Opinion on diffusers?

Giselle

I have been using reflectors made for your car windshield to shade people when forced to shoot in hard light. I am looking to upgrade, I think I want a diffuser so some light from the sun comes thru and something fairly large. Also what arm do you recommend I get for assistant to hold it the easiest? Any advise you have would be greatly appreciated...

Nikolai

Giselle
Search is your friend (key word: diffusers, this forum is ok). There has been many posts on this issue, including this..

HTH

ziggy53

Giselle,

It sounds like you want an "overhead" diffusion panel?

There are many ways to go, commercial and DIY. I tend to go DIY, when possible, and I've been looking into these as well.

The best designs are either based on a free-standing tent, with flexible poles, or a more ridgid design, made from PVC pipe or similar, kind of like a car port design.

The diffusion material itself is usually either plastic sheet or rip-stop nylon. One clever person, I read about a couple of years ago, got some old parachutes, and put them to use as the diffusor material.

If you want a simple, smaller, hand-held device, a hula-hoop, with the diffusion material stitched over the hoop, is said to work well, as do simple rectangular/square frames made out of PVC pipe.

I had some bookmarks, but I think they got lost last year. If I see anything, I'll post it here.

ziggy53

ziggy53

I can't remember where exactly this came from:

Bob Bell

Giselle wrote:

I have been using reflectors made for your car windshield to shade people when forced to shoot in hard light. I am looking to upgrade, I think I want a diffuser so some light from the sun comes thru and something fairly large. Also what arm do you recommend I get for assistant to hold it the easiest? Any advise you have would be greatly appreciated...

The best way to do this is to use Scrim Flags and Panels/Butterflies. These are panels made out of Silk or other fabrics that you can use to reduce the power of the sun or a large flood. Smaller ones are usually in 1/4, 1/2 stop, etc... Butterflys big enough for cars are usually 1 to 2 stop loss.

If you buy a butterfly usually you can get reflective material for the frames as well, which is a bonus.

Most pro shop photography stores have flags and panels usually.

I use rip-stop nylon in my 2'x2'x3' light box. It really eats up light. 4x 500 watt bulbs is the minumum to light the space.

Bob Bell

ziggy53 wrote:

I can't remember where exactly this came from:

Fred Miranda Forum in the thread: Show us your studio. John is the first name, I don't know his last.

ziggy53

DIY Cheap Soft Light Panel Frame Designed for Flash (or hotlight)

http://www.diyphotography.net/homestudio/blz/soft-light-panel-frame



homemade outdoor diffuser materials

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=008Q2g&tag=



I almost forgot, a large shoot-through photographic umbrella can also be used in a pinch. Some have removable shafts, making it easier to get them close to the subject, or they can be used inverted.

I'm sure I had more, but duty calls. (Scouting stuff.)

ziggy53

ziggy53

Bob Bell wrote:

Fred Miranda Forum in the thread: Show us your studio. John is the first name, I don't know his last.

Thanks Bob, that's right!

zig

Art Scott

Look into buying kinsized muslin bed sheets from the Salvation Army Stores.....I just bought 2 (king size) for a total of $2.50......and no stains...these things look like new......

Bob Bell

Art Scott wrote:

Look into buying kinsized muslin bed sheets from the Salvation Army Stores.....I just bought 2 (king size) for a total of $2.50......and no stains...these things look like new......

Thats a great find Art. Most muslin from the fabric store is more than that per yard.

Art Scott

Bob Bell wrote:

Thats a great find Art. Most muslin from the fabric store is more than that per yard.

Oh yes..... the last I bought from a theatrical supply was $4 or 5 per yd...bur it was still cheaper than buying a painted background....

Giselle

Thanks for all the ideas and info. Does anyone know anything about the sun swatter? http://www.sunbounce-usa.com/swatt_the_light.html
It cost too much but looks really cool.

Bob Bell

Giselle wrote:

Thanks for all the ideas and info. Does anyone know anything about the sun swatter? http://www.sunbounce-usa.com/swatt_the_light.html
It cost too much but looks really cool.

Those are just panels with either diffusing material or reflective material.

I haven't heard of them but the technology behind panels is pretty simple, its just fabric and stop loss thats really important.

BTW, they do work as well as shown on that site. Its pretty cool how something so simple can be a big and soft light source.

Mitch

Giselle
Have you tried ebay? I did a search for scrim under camera & photo and came up with this http://cgi.ebay.com/3x5-DIFFUSION-screen-SOFTBOX-alternative-SCRIM-panel_W0QQitemZ7606877642QQcategoryZ79010QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

plus others.

Mitch