I have been secretly switching lighting systems. In fact, I would struggle to pinpoint at which point my lights stopped being predominantly Profoto and became Briese. The point is, it happened, and I am not too sad about it. My light of choice has become the Briese Focus 77 reflector.
I must admit, my initial interest in Briese was sparked by seeing it in countless behind-the-scenes images. This is why I was always perplexed—how much better can a light get? I mean, we have parabolics from Broncolor, Profoto, and a dozen more manufacturers. Can a humble Briese beat them? Having used the parabolic light shapers from Broncolor, Profoto, and Godox, I was satisfied with the quality of light. Why try something new if I already had something that worked?
Well, because I saw that high-end productions chose the yellow Briese reflectors instead of what I thought were alternatives. Briese is not even parabolic—far from it, in fact.
Having visited the Briese factory and studios in January, I was quite surprised by the quality of light their reflectors produced. It was so crisp, yet so smooth. The gradation from highlight to shadow could be controlled with a simple push of a rod, going from smooth to harsh. It also happened that the Briese team let me play with whatever they had in the rental house, so I tested everything from the biggest 330 to the smallest 44. I shot at Briese studios a few more times and was once again more than happy with the results. I was able to control the light with great precision and create images that would have been much harder to pull off otherwise.
All this led to me acquiring a Briese Focus 77 reflector, which I took on several trips and used to shoot thousands of images. Having spent enough time with the reflector to call it my daily driver for studio work, I would like to write a review of it.
Build Quality
The Briese Focus 77 is a beast—but a gentle one. It comes in a bag that is hard to miss, as it is a large bag with yellow stripes. Divided into two compartments, it houses everything you need for the Briese reflector and even a little more.
My bag is actually a slightly larger version, made for their 100 reflector. This is because, when I am on the road, I use the well-protected compartment for the reflector to also hold the flash tube and a pair of diffusers. That way, the most fragile part of the setup is protected by a thick shield. While it could be improved with the addition of a handle and a pair of wheels, it is a very good bag fit for a tool of such caliber. It does get a lot of questions and looks from taxi drivers everywhere.
The reflector itself is a mix of metal, fiberglass, and reflective material. The rods are made of fiberglass, giving them plenty of flexibility and durability for setup and breakdown. The reflective material is probably some of the shiniest fabric I’ve seen in a while. It maximizes output, meaning you can keep your power levels lower than with other modifiers of similar shapes. Additionally, the texture of the fabric ensures the light has direction while also being somewhat diffused.
The reflector is built to be heat-resistant. As you may know, Briese reflectors are made for both cinema and photography. Every reflector can take flash, HMI, and tungsten lights.
The focus tube is a solid metal construction, with threads to take the flash head on one side and pin receivers to take the flash bulb. I would have to bend it very hard to damage it. As for the most fragile part of the setup—the flash bulb—it sits firmly on the tube, and some force is required to remove it. This simply means you won’t see it falling out anytime soon. A locking mechanism could be implemented for added peace of mind, though.
What happens if you accidentally pull on the rod too much and push the flash tube out? Well, that happened to me. I broke a flash tube. Why? Because I forgot to place a very important bracket that prevents exactly that. It is important to note that other manufacturers don’t have such a mechanism, and I have broken glass on heads before by pulling the rod too much and too fast. The lesson here is: if you assemble the reflector correctly, you will have to work hard to break it.
Features and Light Quality
I could write a book about how well the Briese Focus 77 reflector is constructed. It has survived tens of thousands of kilometers, flights of stairs, and a lot of travel. The reason it has to endure heavy use is that the light quality is outstanding.
The light is very unique. The general reason people choose light shapers similar in form to Briese is that they provide both fill and key light—or something along those lines. However, the light that so-called parabolic light modifiers produce is often glorified softbox light. Sure, it is significantly better than any softbox, but if you want to see the most optimal lighting, Briese is the only choice.
What I notice about Briese lighting is that it has two main qualities: it is soft on the skin yet crisp in detail. This makes the images very unique and quite hard to replicate with other lighting sources.
The light is very sensitive to makeup. Unlike other sources, Briese light is very easy on the skin, meaning that the model does not need a lot of makeup. I generally instruct my crew to go as light as possible on the skin and instead focus more on the hair. When it comes to hair detail, there is simply no better light source. Briese allows me to capture hair in a very smooth yet detailed way. Paired with the astonishing quality of medium format, it is a match made in heaven.
Briese lighting is also very useful for reproducing detail, such as lighting leather products. I recently shot a lookbook where most of the clothes were made of leather or had very fine textures. Briese light, paired with some fill, brought out every detail. Previously, I had to achieve this with some trickery, combining soft and hard light sources. Perhaps the best way to describe Briese lighting is just that—hard but soft. You can adjust its hardness by moving the rod.
If you move the focusing rod to position 0, you will get a very focused light. I use this to light faces, and predominantly half-body images. The falloff of the light will be very dramatic, with rich, deep shadows. This allows me to capture images that are rich in contrast, without overexposing highlights, and keeping the light source at a good distance from the subject. Moving the rod further out creates a more even light spread, with the highlights closer to the light source. As such, I am able to light subjects that are closer to the light and keep a good gradient falloff in the background. Of course, you can also light very large scenes with it, provided you have enough power. Speaking of power, the modifier is very efficient. As such, I rarely need to adjust the power up on my generator, instead having to go down. Moving the rod in makes the power much stronger, enabling me to throw light over very long distances in the studio and on location. In the examples below, you'll see how I used the Briese Focus 77 with a little bit of fill light to create these two very different images. 
I must say that the gallery of the images shot with the Briese Focus 77 is very large. Yet, a majority of those projects are under an NDA at the time of writing, meaning I can only show a small selection, yet I hope these images do the modifier justice and show the versatility.
Comparedto Other Modifiers
Since I have tried other modifiers that attempt to replicate the Briese light, I would like to take a moment to address them.
Broncolor
Their parabolic light shapers provide good light quality, but in my opinion, it is not as crisp or three-dimensional. The surface of the modifier is flat, unlike Briese modifiers, which have a textured surface. This makes the light much flatter, and the highlight-shadow transition less subtle.
Profoto
They have made a range of modifiers with a parabolic shape. I have not tested the new Soft Zoom Reflector, but I have tried the Giants. The shape is too shallow. Moreover, the zoom capability is greatly restricted by not allowing smooth rod movements. When I shot with the Giant 300, I was happy with the light, but it did not offer versatility. Additionally, the Giants are limited to 180, 240, and 300 sizes.
Godox
A good choice if you are in the market for Broncolor, but it has the same pitfalls, along with somewhat poorly thought-out construction.
Closing Thoughts
The Briese Focus 77 reflector has changed the way my images look. It is probably responsible for the much cleaner and crisper style I have now. The light and build quality are second to none compared to other modifiers.
I strongly suggest that you explore the Briese lighting system for yourself. They are not terribly expensive to rent and are very fun to use on set.
