Translucent reflectors and war ... what are they good for?
 

In what situations are translucent reflectors most useful?

For simulating a softbox or an outdoor "silk". Shine a light through the translucent reflector and it'll become a larger, softer light source. For outdoors use you'd put the translucent reflector between the sun and your subject, to turn the sunlight into a softer light source.

I think they can be indsipensible outdoors. I have seen many movies where a wide angle shot shows characters in broad daylight but when they cut to a close up, they appear in shadow. Open Range comes to mind.

I would love to place one in front of a 500 watt work light or Tota to see how good a job it does. In fact, I bought a photoflex stand and litedisc holder not realizing the support arm went across the back of the diffuser disc. So if I try to shine a light through it, that big black bar will get in the way. That also prevents it from being used outdoors to diffuse sunlight. I guess that is why there are so many low paid assistants around?? :)

I am still looking for a lightdisc holder that wraps around the disc.

Greg

So do you ever actually use it to reflect light? As opposed to diffusing it?

You wouldn't use a translucent disc to reflect light, you'd use a white, silver or gold disc to reflect. Unless you wanted a really *weak* reflector, in which case perhaps the translucent one would work for that.

As for the litedisc holder, you're talking about an extendable rod with two spring clamps on it, right? And they say to normally clip one of the clamps on each side of the disc, right? Just don't do that. Hang the disc from the rod, putting both spring clamps on top. As long as you're not in windy conditions you can hang it like that and blast a light through it.

For outdoor windy conditions it's way better to have someone holding it.

That is a dang good idea. I don't know why but I would probably not thought about doing that. I am looking forward to trying that now.

Greg


<<<-- Originally posted by Barry Green : You wouldn't use a translucent disc to reflect light, you'd use a white, silver or gold disc to reflect. Unless you wanted a really *weak* reflector, in which case perhaps the translucent one would work for that.

As for the litedisc holder, you're talking about an extendable rod with two spring clamps on it, right? And they say to normally clip one of the clamps on each side of the disc, right? Just don't do that. Hang the disc from the rod, putting both spring clamps on top. As long as you're not in windy conditions you can hang it like that and blast a light through it.

For outdoor windy conditions it's way better to have someone holding it. -->>>