Mirror Boards

[waefre]

The other day I was at a shoot outdoors and the lighting guys used mirror boards on c-stands to light the whole thing. They were very effective and produced wonderful lighting. I was was pretty busy that day and didn't get to talk to the lighting guys about them but they seem like something that wouldn't be too difficult to built. They were basically retangular reflectors that rotated in a frame. On side was flat and shiny while the other side had a sort of matrix of reflective foil that blew and shifted with the wind. I was trying to find some pictures of some online but I'm not sure what the exact term for them is and "mirror boards" or "reflectors" don't seem to cut it in the search engine. If anyone could give me a hand on finding some info on these it would be most appreciatted.

 

[Erik Olson]

You can get very close in a DIY, but you won't save a lot of money if you want one that is just like the real thing.

They're 42 x 42 x ¾" with a plywood or beaded core and laminated foil surfaces. The grid material can actually be purchased as a repair item from Mole Richardson. The metal frame with spots for ears and a yoke are expensive to fab.

http://www.cinemagadgets.com/42x42x34-standard-aluminum-reflector-p-372.html

 

[Barry_Green]

http://msegrip.com/mse.php?show=product&cat=&products_ID=25785

I've got a couple of these; they're cheap(er) and small. The hard side doesn't spread the light out too much though, so they're more for spot lighting.

 

[benjyaman]

I just take a bounce board/difuser and if it doesn't reflect enough I've got two different car visors that I just stap on over the frame. One is silver, and the other reflects everything lke a mirror.

 

[Carlos_E._Martinez]

If I am not wrong, Lowel used to manufacture a portable small sized reflector with a tripod arrangement. I don't know if they still have it.

Another thing I recently saw were some acrylic plates, with three grade mirror surfaces to pick from, that you can get cut any size you want.

That can be a real problem solver in many situations, so I will get some.

Once I did use real glass mirrors to light a documentary, following Nestor Almendros description of the ones he used in "The blue lagoon". We were shooting without any available lights in the Brazilian Northeast, where sunlight is quite intense. Using a mix of mirrors to reflect light and tulles to filter it we could get beautiful results.

Working outdoors you need some way to fix the mirrors so they won't move with the wind.

 

[Cool Lights]

Acrylic's a good idea for lighter weight and unbreakable. Also the kind of reflector that has a mirrored surface that you can see yourself in will be the most efficient for reflecting light for sure rather than the stippled or "hammered" surface as its known by.

I just had an inspiration on using the mirrored aluminum like that used as reflectors for lighting fixtures. It's made by a company called Alanod and marketed under the name "Miro". It's thin and highly polished and a "you can see yourself" type of mirror. If you put it on a piece of plywood (1/8" or 1/4" should be enough) and then mount that with some kind of articulating ball adapter on the back you've got a really great and lightweight (unbreakable) mirror. Not the hammered type of aluminum.

The hammered material is much less expensive but if you want to use that I'm not sure of the difference really with a regular 42" 5 in 1 reflector that folds down and is quite cheap already.