Their called softgrids, but should really be called AWESOME LIGHT CONTROL UNITS…
A while back I lost my profoto softmasks for my 1×4 stips and haven’t really taken the time to buy new ones, until now. The last major beauty shoot I did for a large client, made me realize how much I missed and needed them. Whats cool is that not long ago Profoto announced their new RFi series of softboxes, and with that also reduced the MSRP(suggested retail price)– A LOT! Profoto also introduced a collection set of new softgrids, which is what this blogpost is all about.
For those of you who doesn’t know what a softgrid is, here’s a simple explanation; its a grid and its soft. Yeah yeah, there’s of course more to it. The softgris is mounted on your softboxes like this:
1×4 Softbox
And since Profoto have been so kind to reduce their prices, I got myself a softgrid for my 5′ Octa as well:
So, why would you want a softgrid? Basically a softgrid does the same thing as a metal grid would for your reflector; it concenrates the light. In the case of these new Profoto softgrids, with 40 degrees. Concentrating the light translates into control.
If you never seen the effect of a softgrid here’s one mounted on a 5′ Octa:
Without softgrid, at f/16:
And with a softgrid, same settings at on the image above:
As you can see, with the softgrid the lights doesn’t spread and bounce around in the room. Its concentrated, BUT with the same nice and soft shadows you would expect from a 5′ octa.
Softgrids are a must have, don’t you think?
(sorry for not lighting a model or anything interesting, I was just too excited to not post this)
-jr-
