Top 10: Photography Light Modifiers For Creative Portraits

When you begin to study and learn about how to control the light, you might wonder how much light reaches to your subject and where you want the light to fall. You’re certain to encounter lots of phrases and puzzling range of equipment you’re not really acquainted with. In this article, we’ve put together some of the most popular equipment and lighting modifiers that most photography professionals and enthusiasts today make use of to control the light coming from a hot-shoe flash or perhaps the studio light.

01. Softbox

A softbox is actually a rectangular device that has a translucent material lining the opening. It generates soft even lighting that is sometimes used to soften blemishes in portraits. The more gap there is between the light and the diffusion surface, the less obvious and a lot more softer the effect. These functions make the softbox extremely versatile in controlling light and shadows on reflective surfaces.

02. Barn Doors

It’s made of four adjustable metal flaps arranged inside of a square and attached to a mount which fits to your strobe light. Each of these flaps can be moved so the light from the flash can be shaped or shielded from a particular direction. This is usually used to prevent light from spilling or to block the light from hitting the lens.

03. Snoot

A snoot is a tube like material that is placed or attached on the flash head. The tube restricts the light right into a narrow beam. This isolates the light right into a specific area. In case you’re wondering, using a grid has a more pronounced effect of restricting light compared to a snoot.

04. Grid

A grid attaches to your light source and places a grid-like or honeycomb structure in front of it. The grid forces the light to travel inside of a straight direction as it passes through it. A grid is normally used as an accessory to the snoot. It’s essentially a type of honeycomb filter that further tightens and softens the light circle.

05. Umbrellas

The umbrella’s unique benefit is portability and mobility. It is possible to bring many umbrellas on an outdoor shoot without having difficulty. When opened, they create beautiful soft light, by converting your light (speedlight or simply a much stronger monolight with battery pack) to a much bigger light source. The two main basic kinds of umbrellas used to diffuse light.

Shoot-through Umbrella

The umbrella is placed between the flash and your subject. It’s known as a shoot-through because light is diffused as it passes through the umbrella’s translucent material.

Reflective Umbrella

With this type, the flash is targeted away from your subject and towards the umbrella. The diffusion comes about when the light bounces on the umbrella towards your subject.

06. Gobo

Gobo basically means “goes before optics” that is now used to refer to either a flag or cookie.

Cookie

A cookie can be anything that is positioned between your flash and your subject. Shadow patterns are produced from the light passing through the cookie as well as the subject. The most typical use of cookies is usually to create captivating light and shadow patterns for making the backdrop of a portrait more lively.

Flags

Flags are widely used to block light from hitting a particular portion of your subject. These are generally rectangular in form and opaque. Almost anything can be use as a flag including illustration boards provided that light can’t go through it.

07. Gels

Gels are colorful plastic type light modifiers that properly alter the color of the light originating from your flash. The most typical gels are the orange ones that simulate tungsten lighting, as well as green ones that replicate fluorescent lights. Gels are rated based on what specified Kelvin temperature the light is going to be changed to.

08. Reflectors

Reflectors are different in size based on the volume of light required as well as the height and width of your subject. A reflector takes light that will usually spill out to the sides and redirects it forward to the subject. Without the use of a reflector a large quantity of usable light could be wasted. The color of the reflector will show up from the light reflected into the subject.