favorite diffusion?
 

What is your favorite diffusion and why?

I like just regular old diffusion paper, you can keep doubling it up to decrease the amount of light.

Also my dad's an Architect and the special paper he uses to draw on is identical to diffusion paper so I've got an unlimited supply.....and it's not went on fire yet ;)


Andy.

Diffusion
 

I love using soft boxes - either square or strip and larger custom made light bank frames with diffusion material attached (black flags to stop spill) - These are great for creating highlights in reflective objects and many other lighting effects.

Stu...
www.studioscotland.co.uk

I loved the web site Stewart, it's nice to see someone else from Scotland. And it's nice to see a successfull company like yours,it gives us new start companies hope.

Andy.

Thanks Andy...
 

Keep Hammering away Andy... I remember when we first started, working out of a tiny little council house, with very little equipment and a few pennies in the pocket (taught me alot) and with very little help. As you will realise Scotland is not overflowing with work or large budgets, good to keep an eye open for business opps to help support the video work. Always been a bit of a pain having to be a creative and a businessman. All the very best to you Andy...

Stu...
www.studioscotland.co.uk

Industry standard 12X12 and 20X24 Rolux, or Opal Frost, or Heavy Frost gels in those nifty little fold-out frames that mount on the stand in front of the fixture head. Add some Cinefoil or BlackWrap if spill is a problem. Why? It's extremely protable and quick to set up/take down. Easy to add colored gels to the frames if I need to add "flavor" to the light.

I'm a fan of 216 for gel diffusion and Silent Frost for frames of any size. The silent frost is great because it's closer to plastic sheet than gel so it makes no noise whatsoever if the wind hits it (hence, "silent" frost).

This isn't exactly diffusion, but I like bouncing light sources. It's another way to do the same thing.

A- Bounce a powerful light off a white ceiling.

Very fast to setup, very very soft ambient light. If you need more ambient light, I would just aim a light at the ceiling. In everyday situations, most of the light comes from the ceiling anyways so the angle is good.

You can quickly gel this source blue, if you need blue ambient light for a (day for) night scene.

B- Bounce sunlight (or another light source) off a reflector as fill/key.

Fast to setup, no power needed, can be quite soft (i.e. especially compared to clipping diffusion to a barn door). This is quite useful outdoors when you can't afford a generator and powerful lights.

Lee 216/416 and silks...

Henry

With a powerful enough source, creating a bounce-diffuse rig can produce some ultra soft light that can wrap a subject nicely if it's large enough (like a book light). Somewhat impractical for, well, practical interiors, but works nicely on exteriors and larger spaces.

I've never tried this but at the Home Depot and Lowes hardware stores where they keep the drop ceiling kits (like for finishing basements) they also have the diffusion light panels for the lights that go with drop ceilings. There are several types like frosted, clear-textured, clear-grid (sort of like egg crate) and so on. They are very thin(except the grid type), However they do not fold. But if you carry gobos or cookies that are on black foamboard....these diffusion panels are about the same size as foamboard. Also, Ive seen mentioned here before...a White Shower Curtain (not sure what material, plastic or silk-like) hung between two c-stands with lights clustered behind for a rather LARGE softlight.

I guess one of the ideas here is to "flood" the subject in controllable and effective lighting.

I bounce light to get a "diffused/soft" attack on the subject:

1/- Walls. - A back wall with a light surface can give a neat bounce "upwards" to a ceiling.

2/- Ceilings. - Often I'm in confined relatively low ceiling-ed places

3/- Gold and white Laso reflectors - I find that I can punch in quite a bite of edge with these.

I've not yet found a need to go direct onto the subject. Apart from anything else, it makes non-pro talent unsettled with all that light pouring on them. I also use an in-line dimmer on my Dedolight.

. . and I'm still a novice at this.

Grazie

Kinoflows.... the lazy man's diffusion. :)

I think out of all, I've used the chimera the most.

Lowel Rifa 44
 

This is a nice little 250w softbox that sets up very quickly - literally in a couple of minutes. For quick interviews it is great. Offset it with a 50 or 100w NRG fill.

Gee, favorite? Whatever is at hand and works.

Tough spun is easy to clip to barndoors and doesn't melt. Always some of that in the kit. A white ceiling if it's handy. Bouncing off 4x4' or 4x8' sheets of foam-core if it's a larger shoot with c-stands at hand. There's always a 5-in-1 reflector or two in the kit, which can be used as (dense) diffusion or as a reflector. Baker's parchment if I'm at the grocery store. Whatever.

My favorite "new" discovery is the Rifa. The 44 is a little small for my taste, I like the 55 because it has a nice "wrap" for faces from a good working distance. Sets up so much faster and fewer parts than a chimera.

I have not tried this but it is used in one of the local cable studios.

Furnace Filter

Its non flamable and has lots of layers so you can subtract or add on as needed.

Rifa
 

Seth,

The 44 is small, but I do a lot of quick interviews, and for that purpose, it is useful. I agree that overall the 55 does the job. I do love the quick set up time.

A 6'x6' or larger frame with a silk and a few 1k's. It can take a bit to haul and set-up, and you need to have the power but the large area can provide a wonderful wrap-around for the wider medium shots and interviewer plus interviewee shots as well as close-ups.

I fear that I may be a diffusion junkie. There sure are a lot of choices out there, and many of them overlap. I love playing with them though. Especially those that provide directionality or additional character to the light.
If I was going to have just a few, I'd probably pick: 216, 251, Opal, Hampshire Frost. For exteriors, Tough Spun or one of the "silent" varients would be handy. This ignores the categories of other forms of diffusion such as softboxes, silks, bounces, etc.

What exactly is "tough spun" and where can one buy some?

P.S. Never mind, I found it on B&H. But there are like a dozen different versions: is there a standard filter number for indoor-balanced light temperature?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...shs=tough+spun

Tough Spun is from Rosco, one of the leading gel makers.

They make Roscolux Tough Spun, branded for the theater market, and Cinegel Tough Spun for film and video. I think there are more densities available in Cinegel.

Cinegel:
3006 - full
3007 - light (this is most popular)
3022 - quarter

It's not a total diffuser, more of a softener, nice for taming the hard look of light out of an open face instrument like a Lowel Omni or Tota, or an Arrilite. It doesn't change color temp of your lights, nor does a particular light temp need to be matched with a particular spun. You'd probably buy a 20x24" sheet of 3007 to see if you liked it, for small lights it could be quartered for clipping to barn doors.

Info from Rosco at http://www.rosco.com/us/filters/cine...=so&display=17

A good source for individual sheets is www.filmtools.com.
They have a broad collection of diffusion and gels by the sheet. For small instruments, or small jobs, that's the way to go.
Last time I was there, they only had Lee filters online, but Lee makes Tough Spun as well. It's a high-temperature, non-yellowing spun polyester, and it feels like a fabric. Seth is right, it's more of a softener than a full diffusion, and sometimes it is just the right answer.