Studio Lighting Attachments

In this task, I will be researching studio lighting attachments. I will also be looking at soft and hard light and consider the quality of light they produce. Here is my research:

Softbox
A softbox diffuses the harsh light into a pleasing soft, even light as it bounces off the material. It reduces harsh shadows and almost gives the image a glow effect to a extent. The closer the softbox is to the model/subject, the softer the light appears. The black fabric on the exterior prevents the light from spilling out and reflecting back in the studio. I've put this image of some fruits to show a comparison for the use of a softbox. The top image is using the softbox and the light is very soft whereas the bottom image is without the softbox. You can see the significance, the bottom image has a harsher look and the textures are a lot more visible.

Beauty Dish
A beauty dish is similar to a softbox but not as soft. It is more focused on equalling out imperfections and skin tones when it comes to portrait photography. The modifier produces soft lights that helps to shoot beauty shots. The dish has a matte white interior finish. These are usually head and shoulder portraits that highlight make-up and hair, and it's also commonly used in the fashion industry to portray beauty. I've selected this image next to the modifier to show the effect that a beauty dish gives. You can see how flawless the skin looks and the lighting is very soft. There's some shadows around her neck and on her jawline which enhances the shape.

Standard Reflector Dish
A standard reflector dish is a common everyday reflector for the studio flash head. They are usually made of metal with a silver interior finish. They direct the light output in a 90 to 120 degree beam. This dish is the typical light set-up for shining the light into bounce cards, through diffusion and girds/cutters. They also tend to heat up quick so it's always key to be cautious.

Snoot
A snoot is a a light beam in the form of a tube that fits over a studio light or portable flash. It allows the photographer to control the direction and radius of the light beam. They are usually cylindrical or rectangular in shape. Snoots can isolate a subject when using a flash. They stop light spill as the light is forced to go through the metal tube. The image next to my snoot above is an example where the flash light is focused closely on the model.  It usually looks like a spotlight and you can control how far or harsh the lighting is.

Soft Light
The term soft light is when the light tends to wrap around subject, giving it soft edges. It's when the light source is large relative to the subject. In simpler terms, the closer the light source is, the harder the light gets. The bigger the light source, the softer lights you get as it spreads out. This example shows what soft light is like, the light spreads out and there's no harsh shadow or any high contrast.

Hard Light

This is the complete opposite to soft light. Hard light is when the light is closer to the subject so you get harsh shadows and stronger edges. There's also a punch of contrast compared to soft light. A smaller light source will create a harder light. The harsh shadows can change the natural look you can get as oppose of using soft light. With hard light, it can also crossover with overexposing and you can lose details depending how close you are to the subject. This image shows how the hard light is a significant difference with the soft light.

Extra Research:

Umbrella Reflectors
A umbrella reflector fits directly on any studio flash head. It is designed to prevent excess light from spilling all over the studio. You can control the light in which the direction the light shines. They are designed to direct the light so it projects only in the 180 degrees in front of the flash head.


Mini-Evaluation
I think it was interesting looking at these different lighting attachments because they all create multiple styles in the studio. Looking at these variety of lighting, I would choose to use the snoot for my shoot because I like the dark effect it has and it would create a well composed magazine cover that's quite different from the usual fashion style. I would also like to use the soft box to get some good studio shots where there's no harsh shadows and the edges are soft, which will be good for capturing beauty within our fashion photography.