or kinos their entire career is going to have a much different perspective of what "soft" is than a person who's worked with fresnels. The "scale" will vary from person to person. Much like the "scale" of color varies widely from company to company; Coloraides greenishblue is different from Pantones, etc. etc.

It would be great if we had a standard reference, calibrated, for softness the way we do for exposure (f-stop). I think you might be onto something: The "Rogue Crew Scale of Light Diffusion." It could be like the Dewey Decimel system. I doubt Dewey ever made any money off it either, but man this could be your contribution to filmmaking.