Blackwrap/Cinefoil

Garry Edwards

Garry Edwards

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I was talking to a Lencarta customer yesterday, I mentioned blackwrap and he hadn't come across it, even though he is obviously very knowledgable - so I thought that if he doesn't know about it then a lot of other people won't either...

Cinefoil is the trade name and blackwrap is the generic name for what is, in effect, a roll of thick alluminium cooking foil coated black both sides.
It's very easy to cut, bend, roll etc so is ideal for making flags, french flags, light absorbers, snoots, gobos and so on. Also used to temporarily change the shape of softboxes (for example) to make say an octa softbox into a strip softbox.

Not the most glamourous accessory, but it's absolutely invaluable simply because it allows us to make and modify lighting tools to suit our exact needs.

It comes on a roll, and if you're tight like me then you'll re-use it time and time again, and even if you're working in a studio all day every day you won't have to replace it very often.

So, advert over. Get some! There are normally some Ebay sellers advertising it, I can't find any at the moment but a quick Google came up with this link
 
not something I'd heard of either gary (though I'm less knowledgeable) all I knew about was black gaffa and black card but this stuff sounds great, cheers for posting :D
 
been using roscoe black cinefoil for ages, yes its great and reusable, soaks up light like a black hole, great stuff.

Mart
 
Lee at Alchemy33 on Ebay is the man to talk to, he'll sell you a sheet of it at a decent price :thumbs:
 
good stuff for sticking over one half of a brolly etc, the bin bags are no more! :D
 
When I lived in the UK and worked as a techie in a theatre, I used to get black wrap from CTS

YROSCOBLACK
Rosco Cinefoil heat resistant black wrap for making barn doors etc - 0.6 x 7.62 metre roll
£24.50
 
This stuff is brilliant, very effective tool to control the light even more in tight areas - helps avoid those 'white spots' you get when shooting near reflective walls etc.
 
Holy Thread revival ;)

OK, I had the lights out twice last week, and used some normal tin foil round one of them just stop the background light spilling onto the models [the other had the barn doors on] with a view to getting some black wrap if it worked. So two questions...

1 - best way of securing it in such a way that the lights dont over heat? They didn't btw, I just sort of wedged it in as foil is very flexible, but every so often had to re-affix as it would fall off if you breathed on it so wondering about better methods but don't want to create problems. I am guessing, possibly totally incorrectly, that having the short 'dish' type things on front of lights and taping it to that would be normal, but I don't have those on these lights.

2 - bearing in mind I have the Lencarta 200w ebay lights, which I *think* are an odd fitting, what alternatives are there for such light shaping? The barn doors are by no means perfect for this particular job, though certainly better than nothing. I know Lencarta do the angled reflectors specifically for the job, but not sure they fit these heads, so wondering what else can be used?


I am quite happy to do some 'blue peter' tinkering if needed btw.
 
Blackwrap is MUCH thicker/stiffer than ordinary cooking foil, it will keep its shape well and yes, you would normally just stick it on with masking tape or similar.

The Lencarta Ebay lights, with their fixed reflectors, have about 18-20mm of 'spare' metal just aft of the flash head, that would be fine for taping it too, but don't cover up the heatsink/ventilation area immediately behind it. Wearing my Mr. sensible hat, I think you should switch off the modelling lamp just to make sure it doesn't overheat.

I haven't tried making a background reflector from it, in theory it should work fine if made out of ordinary cooking foil that had been crumpled up and then flattened again (to avoid a mirror-like surface) but actual blackwrap wouldn't work for that particular job because it's well... black:)
Barndoors - blackwrap is fine for that job, just tape bits of blackwrap on to make the barn doors much bigger/more efficient.
 
also very useful on tungsten lights for stopping light 'leaks' from around the vents or between barndoors and lens! :thumbs:
 
:thumbs: Thanks Garry, I know the bit you mean, the bit the softboxes and stuff fasten to between the light itself and the heatsink. Also interesting to know about blackwrap being thicker/stiffer, that would certainly make things much easier. Less concerned about it 'reflecting' as 'deflecting' if that makes sense. Working in shorter spaces than are ideal, its just a case of stopping too much light falling forwards, rather than reflecting more of it onto background. As for modelling lights, once I have the the background lights set for what I need, I tend to turn them off anyway only turning them back in for repositioning.
 
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