----- Original Message ----- From: "Bo-Ming Tong" Subject: Re: Getting into studio strobes; what to do with my 120J ?
> > Thank you for your great advice. I thought of using a camera-type flash > as hair light, too, in order to reduce my initial investment, because > these can be zoomed to 105mm and get a pretty good guide number. Do I > put this directly above the head, with some DIY barn doors to limit the > dispersion of the light ? (I saw real studios putting a strip dome over > the head as hair light.) I also saw a Lumiquest snoot on eBay for > camera-type flashes at a very reasonable price but I am not sure if it > is useful for hair, or how I would place it and point it. Also, most of > our models are posed and they move around. I think the greatest > difficulty therefore is to aim this hair light quickly. I think the > "rules" say the hair light should not spill onto the face or to the > background. Am I getting it correctly ? Here is what I would try. First, the hair light goes above and somewhat behind the model, facing back towards the camera. Hence the need to snoot it down, or else light from it will be bouncing off the lens. I would make a custom snoot out of light cardboard and crumpled/flattened aluminium foil. I would put a flag made of foil taped to card stock on both the front and back of the flash, so as to allow it to light a strip. Obviously, it will be hotter in the center than edges, but I expect this will be fine. The rear flag will keep light from spilling onto the background, and the front flag will keep it from spilling onto the lens. You will have to size the flags appropriately. As long as you can't see the lens of the flash from the camera position, you have the front flag long enough. The same goes with the back flag. You shouldn't be able to see the flash lens from floor level at the back of the posing area. As long as your models don't (or can't, you can hang the hair light above the backdrop) move behind the front edge of the light's illumination, no light from it will fall on their faces, but they will be allowed significant side to side movement, and some front to back movement within the posing area. The longer the focal length lens you use, the farther back you can be, and the larger area you can give the models to move in, because the front flag can be made smaller. Also, the higher you shoot from, the shorter the flag can be. HTH William Robb
