On flagging

Phil Rhodes · January 31, 2023

Forgive the elementary question, but is it me, or is it very common to end up with a big silk (where "big" in my book is 8x8 or so) pointing broadly toward the talent, and another similarly sized black solid at 90 degrees to it, often facing camera, to keep all that soft light off the background? It's becoming something I do so much that people I generally have to help set up and I are starting to generate a shorthand for it. Someone posted some BTS stills from Hidden Figures recently which seemed to show more or less that in action.

David Mullen ASC · January 31, 2023

If the large solid sider is facing camera on the near side of the diffusion frame, then it's not flagging it off of the background but off of the lens and foreground.

It isn't unusual to "box in" a large diffusion frame to both flag the harder spill coming from the source behind it but also the bounce off of the back of the diffusion facing the source.

Giray Izcan · January 31, 2023

What David says..

Edited January 31, 2023 by Giray Izcan

Phil Rhodes · January 31, 2023

Well, yes, the flag is beyond the diffusion. The problem I tend to have is that as much bounces off the diffusion as goes through, and depending on the colour of the surrounding room, that can matter a lot or a little. The amount of black fabric involved can end up being absolutely huge.

Jay Young · February 1, 2023

That's pretty normal. 8x rags tend to come with at least two floppies, or four, or it can get real big with big pieces of duve wrapped around the whole thing. Yes, your experience is normal.

Adrian Sierkowski · February 5, 2023

Sounds like my nearly every day. Though it tends to be 12xs more often than 8xs unless space is an issue.

Stewart McLain · August 21, 2023

@Phil Rhodes I know I'm reviving the dead here, but is the setup that you were talking about?

Phil Rhodes · August 21, 2023

That's a pretty good example of it, yes.

What it does is to keep the light off the background behind her while allowing for a flattering, soft key. It's not even that bright a key, I guess. In that part of the world, you might even complain that a soft key of that type would be unusual, unless the sun is around the other side of the building, say, when it might look bluer. And why are the windows behind them all battened?

Still, it's pretty, which I guess is the main thing. It's also built on enough of a scale that people can reasonably move around a bit without it changing too much.