Shaping soft boxes?

C

ChadN

Well-known member
Hey everyone,

I've got 4 fluorescent light banks with soft boxes, like these. http://www.tubetape.net/servlet/the-588/Cool-Flo--dsh--1200/Detail
A couple of smaller, 1 light versions with soft boxes too.

I'm at the point now where i'm looking to shape my lighting with more precision. I've been looking at Arri Fresnels. I love the idea of having that control over the lights, and heck just the idea of some barn doors is exciting to me. I really haven't been able to do much with my big soft boxes other than blast light across the whole room.

I was thinking one of two things.

1. Find ways to shape my current lights. Maybe with flags (kind of a pain) or even some black Cinefoil to create slits or circles i can point in a more specific spot. Perhaps i can even fashion some barn doors to these light banks i have. I've got some reflectors, but that's not quite as precise as i'd like. Like a slash of light across the eyes.

2. I just buy more lights. Have my soft boxes for their purpose, and get more directional lights and have a variety of options. However, the running temperature of actual heat in the room with tungsten lights is something i'm not excited about. Are there any fluo options that are directional too? I see some Kinos with barn doors, but they're very wide still.

Any suggestions would be great. I'm new to lighting, but studying all i can right now. Seems like directional = tungsten. But, I'd hate to go buy more lights and find all i needed to do was get some cinefoil!

Just trying to think of some options. Thanks.
 
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You've run into the same conundrum that I have with cool lights. LED's and fluorescents are great for matching daylight and keeping down temperatures, but they are near impossible to shape for cheap. They can be great in a softbox, but your stuck with a diffused light. You need a fresnel lens or point source light to get the type of light shaping that you want. There are some LED fresnels available, but they aren't cheap yet. Your best bet to get slashes or slits or circles is to get rid of the soft box and use a singe fluorescent bulb and then put some long flags or slits or circles far enough away from the bulb that the bulb starts to act like a point light source.
 
Just commenting more towards your existing lights:

The first problem (sort of) with those softboxes is the diffusion fabric is not recessed behind the black edge of the softbox, where normally a grid or other shaping fabrics can be velcro'd in.

Yes you can use black foil or other improvised light controls to work with your softboxes but what I would do is extend the edge of the softbox a couple inches all the way around the front of that softbox. You can find some similar material and someone can probably sew it on for you. You can also have some velcro sewn onto it as well to fit other fabrics you can buy or make down the road.

Soft light goes everywhere and I find is controlled best with a deep grid.
 
Softboxes aren't really meant to be shaped except in the broadest sense, wrong tool for that job. Focused point sources (i.e. fresnels) are the lights that are meant to be shaped, and a softbox will never act like more than an open face light AT BEST, and even then, it'll have to be really far from the subject, at which point its output will probably be ineffective.

To me softboxes or any soft light are good for a few things, beauty lighting a small subject (product, face), or lighting a large area flatly, and one other thing that I'm sure exists to give myself wiggle room here. Fill in the blank.

Circles/slits etc. are best done with something like a fresnel or Leko/elipsoidal. You don't see elipsoidals too much in video/film use 'cause they're a bit too focused/difficult to deal with, more known for stage lighting. Fresnels, in my opinion, are what you really want here. The combination of parabolic reflector and fresnel lens gives them a shapability most other lights don't have, because science.

All that said, you can "tame" softboxes a little with the grids (talkin' a traditional softbox like the Chimera in an Arri kit here), which are kind of like a "snoot" for a softbox, though really meant to keep it off the background a little more rather than give it that defined circle pattern, but if you were lighting a wall or something with one, sure, maybe. This is a place where large flags/gobos can be of use, 2x3, 4x4, even larger, to cut the light broadly off a background while keeping it on the subject. To do this, you need to move the flag somewhat AWAY from the softlight, if possible; you'll notice your "cut"/shadow gets sharper that way. Gaffers have generally told me that halfway between your light and your subject/thing you're flagging light off of is a good place to start. Same principle will apply if you use fresnels--while the barn doors do help, they're so close to the light that their cut is very very soft. For something more defined you need to get the light-blocking object further away from the light. Also, contrary to intuition (for me anyway), fresnels are softer when spotted, more focused when flooded.
 
The only time I care at all for a softbox is lighting a face or interview while keeping the room darker. Softbox in close, often a medium, maybe a grid, recessed diffusion face. I've got a circle-mask for my large boxes that's handy when I remember I have the damn thing... (Well, there's also tabletop product of course...)

If you want to fill a room with soft light, make a room-size softbox out of fabric and stands and open faced units, or with large bounce. You're wasting lumens trying to do large spaces with a softbox (unless you pull the fabric out and use 'em like big open lights for bounce).

I've had many projects where my soft source was daylight (flos or what have you) and I gelled tungsten fresnels with just 1/2 CTB vs full. You don't kill all the power and it's a warmer look, good for hair/shoulders, etc - I think that was a Roger Deakins trick, but it works in many situations.

The OP's soft boxes aren't really killers for light output, so a couple 1k fresnels with CTB might work well. The Cool Lights 150 HID fresnels are great if you want to go all-daylight; the Alzo HID lights can be pretty handy as well.
 
Thanks for the input, everyone. I went ahead and ordered an Arri 650w Fresnel, Barndoors and a Dimmer. I'll get some gels other accessories soon too.

I shoot a lot of things with a female vlogger, and some green screen. So i've liked the soft boxes for those kinds of things. But to start shaping light and doing more cinematic things, that Arri Fresnel is a good addition.

I'll get some CTB to match my daylight rated lights. I wasn't sure about the 1/2 CTB but that does sound pretty cool as Michael Carter said.

Thanks again!
 
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