Re: Shaping / Blocking SOFT LIGHT?

E

ectobuilder

Veteran
Re: Shaping / Blocking SOFT LIGHT?

I've been playing with shaping and blocking soft light.

Any tips, tricks or techniques worth knowing about?

Dealing with soft light is tricky because it wants to wrap around the blocking material. And I find the blocking material needs to be closer to the subject/talent in order to create the desired shadow in the desired area (meaning it is more likely to be seen in the frame!)
 
Flags flags flags! And scrims too. And fingers. And that black foil.

Yup, as close to your subject as possible sometimes.

Get that matte black foamcore from a local office or arts supply place. It's cheap and works as well as anything.

For a little more money you can look into a proper flag kit with frames and different degrees of diffusion and scrims.

And for some fantastic examples with descriptions, diagrams, and photos - check out Matthew Scott's brilliant blog:

http://mattscottvisuals.com/lighting/
 
DPStewart said:
Flags flags flags! And scrims too. And fingers. And that black foil.

Yup, as close to your subject as possible sometimes.

Get that matte black foamcore from a local office or arts supply place. It's cheap and works as well as anything.

For a little more money you can look into a proper flag kit with frames and different degrees of diffusion and scrims.

And for some fantastic examples with descriptions, diagrams, and photos - check out Matthew Scott's brilliant blog:

http://mattscottvisuals.com/lighting/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! Fingers!!! Which lead me to find "dots"! I do have the Westcott fast flags but I'm finding even the 18" x 24" to be unnecessarily big in certain situations, so I think I'll add some fingers and dots to see how it can be best used!!!

THANKS!!!
 
How big are these soft lights? Large source necessitates large flags. Huge, sometimes. . .4x4, 4x8. A good place to start when trying to flag is halfway between the light source and the thing you're trying to keep the light off of. Flagging closer to light = softer "cut" (shadow), but you can get away with smaller flag, further from light = more defined cut but will need larger flag.
 
ectobuilder said:
Thanks for the tip! Fingers!!! Which lead me to find "dots"! I do have the Westcott fast flags but I'm finding even the 18" x 24" to be unnecessarily big in certain situations, so I think I'll add some fingers and dots to see how it can be best used!!!

THANKS!!!
Click to expand...

Wow. This is the first time someone's been genuinely pleased that I gave them the finger.

Hahaha! Yeah, it's amazing how effective something as simple as fingers and dots can be.

Glad I could help.

~Cheers!
 
I think I'm getting there with the look I'm going for in my next upcoming shoot. Been working on the look for a few days and this is what I was able to get to. Going for a natural, raw look:

Frame Grab 002 - Ungraded.jpg
 
What size soft source are we talking about here? It can't be very sizeable if you are finding an 18x24 flag to be too big.

If you start by flagging right at the source, a reasonable rule of thumb is that the size of the flag should be the same or larger than the size of the source, i.e. a 4x4 solid perpendicular to a 4x4 diffusion frame. If you really want to limit the spread, you need to go bigger. A far more efficient way to do so would be via grid applied to the front of the source, which takes up no extra gear or space.

Dots and fingers--well, I use those for tabletop where you can really get in there close but those really are more designed for hard light. I regularly use "charly bars" (more sizeable versions of fingers) to break up sunlight splashes etc.
 
I'm glad you posted this, as I need to send off a bunch of frames to have them re-covered.

I'm not sure of your location, but I use Canvas Grip for many of my flags. Of course they ship, but you might have a local source.

Something else to think about.... A roll of black Duvetyne is very handy to keep around. Slide over a C-stand arm and pull down as much as needed. Then roll back up when finished.


All the best!

Dave
 
To add to Dave's suggestion, that is a rough version of a wag flag which is a length of duv, ripstop nylon or ultrabounce rolled around a 4" by 6 or 8' frame. Ripstop is much lighter than duv so you can extend it out further from a c-stand without concerns. Great to use as a topper. The ultrabounce version is something I use a lot with a source 4 leko pushing into it as a non-rigged, easy to control backlight (you can adjust the size of the source, intensity, color etc right from the light on the ground, which is speedy).
 
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For shaping soft light I'm finding that the distance between the source and block is more important than distance between the block and subject (assuming there is enough light output).
 
DPStewart said:
Flags flags flags! And scrims too. And fingers. And that black foil.

Yup, as close to your subject as possible sometimes.

Get that matte black foamcore from a local office or arts supply place. It's cheap and works as well as anything.

For a little more money you can look into a proper flag kit with frames and different degrees of diffusion and scrims.

And for some fantastic examples with descriptions, diagrams, and photos - check out Matthew Scott's brilliant blog:

http://mattscottvisuals.com/lighting/
Click to expand...

great resource. Thx
 
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