Light Modifiers - How and Why We Use Them

Bare Flash

The design of most studio lights is to use a round flash tube to throw the light as evenly as possible in all directions in front of the head. This is great as it helps get it more evenly spread but a nightmare to control as it does indeed go everywhere.So, bare bulb has the odd use but generally not what we use as portrait photographers

Reflector Dishes

Next up is reflector dishes. These go from tiny to fair sized. From little five inch spill kills to 18 inch maxi reflectors. They are usually silver on the inside and fit direct to the head with no diffuser, their job is to control the spill of light and funnel it all straight forward. They are very efficient and give great output to the light but unless the largest ones they are small sources and produce very hard light when used in portraiture, Great for putting spots on backgrounds but I would rarely use for normal portraits unless recreating the hard lightlooks of Hollywood in the 30’s and 40’s or punchy fashion images with models. Reflector dishes are great for maximising the power of the light if used with low powered lights.

A beauty dish is a modification of the reflector dish, comes in various sizes and with a central deflector which prevents the flash coming straight out, it hits the deflector then bounces back into the dish to then come forward again. The point of this is to reduce the hot spot in the middle. Used a lot in fashion and beauty photography, they can provide beautiful semi hard light with crisp edges to it. They work well with good make up and clear skin but can show up blemishes and skin defects a lot. For general portraiture I find personally I use mine very little though I know others that do. I prefer, using my Elinchrom system to use a 70cm deep octobox with deflector disc and single layer of diffusion to give a similar but more gentle effect. In short, reflector dishes can be useful but they are hard light unless used really really close with the larger ones.

Softboxes

Softboxes are what most people think of when they thing of modifiers. They come in all shapes and sizes from small to huge, and their purpose is to increase the size of the light source to soften and spread it. The shape affects the spread and the size affects the softness ( though you can make them softer or harder by moving closer or further away). The ones I use the most are large octoboxes and strip boxes. As you can guess, octoboxes are octagonal in shape and strips are long and narrow. The strips allow me to precisely control the spread of the light and prevent spill. The big octobox or similar is a really versatile source. It can be pulled back a little to light a family or big group or brought in really close to get super soft light, bringing it in close makes it bigger relative to the subject and bigger is softer when close.

Umbrellas

Umbrellas come in many sorts, sizes and finishes. They can be “shoot through” where the fabric is diffuse and the flash is fired directly though the umbrella towards the subject and the umbrella acts as a diffuser. The other type is indirect where the flash fires into the umbrella and bounces off the inside before coming back out. They can be white or silver or even gold to give different effects to the light. The silver or gold will give a punchier more specular light. The white inside of a bounced umbrella can be a really useful modifier as it is easy to transport, put up and position. Some come with an outer diffuser which adds another layer of softness due to diffusing the light some more. I use these a lot – in particular the Elinchrom deep white 125cm and outer diffuser. It’s easy to get a beautiful quality of light from it in close to the subject. The only downside to umbrellas at times is they are not as easy to control as a softbox and have more spill. Once mastered they are a great modifier.