From very dated soft lighters and Broncolor Hazylights on big stands through to modern octaboxes and reflectors, in this video, I look at them all in relation to my favorite genre of photography.
When it comes to gear in my genre of work, I place my hard-earned money into modifiers first, lights second, lenses take third, and then the camera comes in last. For those of us who work in controlled environments in 2021, pretty much any camera will do the job, and most consumer prime lenses are more than up to the job. However, having the right quality of light is really where we can differentiate our work from others.
One of the many reasons why I use some pretty rare modifiers such as the Hazy or Soft-lighters is because so few other photographers have access to them, and it allows me to craft the light in a way that the general public can't. One of my main hobbies is trawling through used sites and auction houses looking for the next modifier I might need. I very nearly had a fleet of Cumulites headed over recently until I sadly realized that I really didn't have enough space for them, but maybe a Mini Cumulite will be making an appearance soon if I can find a good one at the right price.
In this video, I talk about the use of each modifier as well as showing an image of a banana and reflective Easter egg to show you an idea of how the light can look before any further modification.
The Hazylight will work fine with 1600ws heads as well. The cool thing about the hard reflectors is that they can actually be reflected in the image. For product, they are great for straight lines triangles, gradients... Mostly because the stands and ring they are suspended from, one can achieve an effect in seconds and be very productive.
Great overview. I liked the last part about the frames. Never seen those around here.