Project365 - Of Grids and Snoots

Introduction

I managed to collect the components of my Honl speed strap & gels system yesterday. They also make a grid, so I picked one of this up up as well. Grids & Snoots are another form of light modifier for your flash system. They don't change the colour temperature of your flash, instead they focus the beam.

Why would you want to do that ? It allows the photographer to more selectively light the scene. Imagine a photo of a model in a dark room. Perhaps you want to expose the background to look like a black backdrop. That's easily achieved, but you still need to light up the model, to show off contrast and colour. The grid or snoot will help "aim" the light at the models face, while minimizing the spillover onto the background.

 

The Setup

These are some more "goofing around" shots. None of my available models were out of bed yet, and I was getting impatient. A very simple setup, with the Honl 1/8 grid attached to the Canon 430 EX II via the Honl speed strap. The whole shebang is mounted on the hotshoe of my Canon 60D, which has my general purpose 24-105mm f/4 L lens attached. I shot handheld for quick & dirty testing.

 

The Photos

A simple before and after shot. First without the grid, followed by a photo taken with the grid.

Note the even lighting. I used no other light modifier, like a gel, as there was no other ambient light - just the flash at 1/8 power.

 

 

 

For comparison, this photo is shot with the exact same settings, and the grid in place. Note how quickly the light falls off ! The grid directs the flash down a very narrow beam.

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

The use of a grid or snoot allows more creative use of light. It provides an easy way of selectively lighting a small portion of the frame, while quickly allowing the ambient light to light the rest. I see this as very useful for fill-flash and portraiture.

 

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Project365 - Flash Light-Modifiers

Introduction

I have been noticing that I am often unhappy with the colours of my photographs when I shoot with a flash. While there is a white-balance setting on my camera, the light from the flash is a harsh white, which competes with other lighting in the photograph. There are a ton of ways to light scenes - you might be outside on a shady or sunny day. You might be interested in taking family portraits in the living room. Or perhaps you are doing commercial work, shooting products or Executives.

Seems that different lighting has different "temperatures" - you get a feel for it when you see pictures that appear to have a cool blue tinge, or ones that have a warm orange glow to them. Colour temperature is measured in terms of degrees Kelvin, and different lighting has different colours associated with them. Primarily, the objective is to get back to an "honest" white colour. Unless, of course, you WANT to create warmer or cooler tones in your photographs !

The Setup

It took me a bit of running around town, but I finally picked up the components I wanted. My preferred supplier, Saneal Cameras in Calgary, had the Honl speed strap at one store, and the gels at another. I bought a grid while I was at it, but we'll discuss that in a separate blog entry. I like the Honl system, because it makes quickly changing between gels and grids easy. The speed strap loops around the flash and then the components attach to the Velcro for a firm grip.

This isn't really a photo shoot, I was just messing around, attaching the gels & seeing what the effects are. I used my handy Canon 60D handheld, and affixed the 24-105mm f/4 L series lens. Around one of my Canon 430 EX II speed lights, I wrapped the Honl speed strap and started expeimenting. I have:

2X full Green gels (CTG ?)

1X full Blue gel (CTB)

1X half Blue gel (CTB)

2X full Orange gel (CTO)

2X half Orange gel (CTO)

2X quarter Orange gel (CTO)

 

The Photos

This photo was taken with a full green gel. If you compare to the other two pictures, everything has a sickly green colour. The kitchen was illuminated only by the light coming in the window. The green gels are to be used to colour-correct for fluorescent lighting.

 

 

This photo has the full blue gel applied to the flash. Can you see the difference ? I bet you can ! Note that the calendar (taking the top left corner) is white.

 

 

This photo was taken with the full orange gel applied to the flash. It's amazing the difference that the different gels make. Note that the wall beside/behind the refrigerator is a light beige colour.

 

 

 

So let's see the colour-correction in action. For the following two photos, I took shots of the window & door off of our dining area. The window and door are brilliant white, while the only light source is the tungsten (incandescent) chandelier overhead.

This photo was shot using the flash, but without any gel to modify the light source. See how there is an dingy yellow cast to it ?

Here is the same scene, only using the full orange gel. The whites look white again !

Lessons Learned

Photography is merely the task of capturing light. But when we need to add external light to a scene, such as a full-flash, we need to be careful to balance our flash against the ambient light in the scene. I will keep experimenting with flash photography, and use the gels accordingly. The aim is to improve the overall appearance of the photos.

 

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