Precision Lighting: Modifiers and Techniques

Keep your lighting precise with these handy modifiers.

In this photography lighting workshop, recorded LIVE, Karl introduces you to some of his favourite modifers for precision lighting in the studio.

As he demonstrates projection attachments, Picolites, Fresnels, snoots, and many more, he answers members’ questions about lighting equipment and techniques.

Next, it's time to start shooting. As Karl works meticulously to light a lily using a selection of the modifiers he’s just discussed, he shows you how to put your precision lighting knowledge into practice.

In this class:

  • Lighting modifiers for studio photography
  • Precision lighting techniques
  • Long-exposure photography techniques

Some of the other classes Karl refers to include:

Questions? Please post them in the comments section below.

Recommended content:
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Lighting Modifiers and Their Effects
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Creating Portrait Lighting 1.0
Remy Martin XO Cognac Shoot
Remy Martin XO Cognac Shoot
Still Life Photography: Cheese Food Shoot
Still Life Photography: Cheese Food Shoot

Comments

  1. Hi Karl

    in this class you explain that you need a frosted protective glass for a fresnel lens to work well. I have Siros lights. If I look at these lights I think they can be used with a fresnel lens, do you agree ?

    Thanks
    Jan

    2. Godox does in fact make a Godox S2 Bowen Mount S-Type Flash Holder Bracket for Godox V1 V860II AD200 AD200Pro AD400Pro Speedlites (also my canon EL-5 fits in it) Strobe Flash speedlite to Godox adpater. so that means you can now attach you projector fixture or other Godox light modifier to take advantage of your speedlite.

    3. Super interesting set of different techniques (with great explanations), using a wide assortment of light shapers, in a precision and more macro photography subject like way. Really enjoyed how you embarked on unearthing something special, hidden within a simple image of a flower! Really fun.

  2. This should be Top Secret!
    Would you test shoot with a 120w or 150w LED to get a real idea of the output precision modifier?
    Is modelling light too weak to see on cheaper brands than Broncolor?

  3. Karl,
    Can we think of the fringing and ghosting effects caused by the mixing of cont light and flash as a result of insufficient time (short shutter speeds – although 2 seconds seems longer maybe not sufficient) for photons to flood into the perimeter of the subject resulting in a blacked-out area? Would an increase in shutter speed such as 8 seconds perhaps could have attenuated the darkening effect around the edges of the subject? Thanks!

    1. Hi Myles, black fringing is where the subject has obscured part of a lighter area during the exposure due to movement. Photons travel at 300,000km per second so they don’t have a problem getting anywhere and everywhere, the problem is that if you have continuous light and you have flash light you have two light sources and the one that is freezing the subject is usually the flash duration at around 1/5000th to 1/10,000th of a second, if we also have continuous light then that light has an effect on the subject if the shutter speed doesn’t match the flash duration speed (which it rarely can). So the best solution is not to mix continuous light and flash and just use flash.

      1. Hi Karl,
        In response to your kind reply, I would like to ask you for a little more clarification regarding this matter. Yes, light is traveling superfast so light itself should not be the issue. However, the recording medium does not have sufficient time to record the light where the subject has now moved away and left a void in that specific part of the photograph. My question should be more like, if we suddenly move the subject away from its original position during a long exposure where we employ flash with fast enough flash duration would perhaps an exposure of let’s say 8 seconds now fill in that blank area where fringing has formed? Would the recording medium (the digital sensor) with a longer exposure time have sufficient time for the continuous light to flood in that area where the subject has moved away? I do understand that it is always better not to mix different types of light sources such as continuous with bursts of light but I am really interested and trying to understand the physics of this phenomenon so as to have a complete grasp of this concept. Thank you for any additional input you might want to share.

        1. Hi Myles, I’m copying and pasting some of your comments to reply below to help me and others understand:

          Myles: ‘However, the recording medium does not have sufficient time to record the light where the subject has now moved away and left a void in that specific part of the photograph’
          Karl: I don’t understand this point? The recording medium has more than enough time to record an entire event because you can adjust the recording time to be longer than the event itself?

          On the second part of your comment I’m afraid I don’t really understand what you mean but I’ll try to answer: If the exposure recording time was say 8 seconds and your subject was photographed with flash then the flash would record them in that position and the subject itself is blocking any light from objects behind such as the background but only if the subject remains in the same place for the whole 8 seconds. If the subject moves completely away say after 4 seconds then there are another 4 seconds of exposure left and if there is still light coming from other sources other than the flash then that light (if it is a white or light background) will start to add more exposure to the area where your subject was, causing over exposure. If the background was a good matt black then very little affect would be noticed as black is absorbing all the extra 4 seconds of light. If your subject is on a white background and remains in place but moves slightly then you get fringing because the subject starts blocking new areas that would have been exposed by the ambient light but have now been blocked by the subject.

  4. Alexis

    For the flower part, does it mean we can use our flash to fix the subject and then use continuous light to make compositing effects. I mean we can use LED lights to make spinning effects for example around the product. Is it possible to do that regarding the continuous light in the exposure of the image?
    It could be a different effect as shaking the subject to make ghosting.
    I hope my explanation has been clear ah ah.
    Thank you a lot for your class!

        1. Hi, yes 600 is enough. You loose a lot of light through a projection attachment but the maximum I can use mine is at 1600 and I’m usually using it at 800. If you find it’s not enough just turn your ISO by one stop from 100 to 200 and that will effectively double the power of your flash.

  7. GuillermoEstudio

    THIS WAS A GREAT CLASS FOR ME, I WILL WATCH IT AGAIN. I ALWAYS WONDERED HOW IN CERTAIN PHOTOS, ESPECIALLY OF A PRODUCT, I OBSERVED VERY PRECISE LIGHTS AND I DID NOT KNOW HOW, BUT WHEN I WATCHED THIS CLASS I SEE THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE TYPES OF LIGHT MODIFIERS, WHICH ARE THE ONES THAT DO THE WORK.

    GREETINGS FROM DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

  8. Gary Stasiuk

    Question about the fluter: I don’t have one but it sure looks interesting. It looks so large.. reminds me of a Hollywood search light.. in my mind it looks like it should be used from some distance. From what distance are you usually using this type of light?

    1. Hi Gary, yes the Flooter is a medium to large fresnel lighting modifier similar to those used in the film industry (and lighthouses) it uses a chamfered lens to reduce weight but still providing the ability to collimate and throw the light a long way in a relatively precise beam with a soft edge. Elinchrom also do a similar one and Aperture do one for their led lights in a bowens fit that looks like it would fit on any bowens fit light.

  9. Thanks again for such a thoroughly explained lesson 🙂 I was wondering why you always took the picolight when using these precision modifiers. Could you have taken a normal strobe for the same examples?
    Thank you very much.

    1. Hi, thank you. Simply I’ve just got the picolites but there are other a precision modifiers that are available for other brands of lights for example Westcott make an optical snoot. I believe there are also modifiers such as this for speedlites but these are much more difficult to use as generally speedlites don’t have a modelling light to see what is happening.

      1. Bill Zech

        Hi Karl. New subscriber here and really enjoying your instructional material — definitely first rate presentations!. I got a couple of Bowens mount adapters for my speedlights (one from Neewer and one from Godox.). They work fine for using any of my Bowens mount modifiers with the speedlights, so I’ve been able to easily use them as secondary studio lights. Using a cheap Impact brand snoot from B&H gives me decent results as well. Oh, and my speedlights have a brief 2-second rapid burst “modeling lamp” mode to let me aim the lights — not perfect but gets the job done.

        1. Hi Bill, glad you are enjoying our content and thank you for letting us and the other members know about options for speedlites. All the best Karl.

  10. Hi Karl,

    As usual a great lesson! I never thought about using the fresnel to backlight the flower petal. Can the fresnel also be used to backlight (possibly with a color gel) a bourbon bottle to give some glow to the liquid, similar to putting a gold reflector card behind the bottle?

    Thanks!

    1. Hi Lucas, thank you. In answer to your question no not really as the light doesn’t really illuminate the liquid it will just bounce around inside the glass bottle making a few highlights. To see ‘light’ in liquid you have to see the light source itself: light bouncing off reflector card or the light source itself which would mean you need to shine the light directly through the liquid at the camera and then of course you have to work out how to hide the rest of the light source that you don’t want sticking out the side or your background.

  11. Thanks again for this thourough tutorial about the lighting.
    I hope your lens is ok.. I screamed when I saw it falling, cause it happened to me before. I damaged a Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS when it dropped on the ground suddenly detached from the camera which was on my shoulder. Even I sent it away to be fixed it’s not as it was..
    Thanks again for your efforts and hard work

    1. Hi Stan, the light that will simulate sunlight the best is one that approximates the apparent physical size of the sun and emulates the light from the sky at the same time. Often this is as simple as a bare bulb light in a studio as demonstrated in this and the following class – https://visualeducation.com/class/studio-lighting-setups-portraits-one-light-setup-16/ these classes explain the science why. The hardbox will simulate hard light shadows but doesn’t give you the sky light so you will need another light as well. A large fresnel in flood mode will give you the hard light and some sky light. Also run through your ‘Lighting Comparison App’ in your customer home page to see comparisons.

  13. Jimena Barcelona

    Wow! It was a super enriching session! Every second of it was packed with of useful information! Thanks!

  14. Amazing show Karl, thanks a lot for all the information. I usually use continuous light on the projection attachment because my flashes are not so powerful. Cheers!

  15. Hello, Im a bit confused. How 1/4 shutter speed works with flashes? I can understand how it works with continuous light and how works with background exposure, not with flashes. How a slower shutter speed than synch speed works? I used to know I should use a shutter speed that isnt slower than my camera sync speed. Thank you!

    1. Hi Alessandra, you can use flash with any shutter speed from the sync speed and slower. Essentially all that happens as you go slower is that you will start to record other existing ambient/continuous light as well as the burst of flash which is the exact reason I did it in this class as I wanted the flash and the background light which was continuous in this case so that I could apply my little motion trick with the flower.

  16. My £0.02 on the speedlight option: I have used the Godox S1/S2 clamps with Bowens mount projectors and speedlights and they do work ok if you put a bit of diffusion in front of the light, however the best option for a spot projector on a speedlight I have found is Spiffy Gear’s LightBlaster:-

    https://spiffygear.com/light-blaster/

    It works best if the speedlight is zoomed all the way in, for the same reason Karl demonstrated using the Fresnel lens and the shadow quality – when it’s zoomed in, the retracted tube and reflector dish fill the entire rectangular (or circular) Fresnel lens on the front of the speedlight with light, giving a larger light source that fills the GoBO properly (you also get more useable light out of the projector as more of it goes forwards). The best light source I have found for the Lightblaster though, is the Godox AD200. It doesn’t zoom, however it makes up for this with raw output at 200J. The LightBlaster also uses a Canon EOS mount lens to focus the light. I use a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 EOS mount lens on mine – it’s light and inexpensive.

    In terms of GoBOs for the Lightblaster, they do sell a limited number, but I found Rosco size E metal GoBOs fit quite nicely, giving access to their vast catalogue of shapes and patterns. Here’s how I mount them:-
    https://owenlloydphotography.com/more-gobo-options-for-your-lightblaster/

    Note: there is an adapter that allows you to use the Lightblaster with a studio head consisting of a clamp that fits into a variety of reflector dishes with a shroud, but I don’t recommend it. I tested it with a 600J head and it produced ~2.5 stops *less* light at the centre of the projection than a zoomed in ~70J speedlight. It also produces a nice image of your flash tube in the projection :-/

    Thanks for a great live show as always: the production quality and teamwork on these is second to none – better than a lot of edited content 🙂

  17. hey karl
    its a great course
    i am little bit confused
    when we use honeycomp it diffused the edge of the light beam but when i think about this it makes the beam smaller so the light source is smaller and its should be harder but that was not happened it become softer (edges)
    another thing when u use the metal sheet with a open in the middle of it to it makes the light source smaller shouldn’t it become harder

    1. another thing
      what happened when we use diffused material in front of p 70 reflector is it become softer and if it become why that happened when the light source still the same size

      1. Hi Amr, no it doesn’t become softer because the light source is the same size, just the appearance of the light spread on the wall changes but the shadow cast by an object in front of the light will be very similar.

    2. Hi Amr, yes you are getting confused. What you see on the wall is not ‘hardness’ of the light source it is essentially an image of the light source. The ‘hardness’ can be see when I put the metal pole in front of the light source and what happens to each shadow, you will see the ‘hardness’ of that shadow change. That’s what we are talking about when we refer to hardness or softness of lighting is the what type of shadows the subject being lit by the light source will create.

  23. murf17

    Regarding the question about Godox projection unit with a speedlight. Godox makes an “S2 Speedlite Bracket for Bowens.” This makes it possible to use anything with a bowens fitting (including their projection unit) with any speedlight. However, make sure your speedlight has a modeling lamp function. Without that, you have no way of previewing where the direction of the light nor the sharpness. When you’re trying to throw a very specific, small light, you have to be able to aim & focus it beforehand. Also, the projection unit greatly reduces the power from any source, and with most speedlights, you’re not starting out with very much.

  24. Hi Karl,

    Great video. I am not trying to criticize at all but I think you might be mistaken that projection attachment you have is made by Godox. http://www.godox.com/projection-attachment/

    I use the Godox one which unfortunately is EXTREMELY complex to order as you basically have to “build” it. For the benefit of your viewers I will list the godox parts needed for a Godox projection attachment for bowens mount.

    Godox SA-P1 Projection Attachment (for S30 Focusing LED light originally)
    Godox SA-06 Iris Diaphragm (not required but very very useful to control size of projection)
    Godox SA-07 Framing Shutters set of 4 (like the “blades” in the pico light attachment)
    Choose a lens SA-02 60mm, SA-01 is the 85mm and SA-03 is the 150mm
    Godox Gobo Holder SA-10
    Godox precut Gobos sets are models SA-09 001, SA-09 002, SA-09 003 and SA09-004
    Lastly you must buy the SA-17 Bowens Mount to S30 Mount adapter to fit on your lights. There is a useless frosted glass in this adapter that I smash out with a hammer as all it does is reduce light output.

    All of this (depending on options) will cost you about 300 to 400USD give or take. More if you order multiple lenses.

    In any case, if I could go back in time I would have ordered a different simpler bowens compatible attachment from another company but I have these and they work fine for me.

    And by the way the adapter to use your speedlights and smaller godox strobe models in this attachment or any other bowens mount modifier is the Godox S2 Bracket.

    1. Hi, thank you for that information, I wasn’t aware of that particular model so that is useful for our viewers.

  25. An outstanding explanation/demonstration of the various modifiers. I’ve sort of known the differences, but you’ve taken me to a deeper level of understanding. The flower shoot was superb; the deep-dive into your creative thinking was priceless as usual. And kudos to your team — they do a great job of conveying your message.

  26. Volker1970

    Hi Karl,
    comparing the precise lighting with a softbox, positioned in the front of the lilly, saying it looks boring is honestly not fair. Lighting from the front is in many cases boring, your own words!
    The results with softboxes in other positions in your flowers live show are very good:-)
    Just wanted to mention it!
    Kind regards from Hamburg,
    Volker

    1. Hi Volker, yes this is a good point but I did also introduce two harder sculpting lights to improve the lighting which even with a backlit softbox was still simplistic. My point in showing the softbox as being boring in this class was to show how inexperienced photographers often position them when they are new to studio photography. However your point is still valid so here is the link to the other show for people reading this comment: https://visualeducation.com/class/live-photography-workshop-fine-art-flower-photography/

  27. Hi Karl.
    When using the constant light, and change the shutter speed, did you also adjust the ISO, or keep the ISO at 100?
    Thanks,
    Mark

  28. Hi Karl, there are many speedlight mounts, eg Interfit, Godox etc that allow flashguns/speedlights to be clamped into the mount and offer up a Bowens type mount for modifiers like the Godox projection attachment (which I have and with the blades option, works well).

    I have several of this mounts so can mount any Bowens mounted modifier, beauty dish, softbox, fresnel, etc etc to all my flashguns. All work well.

    An example would be https://www.interfitphoto.co.uk/modifiers-c15/speedlight-accessories-c21/interfit-speedlite-bracket-p340. Amazon too, not surprisingly …

    1. Hello Barry, thank you for the extra information I’m sure this will be very useful to our members viewing this class. Cheers Karl.

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