Open Face vs. Fresnel

J

James Holmes

Member
I am buying a 1K light. My choices are a Mole-Richardson type 407 Fresnel or a type 4081 focusing open face.

I will appreciate a discussion of the light quality differences between the two.

Is there a significant difference in total output? Does the Fresnel give more "wrap"?

Additionally, If someone has such for sale, please respond.

Thanks in advance for your expertise.

Jim
 
I'll always go for the Fresnel, given the choice. You have far greater control over focus and shadow quality.
 
Nobody uses fresnels the way they used to, almost ever. It all depends on what I'm doing, but most of the time when it comes to that wattage range I find an open face more useful since it's going to get bounced or diffused anyways (neither of them have any wrap whatsoever until you do this), at least with an open face I'll an extra half of a stop or more for the same wattage.
 
like Moseph I almost never fire a fresnel directly at anyone's face these days (unless a particular shot requires a hard light - which, for me, isn't often these days outside of faking sunlight). Open face lights will give you higher output, so can be more useful for bounced light, however the beam from open faced lights is too rough to make an effective backlight, but fresnels handle that role beautifully.

A nice in-between is the newer Arri 'arrimax' lights (both in tungsten and HMI), they use a reflector that gives you open-face output, but with a beam quality that comes much closer to a fresnel. They could prove a handy option for something with the output to bounce, and enough beam quality to function as a backlight too.
 
Buy both...and 2 of each. They both have their applications and you will develop the ability to pick which one according to what you are doing.
 
Open-face for bounce and shooting through diffusion, Fresnel for rim light, hair light, separation light.

Of course, you can use the Fresnel for bounce and diffusion if it has sufficient power for your particular application.

A very efficient "open-face" (but not really open) would be a Source Four Par, which uses 750 watts and puts out as much as an Arri 2K Fresnel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top