Modifying the Shape of a Softbox...

Jambo_84

Jambo_84

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Rob
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Hi all, at the weekend I will be putting up a wall mounted roller background system in my kitchen at home (I have a very easy going partner!) so having bought this and a 2nd home studio kit (which means I have 4 flash heads to play with) my funds have run dry but I'm short of a beauty dish.

My question is, if I wanted to have a go at clamshell/beauty lighting, could I put a DIY gobo over my softbox to make it round and give a similar catch light in the eye as a beauty dish would? I realise the lighting will be different to a beauty dish but surely this would get me closer to acheiving the lighting style I'm after?

Also, is it necessary to use boom arms on your light stands or can you have normal light stands with one slightly to the right and one slightly to the left? Thinking about it this may mess up the catch lights!

Any help or advice on this sort of setup would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks, Rob.
 
Yes and no.
Yes, you can mask a softbox to make it round but no, it won't produce lighting that's anything like that of a beauty dish.

But if you also remove the front diffuser and stick a bit of kitchen foil on the inside of the rear diffuser (to bounce the light back) it will give something like a beauty dish effect, provided of course that you use it in the classic beauty dish position, i.e. above the subject with the subject looking directly at its centre.

I'm not sure what you mean about the boom arms. Normally, with the lighting arrangement you have in mind, a second light or a reflector would be placed fairly low to produce the clamshell lighting. Ordinary light stands are fine for this
 
Hi Garry, thank you for the reply. I actually got the idea from watching one of your DVD's - you blanked off half a softbox to give more of a strip light effect.

I'll give the foil idea a go, thanks for that :)

What I mean about the light stands is they would either have to be side by side or one infront of the other if using a softbox up top and an umbrella at the bottom. Looking at diagrams on the internet they look like the top light is directly above the bottom light and to acheive this they use a boom arm on each like the below link but I don't have boom arms.

http://www.lighting-essentials.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/cs_2.jpg

Thanks again, Rob.
 
It doesn't make any difference in practical terms whether one stand is in front of the other or not as long as the key light - in this case the converted softbox/beauty dish - is at the right distance from the subject to produce the result you want.

The bottom one is just a fill light, and as long as it's far enough away to light all of the subject it will be fine.

People like me often use boom arms just because we have them - it doesn't mean that they are always needed for that particular purpose
 
Excellent, that's great - thanks for your help Garry.

Rob.
 
Bin bags and gaffer tape work pretty well too - great for making a strip box if you've only got normal rectangle ones :)
 
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