Five Different Light Modifiers Compared With Natural Light

Controlling light is one of the most difficult challenges a photographer must master. Even if you have years of experience under your belt, it can still be difficult to decide which light modifier to use with your strobes or if you should even be using strobes at all. In this video and article, I'm going to share with you five of my favorite light modifiers and how they can produce drastically different results. 

First off, flash photography is amazing! There are a lot of photographers that work with only natural light, and there are also a lot of photographers who only work with flash. This article isn't to persuade you to fall into either of these camps. Actually, I'd argue that in order to become the best photographer you can be, you should learn to master both flash and natural light. However, the goal of this article and accompanying video is to share the results you can get using flash out on location while also highlighting some of the benefits different light modifiers can offer.

For me personally, the most exciting thing about flash photography is you can shape it and mold it into anything your heart can imagine. Sometimes, flash photography is used to create a fantasy lighting style that just looks cool and exciting. Other times, the goal is mimic natural light when the existing natural light isn't giving you the desired effect. Whichever the case, knowing how to craft perfect light when you are faced with imperfect light is really the goal of any aspiring photographer. 

In this article, I will be exploring five different light modifiers made by Profoto. Along with the brand new "coke can" size Profoto A2 Flash, I will be molding my light with a handful of unique light modifiers. Some of these are tried-and-true light modifiers that I used day in and day out, like the OCF 2x3' Softbox and the OCF Magnum Hard Reflector dish. The other three light modifiers, the snoot, grid/gels, and barndoors, are all light modifiers that I'm familiar with but are part of the new magnetic Clic Modifier system just released by Profoto. These almost pocket-size light modifiers are interesting because they snap directly onto the A2 Strobe with magnets and offer near identical results to the larger, more cumbersome light modifiers I already own for my bigger B10 lights. 

Now, the above video is sponsored by Profoto, and they sent me these new Clic Accessories to try out with my Profoto A2 strobe, but I want to make it very clear that the results you see in the five setups below can be achieved with any lighting setup so long as you have the same or equivalent light modifiers to mold the light in a similar way. 

The following images were all taken with the Nikon Z 7II mirrorless camera, which I just acquired. I'm still working my way through the learning curve with this camera and hope to have my final opinions on my attempt to switch from the Nikon D850 to the Z 7II. So, stay tuned for the conclusion of that ongoing process. 

An Awesome Trick With Gels and Grids

The first modifier I want to explore is a combination of gels and a spot grid. Throughout this entire article, I'm only going to be using one strobe. If you have ever wanted to dabble in flash photography with gels, you know that having only one strobe isn't ideal. With this limitation in mind, the first thing I wanted to do with this setup was to use some natural light and augment the color and give the appearance of multiple gelled lights. The first step was to place my model, the lovely Anna Logan Hooks, between two windows near the corner of my studio. By positioning her in this perfectly selected spot, I was able to produce strong highlights on the left and right side of her face, which add just a touch of side lighting from the back. 

Now, with some "free" natural light added to an otherwise black frame, the next step is to change the white balance of my camera to something unnatural. A normal white balance setting of 5,000 K will produce clean, daylight-looking light, but if I change the white balance to 2,500 K, the natural white light suddenly turns neon blue. This new color palette will allow me to now create an image that looks as if multiple gelled lights are used instead of being limited to the single flash I have for this shoot. 

The second half of the exposure can now be created using my Profoto A2 at a low level. In order to get the blue highlights to show up on Anna Logan's face, I had to bump my ISO rather high to ISO 1,000. With my lens set wide open to f/2.8, my strobe needs to be set extremely low in order to not overpower the entire scene. I believe the flash was set at 0.1, which is the lowest native setting you can set the A2. From there, I added both a Clic Gel Rose Pink and a Clic Gel Half CTO gel to the flash, which produced a nice rose-tinted light on Anna Logan's face. Because the white balance was set so blue, the half CTO gel essentially brought the strobe closer to white and the Pink gel added the interesting rose/magenta color to her skin. Finally, I added a Clic Grid 20 Degree on top of my gels to narrow the spread of the strobe and prevent it from lighting up the dark corner of my studio. 

Unfortunately, this final image really doesn't have a "natural light" version, so I can't compare the final shot with one shot without strobe. Instead, I've shared a similarly lit shot that has no gels and the white balance is set to the standard 5000 K setting. Going forward, I'll share the natural light equivalent so you can see the differences adding flash on location can make when compared to only natural light. 

Using Barndoors Outside

The classic barndoors light modifier is probably the first light modifier I ever owned. Besides maybe an umbrella, this is the only other light modifier I can associate with being a professional photographer from my childhood days. I still see these often in department stores when they try to control the overhead lighting. Barn doors are a simple light modifier that lets you control the light spilling on your subject and background. A ton of my early photography work used barndoors because they work so well at flagging off light in and around the studio, but to be perfectly honest, I have never used barndoors outside on location until this photoshoot. 

My idea for the image above was to light Anna Logan with a small sliver of light. I wanted this light to be sexy, clean, and graphic, and that's exactly what the barndoors excel at when used as a key or main light. Using an interesting brick wall covered with creeping figs, I darkened my exposure so that the natural light was almost completely black. I then using the Profoto Clic Barndoor modifier, I created just a tiny opening on the four articulating arms to allow the smallest streak of light to pass through. The resulting image looks way better than the natural light version, and if you wanted to mix a little of the two together, you can simply slow your shutter speed a little more to allow some of the natural daylight to bleed into the frame. Don't forget to set your white balance a little warmer if you want the hard light to look a bit more like sunlight. 

Hard Light Is Your Friend

If your photography journey was anything like mine, you probably (foolishly) taught yourself that hard sunlight was bad and soft overcast light was good. In my opinion, this is one of the worst traps any photographer can fall into, and today, I think I enjoy shooting with hard light even more than soft light. For one, hard light creates much more bold colors and contrast that just cannot be replicated with soft light. 

For this little mini session, I wanted to add a bit of pop and punch into an otherwise flat and predictable scene. The side of this historic post office was completely sitting in shade and offered no sense of depth, contrast, or excitement. My favorite lighting trick in a situation like this is to take my strobe and position it as far away as I can and try to light both my subject and the entire scene together. The farther back you pull your strobe, the more natural the light will look because you aren't lighting your subject separately from the background. Instead, the goal is to try to light them both evenly. Unfortunately, as you pull your strobe farther away, you often run out of power to overpower the natural ambient light. 

This is where the Profoto OCF Magnum Reflector comes in handy. With this light modifier, you are replicating the harshness of a bare bulb flash without any light modifier attached, but at the same time, you are increasing the intensity and efficiency of the strobe by a few stops. It does this by redirecting all of the light forward instead of randomly scattering it. This helps spotlight your subject a little while also letting you pull the light a few extra yards away from the entire scene. 

Now, don't get me wrong, the natural light version above is really nice too. I actually like both of these images and would be happy with the natural light option as well. However, if you want to add that extra pop to your scene or if you want to give your client some variety in the same location, using a reflector dish like the Magnum Reflector is a trick I use all the time. Oh, and can I mention how I love that this modifier comes with its own clip-on carrying case that allows me to store it outside my camera bag? Many of my reflectors don't fit inside my small roller cases, and so, I often leave reflectors at home or in the car instead of having them with me and ready to go. That's a nice touch, Profoto!

One final thing I need to mention because I'm sure people will ask if they don't watch the video is how I'm connecting some of my older OCF light modifiers to the smaller diameter A2 strobe. A few months ago, Profoto released the new Clic OCF Adapter II. This adapter allows you to mount the small A2 strobe into a speed ring that accepts the normal-size Profoto light modifiers. Just like the Clic Adapters, it too uses magnets so you can easily snap it in and out of the adapter quickly and easily. At the moment, I think Profoto only makes the Clic Softbox Octa that can mount directly to the A2, so if you already own other Profoto light modifiers, you need to pick up this adapter. Part of me wishes the A2 just had a normal-size speed ring mount so we wouldn't need the adapter at all, but I understand the goal with the A2 light was to make it as small as possible. If you need to carry the adapter, though, I'm not sure it's that big of a savings in the bag, but I digress. 

The Softbox Is Still King

Okay, now that I've raved about how much I love shooting with hard light, I have to come back to reality and admit that if I were stranded on an island with a single strobe and light modifier, that light modifier would most definitely be a mid-size softbox. While this OCF 2x3' softbox is a newly added tool to my own travel bag, I've been using other 2x3' softboxes for my entire photography career. Unlike umbrellas that are prone to being hard to handle in windy environments, a small- or mid-size softbox is the perfect light modifier to give you soft to fairly soft light out on location. Unlike using hard light, which admittingly does not always look great on every person in front of my camera, soft light almost always illuminates your subject in a flattering way regardless of their age, weight, skin complexion, etc. 

As you can see from the two images above, both frames are utilizing soft lighting. However, just because a light is soft does not necessarily mean it is coming from the right direction, is bright enough to allow for a proper exposure, or is free from color casts. The natural light shot above is extremely soft, maybe even softer than the image taken with the softbox, but the light falling on Anna Logan is slightly darker than I would like it and also has a slight green color cast caused by the trees hanging above the street. By adding flash with an OCF 2x3' softbox directly in front and slightly above our model, we can produce nice, soft, directional lighting that is clean of any color casts caused by our surroundings. Keep in mind, the above natural light shot probably still could be salvaged by throwing it into Lightroom and adjusting the tint sliders and possibly dodging the model's skin, but when I want to get a soft-looking portrait without having to manipulate the exposure in post-production, nothing beats adding light with a small to medium softbox!

It's Okay to Be Snooty

The final light modifier I wanted to use outside for this lighting tutorial was the Clic Snoot. Snoots are a lot like barndoors for me in that I usually only reach for my snoot when I'm shooting in the studio and want to control the light on a background behind a model or a product. I rarely ever bring a snoot out on location, and I think it's because they are usually so big that they take up precious room in my camera bag while remaining a less in-demand light modifier. The Clic Snoot could change that because it's so small that it could easily remain in my roller bag permanently and therefore be used much more often. 

The difference between a grid and a snoot photographically isn't as big of a difference as you might expect. Often, the biggest difference shows up when using one or the other on a background. The grid will have a softer circular transition, while the snoot with maintain a sharper edge generally. If you want to add a small beam of light on your model, the difference is a little less noticeable. Overall, I'd say the snoot will cast sharper shadows off the nose and the jawline, while the grid might make all the shadows a little more "muddy" because the edge won't be as strong.  

For the images above, you can see the natural light shot isn't dramatic at all. To me it almost feels like I'm simply posing a model in front of an interesting circular window. This photo screams, "give me the drama!" Once I lowered the exposure considerably and added the snoot just to Anna Logan's face, the entire scene takes on a completely different vibe. I still have a small amount of light hitting our background right behind the model, but most of the light is lighting only her face and hair. This allows much of her body and the scene to fall off into shadow, which helps bring all your attention to her face. 

As we wrapped up the short shooting session, I was a bit shocked that Anna Logan found this final image using the snoot as her favorite of all the images. Yes, it is by far the most dramatic and perhaps the most interesting, but it also doesn't show off as much of her style, clothing, and physique as some of the other images. Also, the background isn't particularly beautiful compared to some of the other locations. It's interesting, however, that the light modifier I rarely ever use on location was the one that created her favorite photo from the session. I guess it pays to be snooty sometimes!

What Do You Think?

If you aren't often using flash in your own photography or if you are entirely intimidated by flash photography in general, I hope this article and video have helped show you some of the endless possibilities flash can give you in the studio and out on location.

If you already use a lot of flash in your photography, I want to know which light modifier you think you have not explored enough either outside or in the studio. For me, it is definitely using barndoors and snoots outside. It's interesting to look back at all five of these images and see how those two modifiers helped build a much more diverse set of images during this shoot. 

If you mainly shoot portraits inside and want to understand more about how different light modifiers can be used on the human face, our good friend Peter Hurley has an extended tutorial called Illuminating the Face, where he outlines every light modifier under the sun and builds up some incredible lighting setups for headshots and portraits. If you are looking for a more broad understanding of flash photography in a wider range of photo genres like architecture, product photography, portraits, and headshots, check out The Well Rounded Photographer, where you can learn from eight different instructors. Some of them use natural light only, but many of them also use flash photography to create images for their specific genres of photography.