Maximizing the utility of Arri SoftBank I have for exercise video

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DVXDaddyO

Active member
I own the Arri SoftBank IV kit, which comes w a 1000, 650, 300 and 2 150's and stands - but only a single chimera small soft box. Shooting test footage, I relied on only the 1000 w soft box and a 300 bounced off the ceiling - not bad with ISO set to 1250. Only problem is how quickly image quality degrades. So I need to use the totality of the kit. Question is, how do I soften up the rest of the kit without spending an arm and a leg on speed rings and more 'boxes? Bouncing off foam boards? How do I clamp them in place? Through diffusers? Thoughts welcome.
 
Your best bet would be to pick up a few C stands. With these, you can hold almost anything that's not too heavy anywhere. Get a duck bill clamp for holding bead board when you want to bounce, get some empty 2x3 frames, or 4x4 frames if you have a vehicle large enough to transport them and skin them with various diffusion materials for when you want a more directional soft light. You can also build 4x4 frames out of wood and suspend them between 2 C stands with a couple Cardellinis or studded C clamps holding onto the frame, this will be much cheaper than buying and shipping 4x4 frames.
 
Thanks for that, Moseph. Duck clamps look like $80/each, plus stands. This IS much cheaper than additional soft boxes. Will check it out!
 
Wow, less than half - thanks for the heads-up! Wondering how much softer the lights will be if I just use gels or the scrims that come with the kit. Going to experiment over next week or so...
 
Scrims don't soften the light. They just cut the intensity. Two completely different things. Often times softening / diffusing a light does entail cutting the intensity, but a scrim won't increase the effective size of the source.

Clipping sheets of diffusion onto the barn doors will soften the light a bit, but a large frame or bounce will have much more "wrap" around yous subject.
 
Again, much thanks for your expertise. Seems like I should rent a second 1K with soft box to light my instructor -- or perhaps put a flag in front of a combined 300 and 650 opposite the 1K (all of which I already have). Then the issue is lighting the cyc corner behind him to get a nice white background. From your comment, seems I'll need to diffuse the light into it, too. Is there a wattage ratio rule of thumb for this, e.g., do I need twice the wattage on the wall to blow out the highlight?
 
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