So, I got caught short the other day, doing a video job for work.

I was prepared in a sense (I had a ton of options with me), but I had assumed that the room I was filming in, one I had literally just glanced into once a few days before, was going to be available for a few hours before the shoot, but it turned out, I had 10 minutes to set up and the room was full of surprises.

The three large panel panitings on the shooting wall, were glass covered, something I was not expecting and blocking the light fully proved nearly impossible as the blind only went half way down the window and gaped badly at either end. Lots of tape, some creative moving of furniture and a rushed 2 light set-up.

Anyway, this has raised a need to look at my light options, so that part at least can be fixed.

The setup was obviously for stills, but a sympathetic shutter speed was selected (1/45th), my interview aperture of f1.8 and ISO 400 set*.

The distance to subject was greater than the flash test, partly because of fan noise and partly to allow for Bowens mount mods to be fitted, but the subject to wall distance was shorter, basically nothing.

I did forget the 7” diffuser dishes, but I was after portrait softness, not focussed hard light and the strip light was skipped also as it is a specialist, second light mod.

The Neewer SL-60 was tried at 10%, but it proved to be about 2 stops under, so 40% was selected.

The 40% image is the base line, coming in at about -1/2 a stop of perfect, adjusted for the subject being all black.

Bare, the light provides reasonable light as is. The highlights are well controlled compared to quite a few of my modified strobe test images, especially anything bounced off of silver. The shadows are hard edged but that was expected. This is a good base light and powerful.

Lets start with the shoot through 42” brolly as a cheap soft box. I like the full stem version best. It loses the most power, but produces beautiful light. The half stem one is probably the perfect balance.

The 26” double diffused soft box looks to be about the same as the 42” 1/2 stem shoot through, but maybe (is it me?), a little more 3D? Giving better controllability and wind resistance with a larger form factor and slower set-up, this is my favourite mod for a point light, although my wife as a subject said she found it objectionably bright up close. The 4’ Octa’s were better for her.

Reversing the 42” reduces out-put by over 2 stops (notice the light has been pushed to 70% and it is still the darkest so far) and this has been an issue when trying to fill daylight, but I like the smoother light it produces and there is some light to spare in the right situations. Half stem seems more contrasty, but there is not much in it. The power loss may limit their use to flash photography only.

I consistently prefer brollies reversed, which is a lot of the reason I had a Godox 165cm white on my list, for maximum softness and better spill control. Reversed seems to flatten highlights, allowing plenty of room in post to add overall punch without skin glare, without spending too much processing power trying to bring highlights back, and maybe making makeup less necessary?.

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The 4’ softbox now. These are reflected umbrella types, which theoretically make the diffusion a two step process (bounce then diffused), but I have found the reflectivity of the silver so strong, that when un-diffused they manage to pump out as nearly as much power as a direct light.

A second pair of gridded ones are on the way with a deal that was only twice the price of grids on their own and they are Godox, not Neewer, which may make a difference (Godox position themselves further up the food chain, but in mods I am not sure it will make a difference).

The 4’ soft box without a diffuser is basically a deep silver brolly and has a ton of punch. It pretty much matches the bare light (looking brighter above, but at +30% power), with slightly hotter highlights. This would be my go-to for “impact” portraits. The only issue I have with these modifiers is the limited forward tilt allowed by the umbrella type mounting (the zip hole is only 8” long), but I can get around this by mounting one (or two) on to a strong extension arm.

Adding the diffuser produces a slightly contrastier light than the 42” S/T, but like the 26”, it still has some more direction and spill control. When I get the gridded ones I will hopefully have big, soft and directed light.

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Now for the 660 bi-colour, theoritically my next strongest continuous light. I moved it in to 1m as this light runs silently and is clearly weaker than the SL-60.

The 660 panel with just the diffuser panel on front (recommended), is slightly stronger than the point source at 40% (I am thinking all things being equal, the 660 comes in at about 30% of the point light overall and they are rated at about 30w maximum from memory).

Adding a brolly hard against its barn doors, much the same as the dedicated diffuser, drops the out-put by about 1 stop, but retains the warmth.

Turning off the warm bulbs, theoretically drops out-put to half (roughly 10% of the point light?), which looks to be the case and produces a predictably softer result, about half way between the S/T and reversed full stem 42”. These are really too weak for main lights unless used directly and close.

The only issue here is the distance from brolly head to subject, about 80cm and lack of power at that close distance. I think these will be relegated to background or hair lights.

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So, what was learned?

The point light falls somewhere between the 660 panel and my flash heads in power and produces a decent light when used bare, less contrasty than a silver reflector, but casting a more defined shadow. If used outside in low light, away from a wall etc, they would supply decent fill.

Again, brollies keep coming up as the most versatile and handy of mods, but maybe reversed with constant light is too much to ask of them. I have a small bag now with a gold, silver and white 33” for quick video or stills jobs and to honest, they will do most things as long as subject size or distance is not critical.

Reversing brollies with constant lights guts them, but the point light is still useable as long as fan noise is not an issue.

Soft boxes, especially the Bowens mount ones are an option if more control is needed.

Like the stills test, there are things yet to be worked out such as coverage, edge hardness, best useage distances etc, but the two rules of (1) any mod used well can do the job, but (2) all mods have a specific best use scenario they were designed for, still holds true as long as an overall reduction in power compared to strobes is taken into account.

I have since grabbed a pair of Godox 4’ egg-crate gridded soft boxes, for better control.

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On the shoot I used the 480 RGB at 30% through a 60cm diffuser disc with a large flag for control. This was a nice combination when trying out the Neewer SL-60 the other day. It was ok, not the best option probably. As the day went on, I shifted to the opposite side, fixing some issues with the space, but the light was not focussed or strong enough.

Right now, knowing what I know, I would have used the point light with the 26” and grid for control and placed it at about 1m, maybe with the diffuser if needed for added width and some feathering or the 42” full stem S/T. Because of the glass wall, I would likely have needed the flagging still, but maybe a little less.

*One of my lazy misses was letting some ambient light in, bouncing off the floor, adding about 1 stop of light and the other was I used f2, not f1.8.