Advantages of book lighting ?

[Ram Nanda]

What is the advantage of book lighting ?

what is the difference between bouncing a light on ultrabounce and diffusing through grid vs diffusing through 250/216 and then through grid ?

How do i decide which to use in which situation ?

Edited July 3, 2023 by Ram Nanda

[David Mullen ASC]

It's more of a space issue, sometimes you have more room to use a book light than to set-up two rows of diffusion frames.

Ultimately the softness of a light is determined by the size of the diffusion, so a book light is just another way of filling the final diffusion frame (the one closest to the subject) up more evenly from edge to edge.

[Phil Rhodes]

I find myself wondering if this sort of thing is becoming less relevant in the time of comparatively powerful, often quite large flexible LED panels. They take up so much less space - so very very much less space - than a conventional light plus diffusion setup, it's hard to see why people would do anything else. It's also vastly more power efficient, since all that bouncing is so lossy.

Well, other than the sheer horrifying price tag of an Aladdin fabric light, of course. Or the even more horrifying cost of four of them, enough to fill a frame.

[David Mullen ASC]

Certainly if you don’t need a lot of output, LED panels are more efficient at filling a large diffusion frame so using a book light is less necessary. But if you are used to using a Dino light or multiple 18K HMIs for your book light, you aren’t going to get that light level from, let’s say, ARRI Skypanel 360’s through a diffusion frame. But considering the sensitivity of modern cameras that is less necessary unless you’re talking about balancing with a bright background or lighting large areas at night.

It seems today that lighting has gotten pretty soft by using LED panels, maybe even too soft sometimes.

[Robin R Probyn]

On 7/4/2023 at 11:39 AM, Phil Rhodes said:

I find myself wondering if this sort of thing is becoming less relevant in the time of comparatively powerful, often quite large flexible LED panels. They take up so much less space - so very very much less space - than a conventional light plus diffusion setup, it's hard to see why people would do anything else. It's also vastly more power efficient, since all that bouncing is so lossy.

Well, other than the sheer horrifying price tag of an Aladdin fabric light, of course. Or the even more horrifying cost of four of them, enough to fill a frame.

Intellytech lite cloth V3 are exactly this , the 8 panel Mega lite , and the new 6 panel Mini Mega  ,Ive just ordered , great for interviews , close of mid shots , but yes limit to the power , But now you have Venice 2 with dual ISO l high base of 3,200 .. with basically the same noise as 800 , !! There is some ides that book lights are softer than just through a frame , all they are doing is evening out filling the diff frame in less space , but pain to set up ,Im with you , for interviews especially , you really don't need this anymore , a large LED panel is absolutely the way to go 

[Ram Nanda]

On 7/4/2023 at 10:01 AM, David Mullen ASC said:

Certainly if you don’t need a lot of output, LED panels are more efficient at filling a large diffusion frame so using a book light is less necessary. But if you are used to using a Dino light or multiple 18K HMIs for your book light, you aren’t going to get that light level from, let’s say, ARRI Skypanel 360’s through a diffusion frame. But considering the sensitivity of modern cameras that is less necessary unless you’re talking about balancing with a bright background or lighting large areas at night.

It seems today that lighting has gotten pretty soft by using LED panels, maybe even too soft sometimes.

thanks mr. david