favorite diffusion?
 

What is your favorite diffusion and why?

I like just regular old diffusion paper, you can keep doubling it up to decrease the amount of light.

Also my dad's an Architect and the special paper he uses to draw on is identical to diffusion paper so I've got an unlimited supply.....and it's not went on fire yet ;)


Andy.

Diffusion
 

I love using soft boxes - either square or strip and larger custom made light bank frames with diffusion material attached (black flags to stop spill) - These are great for creating highlights in reflective objects and many other lighting effects.

Stu...
www.studioscotland.co.uk

I loved the web site Stewart, it's nice to see someone else from Scotland. And it's nice to see a successfull company like yours,it gives us new start companies hope.

Andy.

Thanks Andy...
 

Keep Hammering away Andy... I remember when we first started, working out of a tiny little council house, with very little equipment and a few pennies in the pocket (taught me alot) and with very little help. As you will realise Scotland is not overflowing with work or large budgets, good to keep an eye open for business opps to help support the video work. Always been a bit of a pain having to be a creative and a businessman. All the very best to you Andy...

Stu...
www.studioscotland.co.uk

Industry standard 12X12 and 20X24 Rolux, or Opal Frost, or Heavy Frost gels in those nifty little fold-out frames that mount on the stand in front of the fixture head. Add some Cinefoil or BlackWrap if spill is a problem. Why? It's extremely protable and quick to set up/take down. Easy to add colored gels to the frames if I need to add "flavor" to the light.

I'm a fan of 216 for gel diffusion and Silent Frost for frames of any size. The silent frost is great because it's closer to plastic sheet than gel so it makes no noise whatsoever if the wind hits it (hence, "silent" frost).

This isn't exactly diffusion, but I like bouncing light sources. It's another way to do the same thing.

A- Bounce a powerful light off a white ceiling.

Very fast to setup, very very soft ambient light. If you need more ambient light, I would just aim a light at the ceiling. In everyday situations, most of the light comes from the ceiling anyways so the angle is good.

You can quickly gel this source blue, if you need blue ambient light for a (day for) night scene.

B- Bounce sunlight (or another light source) off a reflector as fill/key.

Fast to setup, no power needed, can be quite soft (i.e. especially compared to clipping diffusion to a barn door). This is quite useful outdoors when you can't afford a generator and powerful lights.

Lee 216/416 and silks...

Henry

With a powerful enough source, creating a bounce-diffuse rig can produce some ultra soft light that can wrap a subject nicely if it's large enough (like a book light). Somewhat impractical for, well, practical interiors, but works nicely on exteriors and larger spaces.

I've never tried this but at the Home Depot and Lowes hardware stores where they keep the drop ceiling kits (like for finishing basements) they also have the diffusion light panels for the lights that go with drop ceilings. There are several types like frosted, clear-textured, clear-grid (sort of like egg crate) and so on. They are very thin(except the grid type), However they do not fold. But if you carry gobos or cookies that are on black foamboard....these diffusion panels are about the same size as foamboard. Also, Ive seen mentioned here before...a White Shower Curtain (not sure what material, plastic or silk-like) hung between two c-stands with lights clustered behind for a rather LARGE softlight.

I guess one of the ideas here is to "flood" the subject in controllable and effective lighting.

I bounce light to get a "diffused/soft" attack on the subject:

1/- Walls. - A back wall with a light surface can give a neat bounce "upwards" to a ceiling.

2/- Ceilings. - Often I'm in confined relatively low ceiling-ed places

3/- Gold and white Laso reflectors - I find that I can punch in quite a bite of edge with these.

I've not yet found a need to go direct onto the subject. Apart from anything else, it makes non-pro talent unsettled with all that light pouring on them. I also use an in-line dimmer on my Dedolight.

. . and I'm still a novice at this.

Grazie

Kinoflows.... the lazy man's diffusion. :)

I think out of all, I've used the chimera the most.

Lowel Rifa 44
 

This is a nice little 250w softbox that sets up very quickly - literally in a couple of minutes. For quick interviews it is great. Offset it with a 50 or 100w NRG fill.