David Vollrath

Thanks David. I was hoping someone with your experience would say this. Makes me feel like I'm on the right track! Yeah I saw that. I think it's a great introduction showing you all the options you have but it doesn't address at what point a book light can't get any softer. I should probably do my own tests, but my current conclusion is that I should just be looking at different diffusions and really only be concerned with the density and not the material (unless I'm bouncing). That being said, I've been told 216 has a touch of a green cast to it, but I can barely see it.

Adrian, I'm well aware of the size of a light in relation to the subject affecting how soft the light is. I'm also familiar with how falloff becomes more dramatic from a closer source. I'm not trying to compare an 8x8 book light to a 4x4 kino pushed through 216. I'm trying to compare a 4x4 book light with my 4X4 kino solution. I've seen a few DP's make 4X4 book lights when kinos were readily available and I always thought it was a waste of time. If you or anyone else can explain why a 4X4 book light is softer I'd love to hear it. Perhaps it's just something I need to see for myself.

So now here's another question ... If you get a diffusion frame to glow evenly, does the type of diffusion matter? In other words ... does 216, Bleached Mus, Grid Cloth, and 1000h all provide the same effect as long as you've adjusted light output to make up for the difference in stop loss between the diffusions and ensure that you're filling the frame evenly? This is something I've been meaning to test for a while. I've seen tests like this before but they've all been useless to me because they don't modify anything else in the lighting setup when they switch out the diffusions.

Hey guys. Long time lurker, first time poster. I've been working on my lighting skills for the past year or so and I feel like I'm getting a good feel for all the different ways I can soften and shape light. I'm mainly shooting smaller jobs and using a lot of 4X4 frames with 216 and pushing 1 or 2 4X4 kinos through them as a key light for medium closeups. In using this technique, I'm using less space than a booklight and I think I'm getting the exact same effect because the diffusion frame is glowing completely evenly. Is this the case? A lot of people have told me it's still not as soft, but I don't see how it matters if my diffusion frame is evenly lit? To me, a book light only becomes useful with larger frames or if you don't have kinos and need to soften a more specular head.