Using Grids/3ft. OctoDome3
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When it comes to shooting high quality portraits, the tools you choose can make all the difference. Since its introduction, the OctoDome3 has become the best quality portrait lighting modifier on the market.
Years of research and development went into the OctoDome’s design resulting in a light modifier that actually increases the efficiency of your lights. This is due to the shallow depth of the OctoDome, moving the light source closer to the soft box face increases the output of your lights by as much 1/2 a stop without sacrificing any light quality.
When we pair the OctoDome3 with the OctoDome grids, we have unmatched control over the light placement and light spread in our photographs. After all, great portrait photography is all about light control.
(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.) |
Topics Covered:
- The 3’ OctoDome3 as the key light
- Controlling light ratios with a LiteDisc
- Adding the Grids
- Controlling the background brightness
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Introduction:
In the following lesson, we will feature the light control you can gain with the application of grids to your light modifiers. To give you the best comparison, we will start the lesson by using the 3’ OctoDome without the grids installed and make a classic one light portrait. We will then apply the grids to the OctoDome and run through the same sequence so that you can compare the results for yourself.
The Key Light:
To get started we set up our OctoDome soft box and attached it to a studio strobe head. Then we attached the soft box and light assembly onto a Photoflex 2218 LiteStand. We then connected the strobe head to the power pack and set the power to 200-watt seconds.
The light was placed to camera right at about 45 degrees from the camera. The height of the light was set so that we gained a classic “Rembrandt” light pattern on the model's face (figures 1 and 2).
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Before shooting, we set up the camera's programs and exposure settings.
Since we are using strobes in this lesson, our white balance was set to Daylight or 5500 degrees Kelvin. The resolution set to TIFF for maximum image quality, and the ISO was set to 100.
We then set the exposure controls to the manual setting. Since we are using strobes, the shutter speed will be determined by the sync setting on the camera you use, ours was 1/60 of a second. We set our aperture to f/8.0 to give the depth of field control we wanted for this image, keeping our subject in focus and letting the background fall out.
With our camera programmed and the key light set up, we attached the camera to the power pack with our sync cord and fired off our first result image (figure 3).
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 Figure 3 |
In the result image, we see the soft buttery light of the OctoDome wrapping around the subject, and clean soft light on the background separating her, giving the shot added depth. |
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Our next action was to add some fill light to the shot. For this we used a Photoflex 32” white/soft gold LiteDisc and a LiteDisc Holder. Once we had the reflector set up and attached to the holder, we set it to camera left and about 90 degrees from the camera (figures 4 and 5). |
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With the fill reflector in place, we have better control over the lighting contrast on the model. This set up lets us achieve a 2:1 ratio (the key side twice as bright as the fill side). The model sat back into her pose and we shot our second result image (figure 7). |
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In figures 6 and 7, we show the comparison of the first result and the second result with the LiteDisc added as our fill. In figure 6, we see the strong ratio with very little detail in the shadows of the model's face. In figure 7 with the added fill, we have a brighter image while maintaining control over the contrast. Our shot still shows shape and form to the face.
As we mentioned in our introduction, by adding the grids to the OctoDome we gain more control over where the light from the box falls. The Octo Grids narrow the light to about a 40 degree spread (from about a 130 degree spread without the grids).
What this means is that you can control the light and place it just where you want it. For this example, we want to keep some of the light from falling on the background, so we installed the grids onto the key light and set it back into position (figures 8 and 9). |
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With the grids in place, we checked our light levels with our flash meter and found we lost about a 1/3 of a stop. We adjusted the camera by opening the aperture 1/3 of a stop and shot the next set of shots (figures 10 and 11). |
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Figures 10 and 11 compare the first shot we made of the OctoDome only and the OctoDome with grids only. We can clearly see how the addition of the grids have added the control we were looking for. We have greatly decreased the light falling on the background (figure 11). |
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To get our contrast control (lighting ratio) back in shape, we set the LiteDisc and LiteDisc Holder back into position and made the fine-tuning adjustment to catch and bounce some light back into the model's face (figure 12). |
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With each lighting element in its final position, we shot several images to complete our shoot. In figures 13 and 14, we see the comparison of the OctoDome with the grids only and with the fill reflector in place. |
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 Figure 14 |
Notice how the darker background separates nicely from the model's hair (figure 15).The reflector fill also highlights the hair on the left side and contrasts nicely with the darker background. |
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Figure 16 shows a few outtakes from the photo session. |
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