What's the best diffusion material?

Seth Baldwin · October 11, 2017

Hello,

What would give the nicest result for diffusing a 1k LED panel through a 4x4 frame? What's the best matthews or rosco roll that is the best mix for retaining light power, a wide and even spread, whilst of course following the essentials of softening shadows?

Thanks

David Mullen ASC · October 11, 2017

That's a bit like asking for the best & cheapest option...

The heaviest diffusion will spread the light the most and cut the most amount of light, and the lightest will spread the light the least and let more light through. This is why one carries more than one strength of diffusion. I'd get a 4'x4' frame of Opal, 250, and 216 for example. Or just get 250 and plan on doubling it up when you can get away with that.

Seth Baldwin · October 11, 2017

Yeah I definitely took that into consideration. I really was looking for a popular in between balance so thanks for the suggestions I'll most likely just purchase the two and see what works.

Thanks

Stuart Brereton · October 11, 2017

I find I use either 250 or 251 90% of the time. Opal is good for just taking the hard edge off a lamp, although I use it more often on the barndoors than on a frame

Seth Baldwin · October 11, 2017

Okay, the main light source is not too spotty so I'm not to concerned on dealing with hard edges but i'll definitely take 250 into consideration.

Jaron Berman · October 13, 2017

This actually brings to mind a question I've had for a while - is there a rosco/lee product similar to the material chimera uses on their LED boxes? I've side-by-sided against opal, 250, hampshire and it's no rough match to any of them. The chimera material looks like a prismatic to me (like the materials ETC sells for their led units), certainly more diffuse with less loss than any of the usual suspects so I'm interested if anyone knows a similar roll material?

David Mullen ASC · October 13, 2017

I thought Chimeras use something similar to grid cloth.

Mark Kenfield · October 13, 2017

I'm a huge fan of Half Soft Frost for multi-diode LEDs. It just seems to do an incredible job of blending the multiple sources into a seamless singular shadow. It's highly transmissive, so isn't as effective at spreading the size of the beam outward to create a larger source ala 216, Full Grid or Muslin. But for keeping most of the output of a little LED unit, whilst having smooth seamless shadows, it's great.

Robin R Probyn · October 13, 2017

This actually brings to mind a question I've had for a while - is there a rosco/lee product similar to the material chimera uses on their LED boxes? I've side-by-sided against opal, 250, hampshire and it's no rough match to any of them. The chimera material looks like a prismatic to me (like the materials ETC sells for their led units), certainly more diffuse with less loss than any of the usual suspects so I'm interested if anyone knows a similar roll material?

Chimera,s also have different levels .. to me the nearest thing would be sail cloth (well all nylon today ).. I wonder if you can buy that somewhere before it gets made into sails.. or buy a couple of dinghy spinnakers..

Edited October 13, 2017 by Robin R Probyn

Phil Rhodes · October 13, 2017

I bought a bunch of parachute silk (actually nylon or some other synthetic) from eBay. It's a very light ripstop nylon, so it has the grid pattern (and the strength) but not the papery feel. About the only downside is that it doesn't necessarily behave exactly like the widely known types of grid cloth, but I can't say I regularly do setups big enough that I really need to know the specifics.

Edward Lawrence Conley III · October 13, 2017

I thought Chimeras use something similar to grid cloth.

For the LED boxes they use some sort of heavy vellum type of material - not the normal diffusion seen on their other soft boxes.

they call them Light Screens

"Included standard is a 30 degree lens screen that offers a medium-level of light control and very light diffusion. Optional screens and fabric grids are available for increased control."

Edited October 13, 2017 by Edward Lawrence Conley III

Edward Lawrence Conley III · October 13, 2017

This actually brings to mind a question I've had for a while - is there a rosco/lee product similar to the material chimera uses on their LED boxes? I've side-by-sided against opal, 250, hampshire and it's no rough match to any of them. The chimera material looks like a prismatic to me (like the materials ETC sells for their led units), certainly more diffuse with less loss than any of the usual suspects so I'm interested if anyone knows a similar roll material?

LEE might have what you are looking for

http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/zircon.html#zircon-diffusion

Jaron Berman · October 14, 2017

Yeah most chimeras use some variation of grid, but their Litepanels specifics have some crazy plastic sorta thing that I can't match to any material I know- like Edward mentioned it's like a heavy vellum. Good eye on the Zircon, will have to try it. Thanks!

Phil Rhodes · October 14, 2017

I have a pack of the Zircon stuff here. As far as I can tell it's simply designed to be more resistant to the powerful blues in LED light, which can degrade conventional filters. The diffusion is not particularly special from what I can see.