Results tagged “DIY” from Nikonian Martin Joergensen
By Martin Joergensen | August 28, 2008 8:23 PM | Permalink
A snoot is a tube in front of your flash, which keeps its beam of light tight and concentrated, while a grid has lots of smaller, parallel tubes that do essentially the same thing.
Snoots and grids have a lot in common and the line between them is thin, but I usually refer to snoots as longer tubes, often made of a softer material like foam or fabric, while grids are usually shorter and place a tubular grid or honeycomb in front of the light.
You can use snoots and grids in two ways: to make concentrated spots of light and to keep light from falling where you don't want it... by keeping it as a concentrated spot.
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Continue reading Flash snoots and grids.
By Martin Joergensen | August 13, 2008 9:53 AM | Permalink
This is probably the most often used flash modifier apart from the diffuser - if not, perhaps it ought to be.
Filters are cheap and easy to find, fairly easy to use and can give some great effects as well as downright save pictures by adjusting your flashes to match different artificial light sources.
The most common way to use gels is to get the light from your flashes to match the surrounding light, which is particularly interesting when shooting indoors in incandescent or fluorescent light.
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Continue reading Flash filters or gels.
By Martin Joergensen | August 7, 2008 11:30 PM | Permalink
This entry on diffusers is the first "real" entry in the series on flash modifiers I introduced in this overview article. Diffusers are definitely the most common light modifiers.
By diffusing or spreading the light, you get a softer look to your pictures and not least: soft shadows. The hard and harsh shadows of a direct flash is a definite no-no unless you aim for exactly that: unforgivingly hard and bright light and black shadows with sharp edges. In most other cases you want to completely loose or at least soften the shadows and you want a light that treats your subject nicely rather than reveal all its flaws.
A rule of thumb is: the larger the diffuser, the softer the light. Softboxes and umbrellas are the ultimate diffusers, but we will concentrate on the smaller types here.
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Continue reading Flash diffusers.
