We usually light using softboxes and honeycombs to control light spill on the background. This works just fine with Tungsten lights. But from time to time we need to go shoot in some seriously remote locations with no electricity and use a 1x1' litepanel. Does anybody know how we could (ideally) fit some softbox and honeycomb on such a lamp? Or another practical, transportable way of controlling spillover light on the background?
Thanks a lot!

We usually light using softboxes and honeycombs to control light spill on the background. This works just fine with Tungsten lights. But from time to time we need to go shoot in some seriously remote locations with no electricity and use a 1x1' litepanel. Does anybody know how we could (ideally) fit some softbox and honeycomb on such a lamp? Or another practical, transportable way of controlling spillover light on the background?
Thanks a lot!

Francois,

LED lights DO NOT work like standard lights. You can't cut them with barn doors well. Nor do traditional honeycomb grids work in the same fashion they work with tungsten lights.

Close a barn door an an LED fixture and as soon as it crosses the outermost row of LEDs - instead of a shadow line as you'd expect from a fresnel - you start to get the visible appearance of the ROWS of lights projected onto your subject.

So, essentially, all LED sources ALREADY could be said to have grid equivalents on them since every LED is a focused source.

If you're going to rely on LED lighting on location - you need to spend some time working with it in practical situations in order to understand the unique characteristics.

LEDs are WONDERFUL for weight issues and light output verses power. They just don't work like other lights any more than color balanced fluorescents do. (Another useful lighting type that DOES NOT give you traditional barn door control like traditional tungsten fixtures.)

As to spill control, I'd recommend carrying extra lightweight stands, arms, flags, and a big roll of blackwrap. Stuff nobody should be without to do serious lighting under typical circumstances anyway.

Good luck.

Thanks Bill!

Since you are talking LEDs let me tell you what happened recently to me!

I taped a concert which was lighted with cheap LED pars. Not litepanels, those cheap LED pars that can change to any color. They put enough light and to eye the result wasn't bad. The lights were left in one color most of the time, since the music was ambient-ish.

Now that I am editing, I realize the images are pretty noisy, much more than I expected. It's like I have worked with much less light than the one I saw. To round it off, there's some flicker. I was recording 25p in Rome (50Hz power).

Big warning when you are working with cheap LED lights!

Those LED par fixtures are primarily meant for stage and disco use, not specifically designed for television and/or film. Yes, some of those kind do flicker.