The Great Diffusion Test

RyanT

RyanT

Veteran
For a while I've been thinking about softening light sources and how certain types of diffusion or bounce sources will affect your light. I feel like a lot of times we do things based off of what we think it will do to the light, having never really looked side by side at what it will actually do. A simple example would be the preference of Ultrabounce over a B/W Griff, or Beadboard over showcard.

I realized I have access to all of this stuff, so it's just a matter of doing it. I figured though because it is so so much work, I should see what other people might be interested in seeing...maybe I can incorporate that into it.

I plan on starting off pretty simple, I'll use a 5k senior and push that through various 4x frames of diffusion. I'll have a few different distances from the 4x frame to the subject, maybe 2 feet, 5 feet, and 8 feet. I'll start with the heavier diffusion materials and scrim the light down to keep myself at relatively the same stop. The diffusion materials I plan to test are:

Opal
251
250
216
129
1/4 Grid
1/2 Grid
Full Grid
Poly Silk
Black Silk (If I can find it...)
China Silk
Tough Spun
Bleached Muslin
Unbleached Muslin
1000H
4x beadboard (yes, as diffusion...)

I'll be lighting a model and shoot it from two camera positions, one straight on, and the other from the shadow side of the face to show the wrap of the light a bit better. I was thinking about shooting a metal object of something that would give off specular highlights, but I'm not too sure how much it would change from material to material...Thinking about this more, maybe I should create a small scene with different objects in it....Not entirely sure yet.

From there I'll move up to a 6x, 8x, and 12x frame and goods. The ones I plan to test with this are:

Poly Silk
China Silk
Black Silk
1/2 Soft Frost
1/4 Grid
1/2 Grid
Full Grid
Unbleached Muslin
Bleached Muslin
Day Blue Muslin
Clear Griffylon
Hi-Lite

I do also want to test bouncing light, but I'm not entirely sure how I can make this comparable to shooting it through diffusion. Maybe just place the bounce material where the frame of diffusion was and bounce the light off of that, since the source will always be the same size relative to the subject. These would all be for 4x, 6x, 8x, 12x...

In 4x
Roscoe Soft Silver
Beadboard
Showcard
Bleached Muslin
Unbleached Muslin

6x, 8x, 12x
Black Silk
Bleached Muslin
Unbleached Muslin
Day Blue Muslin
Ultra Bounce
B/W Griff


The last thing I'd like to test are booklights, I don't want to get too involved, but I'm just curious to see how much it really changes the quality of the light. I may just shoot the light off of 4x beadboard and try a few different 4x frames..Maybe opal, 216, and muslin.

Let me know what you think...Maybe there's something simple I can include that would be helpful for all of us. Some different diffusion materials, a different way to go about testing them...just want to make sure if I'm going to go through all the work that I do it right. I can get my hands on pretty much anything too, so if there's some other obscure thing I've missed, let me know...I'm sure I can find it.
 
ryan-

that much work posted so we can all continue to learn would be a great benefit.

thank you in advance for doing all the heavy lifting.

(or even thinking about doing the heavy lifting!)

be well

rob
smalltalk productions
 
Me too, for sure. Then I have an idea you can test about the best way to setup and bag C-stands. :)
 
Me five! Sounds like a great idea. But may I suggest you do a somewhat abbreviated version, so that it can be finished during our lifetimes? :)
Ken
 
I'm interested for sure. Ryan you can make it just like the GREAT DIFFUSION SHOOTOUT by Zacuto and make web series or DVD! lol

You could get manufacturers like Lee, Rosco, Chimera, Photoflex, etc to provide their fabrics for this exclusive non-scientific and non-biased diffusion evaluation. We can form a committee and in the video all stand around looking at diffused lights and make comments like "- really like the softness and fall-off of that 1/2 spun"....
 
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Honestly man here is what you gonna find. In order of softness of shadows:
Grid
LiteGrid
250
216
Opal

Ain't no rocket science.
 
How do you plan on doing this? There are so many variables for how diffusion is used.... 4x4 skinned frames? Clipped to BarnDoors? Diffusion quality is not just material but how big the source is, how close, etc.

Curious how you plan to tackle this.
 
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Patryk_Rebisz said:
Honestly man here is what you gonna find. In order of softness of shadows:
Grid
LiteGrid
250
216
Opal

Ain't no rocket science.
Click to expand...

Sure it isn't, but people will pay the extra price for a 6x half grid instead of a poly silk, but I doubt a lot of them have seen them side by side. Also what I'm more interested in is how the size of the frame affects the softness.


As far as how I plan to adjust for so many variables, I'll just keep a fixed far and close distance for all my diffusion frames and then have one round where I clip everything to the doors.
 
Of course I am interested especially if you documented them in a very easy-to-refer method. Thanks and do let me know what is the outcome ok.
 
Don't forget Hampshire Frost. And the old Shower Curtain sheets, if one can get that stuff any more.

Also, you may find it interesting to note deviations between brands. 216 from Rosco is a bit different than the same from Lee and so forth. But then you could drive yourself nuts in the variations.
 
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