Soft Bounce vs Diffusion with Grid

[christianhawkins]

Hi Roger,

 

I’ve noticed that many filmmakers, especially in commercial work, use soft light with a softbox or diffusion frame, specifically with a grid on the diffusion to avoid spilling light to the sides and restrict it to only lighting the subject/direction of the subject.

However, when looking at your lighting setups and behind-the-scenes clips, you often bounce your light sources off muslin-draped walls or large bounce frames.

What is the reason or belief that leads you to bounce the light rather than using grids to control the direction of the light? Do you feel that using the grid creates an unnatural characteristic of the way the light spreads?

I’m not trying to get you to label one or the other as right or wrong. I’m just curious as to your method and reason for choosing to bounce over using diffusion with grids.

Do you feel that the grid changes the way that soft light should behave and would naturally spread out to the sides? Therefore, do you prefer the bounced look because it feels more natural? And when you do want to avoid spill in certain areas, you just flag the light where you want.

I feel that grids create a more stylistic-looking soft light as opposed to naturalistic, which might be why it is used in commercial work so much. In my experience in commercial work, I find that clients wish to control the way light behaves, such as making products “pop” out of the background. Basically, live photo editing and live power windowing. I feel grids are an easy fix to that situation, but sometimes, you can see a grid pattern in reflective surfaces.

I appreciate the ongoing sharing of your knowledge. Your website and the Team Deakins podcast with You and James are such a valuable asset to us filmmakers who are eager to learn.

Thank you for your time.

Best regards,

Christian

Topic

[Roger Deakins]

There is a difference between projecting light through diffusion and bouncing. However dense your diffusion the light will never be emitted in as wide an angle as a bounce. Also, multiple layers of diffusion will add a little warmth to the light, which might be a problem. A bounce source can easily be controlled by the material used. I might use a bleached cloth or a silver stipple, a cloth painted blue or one painted orange.

Perhaps the most significant factor in the choice between a bounce and a diffused source is space. If you are on location and want a soft light coming from a corner of a room or from beside a table lamp there is a distinct practical reason for choosing a bounce over a diffused light.

[Tyler F]

So do you think of bounce sources in the sense that they emit a wider angle on top of a different quality of light?

In a lot of your diagrams, you tend to put large sources (EX. 20×20 Ultrabounce) outside of a window and push large units into them. “Prisoners” is sort of a good example of this for the house. I would imagine that the reflected light replicates what is actually happening outside during an afternoon or morning, so it feels more natural than just pushing units straight through the window. I think you also treated the windows with 250?

I’m curious at what point in your career this approach was sort of a working method?

[dmullenasc]

Theoretically, if you evenly fill a 12’x12′ surface, let’s say, with light, corner to corner, the softness is the same whether or not it is a bounce surface or light passing through diffusion — the 12’x12′ surface is the “source” creating the soft effect, not the lights behind or in front of it. Practically, however, there are reasons why one technique might create a softer effect than another because it is easier to fill the frame evenly from edge to edge with minimal hot spots.

It is a bit easier to put flags in front of a diffusion frame rather than a bounce because of the lights in front of the frame that the flags have to work around, plus you don’t want the flags to actually cut into the beams of light hitting the bounce.

Roger has stated in the past his issue with grids as opposed to flags for cutting light, that they can make the soft light seem sharper. I use grids now and then but you can see the issue with them if you stand where the subject will be and move around a bit. If there is a grid as soon as you move side to side, you see less of the total soft light surface especially around the edges — meaning it starts to get less soft. It depends on how close the grid is to you and how deep it is, etc. This is one reason I don’t use a grid on a directly overhead soft box (I use a skirt instead) because actors often are not dead-center under the box and you want them lit when the box is a bit ahead or behind them too.

Roger has mentioned in the past that sometimes he puts a row of vertical flags in front of a soft light as sort of a louver to control their spill.

[Author]

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