[daveyuk]

Just playing around with a few ideas and trying some other desk lamps, and a couple of home made reflectors in good old Blue Peter style

Reflector one. Made from an old Wheatabix box side with white paper glued on to it.
Reflector two. Made from an old Wheatabix box side with with tinfoil glued on to it.

1.

2.

3.


As always your comments are most welcome and many thanks for taking the time to look

[Rob Barron]

Well I'd have to say those reflectors are obviously doing their job as the shadows are not harsh and there is plenty of detail in all the shadow areas. The lighting is mostly good throughout. The 2nd model man shot has deficiencies in the focusing and DoF but that isn't really what you were working on here so I'd say your experimentation has worked well

Cheers,
Rob

[fionaB]

excellent example of how we dont have to spend a huge amount of cash to get the end result......
im off now to find some tin foil and weetabix box.. damn will have to wait until i have papier mache'd a balloon!

[daveyuk]

Fi, Rob ta muchly for your comments.

To give you some more detail, the desk lights I used are standard halagon lights which gives quite a hard light so I tried with a kitchen paper towel drapped over it which seemed to work but not to keen on using that idea for to long!! The other light I tried bouncing the light off my home made white card reflector which was ok.

I'd like to pick your brains for other ideas on how to soften the harsh light these halagon lights give?

[Rob Barron]

Have you got an old umbrella Davey? If so, pop to your nearest DIY store and grab a can of silver paint (a motor place would sell it as well and you can just get a small tin).

Spray the umbrella inside with silver. You will need at least three coats to really get it to the stage where it reflects light properly.

Ok, now instead of pointing the halogen light straight at the subject, reverse it and point it at the inside of the brolly which you can move around to reflect the light, now diffused, back onto the subject. This will do a good job of softening shadows because the light source is now coming from various directions and not just one.

You can of course buy photographic brollies quite cheaply but this is a good DIY method. Might be worth a little play?

Cheers,
Rob

[Les Meehan]

Davey

You can make yourself what we call 'trace screens' for softening lights. For small subjects, such as these models, use kiddies tracing paper from a toy shop or stationers. For bigger subjects, such as portraiture/still life sets, buy a roll of 1 metre wide white tracing paper from a graphic supplies or art shop.

Obtain some large cardboard boxes and cut yourself some 'frames' of various sizes. Leave the frame edge about 2 inch wide for stability, and tape a sheet/piece of the trace to it. Add another bit of card to make it stand up on its own and you have a 'softbox'. Place the screens between the light and the subject. The closer the screen is to the subject the 'softer' will be the light and shadow edges will be gentle.
These screens can be any size you like from very small to massive. In pro studios we usually have 8x4 foot wooden frames made with the trace fixed to it. These are used for everything from roomsets to fashion to still-life to food. The beauty of these screens is that they are so versatile, cheap to make, and can be recovered when needed.
With a bit of practice you can achieve some really professional results and it won't costa lotta! And you can never have too much white/black card around for reflectors!

[daveyuk]

Thanks for the tip Les I'll look into this one